Your very own guide of Terrorism: What really happens behind the curtain of media exaggerations?

Terrorism. Let yourself digest the word fully. Let the letters take you to your prejudices, to the back of your mind. Your brain has gone in too many directions to count them, right? Terror. Fear. Danger. Survival. Primary instincts. Your life flashing before your eyes. Always a taboo subject, terrorism never really had its space to be neither told, explained nor understood. But what is behind that news, those massive amounts of information covered up in exuberant colours and strident stripes from the breaking news section?

From the outside, it just seems chaos, sometimes organized, sometimes a hazardous one. In a few words, terrorism represents the use of violence to achieve political aims, especially in unexpected contexts, such as peace times or against neutral parts, like civilians. Gaining popularity during the 1970s, in Palestine, Ireland and the US, it is believed that terrorism actually originated back in the late 18th century, during the French Revolution. It has been estimated than between 2000 and 2014 there had been 61,000 incidents of non-state terrorism, resulting in at least 140,000 deaths.

First used in 1794, from the French word “Teroriste”, it described the situation going on in France, to compare it with tyranny .

Present day

However, as of today, things are complicated. A lot.

There are approximately 109 different definitions of terrorism. Generally speaking, the pejorative use would be that something is wrong, does not align with someone’s personal values. Michale Walzer tried to give it a definition, "Terrorism is the deliberate killing of innocent people, at random, to spread fear through a whole population and force the hand of its political leaders". To this hour, experts continue to argue over the differences in terms of its aims, methods, whether or not states can apport terrorism and even the implications of the word “terror” in the whole process. Even in famous and specialized places such as the U.N. or U.S. Law, the terms have yet to be clarified.

These groups move and recruit new people, either children to train them from a young age, women to force them into marriage with the soldiers or men, to enlarge their army. To build a profile, their frustrations start with an unfairness done that was ignored by the system. This comes on a background where the individual/group also lived in an unfavourable region, stuck with whatever was there. This later leads to their wish to overthrow the government to make themselves heard. From the other side, governments do not always agree with the protests, often fighting back. And if in some cases, the conflict stops here, in our narrative, terrorists come back with drastic, violent and irreversible measures.

What they are looking for could be: Supremacism of a particular group, independence or separatist movements, spreading the dominance of a particular religion or ending the rule of a certain government.

Tactics& strategy

Media not only enters the scene, but coordinates it, as it’s the perfect place to shapeshift the information on your appeal. Its purpose is to reach maximum attainable publicity as an amplifying effect, if delivered to the right audience. To increase the chances, you have to make everyone hear about that, therefore causing attackers to go way beyond only for some minutes of shine. The scared people, the bigger the chaos, so the reach as well. I could even say that this “strategy” was thought of, as every power always declares that their best interest is of their people,( Yeah, politics arrived here as well) so maybe the attackers could have seen in civilians the key towards manipulating politics.

In order to build the attack, they need a tactic. It starts with sponsors and financial support, for example, the "Revolutionary tax", a euphemism for "protection money"; kidnapping for money; or just major countries supporting groups with a reason that benefits them.

After that, they put the psychological part in the scene. By using publicity, fear and organization, they can achieve to deliver the desired message. They usually use black arms or chemicals to build bombs, rather easily met compared to the bioweapons. They prepare everything in advance, train the recruits. from the whole trip, to the communication methods that can be through radio or different devices with coded frequencies, to the strict instructions. When going too far and hurting too many people, their intentions to avenge fallen fellow comrades or to destroy their perceived enemies, they seem as provocative and terrifying, rather than daring or rational. It has been estimated that many of them have pathological predispositions to different forms of mental illnesses, causing their attraction to extreme ideals.

There are two major types of terrorism. The first one is Religion-based terrorism, with the goal of spreading or enforcing a system of belief, opinion or viewpoint. After 9/11, the majority of incidents over the past several years can be tied to groups with a religious agenda.

The second one is the State-built one, where we occur terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or against another state.

Past situations

There have been several incidents during these last few years that are utterly eloquent to deciphering terrorism. However, bear in mind that since the term is so broad, many people can hide under its umbrella misunderstood events, out of which not all are considered acts of terrorism . Its history is often associated, whether rightly or wrongly, with terrorism. In fights or violent conflicts, the term that doesn’t have a necessary clear label, usually just calling the other side terrorist. However, there were certain episodes in the past years that can be put under:

9/11, where nineteen men affiliated with al-Qaeda, a militant Sunni organization, took over four commercial passenger jets all bound for California on September 11th, crashing two of them into the World Trade Centre in New York City, another one into the Pentagon, Virginia, and another one on a field, initially prepared for the Pentagon. The aftermath consisted of 2,996 deaths , including the guilty, and about 6,000 others were injured. The US even answered, on October 7, 2001, when attacking Afghanistan to depose the Taliban military group, which had exposed al-Qaeda terrorists. Its implications can be seen up until today, as the relationships between the US and the Middle East coldened significantly.

Charlie Hebdo, when the Paris headquarters were invaded by two Islamist gunmen, killing 12. Even if during that time France had attacks all over the country, this one is seen as the most controversial one, both because the attackers shouted "Allahu akbar", meaning "God is great" in Arabic, during the attack, as well as the caricatures that the late cartoonists offended those that planned the attack.

Some other relevant events would be: The 2002 Moscow Theatre hostages, The 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, the Sinai Mosque attack and the 2016 Nice truck attack.

These events, as well as many other, heated prejudices around the Islam region. As the Coran can be interpreted in multiple ways, you have a greater opportunity of taking from there what you wish and shaping as a form of revenge where God helped you. This attracted many people, who dispersed from the actual meaning of the religion, causing more and more repugnancy. Of course, some of them just resembled the message or were forcibly recruited to join the groups. And just like with the hate that Asians seem to receive because of the pandemic starting off in China, and people generalising the Asian physical traits, many times street confrontations or just overall discriminations occurred, just as if someone had Middle Eastern traits, they were a danger, no matter the circumstances. We need to remember that not all terrorist attacks come from the Middle East, just as not every person that resembles them is a terrorist.

All around the world

Seeing as the events took place in various places around the world, it’s safe to say that the phenomenon reached a global rate. Usually, the places are picked in relation to the personal reason for revenge.

For example, in South America, 2001, there was a series of bioterrorism incidents, known as the 2001 anthrax attacks. Some letters carrying anthrax spores were delivered to certain major American media outlets. It’s known as one of the first interventions ever registered in history with biochemicals .

During the 2008 Mumbai attacks in Asia, India, more than 10 coordinated shootings took place across the city, holding 200 hostages. It’s estimated that 173 were killed and more than 300 were wounded.

As the Syrian Civil War continues to go on, one of the biggest scandals and leakages of information was at the attack of Ghouta, 2013. During the early hours of the day, people were attacked with an odourless, transparent gas that can be extremely lethal if inhaled. The death toll is estimated vaguely between 300 people to over 1700, while the Syrian opposition, Arab League and other UN nations believe that president Bashar-Al-Assad was guilty.

All in all, terrorism remains a worldwide issue that still hasn’t found its solving. Its implications have done massive damage all around the world, either because of government ignorance or just negligence. What we, as observers that can happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, can do is to notice if there are people that could have the potential of provoking these types of actions. Of course, here comes the challenge that has not yet been tamed: prejudice. Judge objectively and if you don’t feel safe due to those reasons, then talk to authorities. If you’re caught in an attack, try to hide, it’s the only thing you can do.

Anyways, they all come down to one thing: being informed. So keep an eye on what’s new, check your sources, don’t let the media overwhelm you and be safe.