Research Paper on Religion, Terrorism & Extremism: Linked in Unpopular Beliefs

Introduction

Religion and terrorism have, for a long time, been linked together, where individuals use their religious beliefs and practices to perpetuate their terrorist attacks. In the recent past, there has been a rapid increase in both domestic and international terrorism, with individuals in different religious groups claiming responsibility for the terrorist attacks. At the center of religion and terrorism is religious extremism. Religious extremism is the act of having unjust and unpopular beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions towards spiritual teachings. Often, the religious beliefs and opinions of the religious extremists are viewed as fanatical and untrue, by a majority of people, even those of the same religion. Some of the significant characteristics of religious extremists are that they all have a certain degree of certainty that their beliefs and religious positions are the only valid religious positions and would, therefore, go to any length in a bid to defend their views and opinions. Additionally, religious extremists do not tolerate people with different religious beliefs and positions from theirs. Extremists believe that people with different religious beliefs from theirs might create polarize and create doubts in them, which is not acceptable. Moreover, religious extremists believe in the existence of a holy war, where the non-believers are to be eliminated and exterminated to pave the way for a new one world of people with the same religious beliefs as the extremists. While religion in itself is a useful tool that can be used to curb some social vices and uphold morality in the society, religious extremism is an undesirable tool that plays a vital role in perpetuating social vices in the community such as hatred, violence, and terrorism, both domestically and internationally.

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Causes of Religious Extremism

Various factors lead to religious extremism, ranging from psychological issues to social-economic and institutional factors.

Social-Economic Factors

Social-economic factors that lead to religion extremism arise from issues such as discrimination and marginalization of people affiliated to a particular religious group and the general inequality in people of different religious positions. The perceptions of injustice and unfair treatment of some religious groups compared to other religious groups in a country creates a need for the members of the affected religion to defend themselves against further injustices. The defense mechanisms may vary from verbal abuse to violence and terrorism, among other forms. Additionally, because of the perceptions of injustice and unfairness towards members of a particular religion, it is relatively easy for people with ill motives to corrupt their judgments on issues, with religious teachings that might not necessarily be the truth. Often, religious radicles take advantage of people who have the perceptions of being treated unfairly and unjustly, to convince them that religion allows them to fight for justice, even if it means killing and being violent. The religion radicals also take advantage of the situation to convince the vulnerable members of their religion that their religion is the only true religion while all other religions are corrupt and should, therefore, be eliminated through the holy war. When individuals feel discriminated and marginalized in a country where the majority of people are of a different religion, religious extremism is a likely outcome (ouglas Pratt, 2013).

In countries where there are high rates of racial discrimination, it is highly likely that the financial gap between various races is also wide (ouglas Pratt, 2013). Often, racially discriminated people hardly secure stable jobs that can sufficiently sustain them and their families. Moreover, access to quality education and health services are limited for the racially discriminated people. Due to the desperation of hard economic times and lack of jobs, racially discriminated people tend to be more vulnerable to teachings of religion extremism compared to people who are not racially discriminated. As such, the religious radicles take advantage of the financial difficulties of the racially discriminated individuals to provide them with financial aid and some form of stable jobs in exchange for their conversion to the radicals' religion. Over time, the racially discriminated individuals become radicalized to believe in the religious extremists' ideologies of violence and terrorism.

Psychological Factors

Traumatic experiences such as the death of a loved one, diseases, imprisonment, sudden change of one's social life due to migration, and difficult childhood, among other traumatic experiences, can act as a foundation for religious extremism. Individuals who have been through traumatic experiences suffer psychologically, which can impair their judgment on various issues of life. Religion radicals capitalize on the experiences of such people to indoctrinate them into their radical views of religion, with the promise to help the traumatized individuals to get answers to their problems or closure for traumatic experiences that happened to them. For instance, the rapidly increasing number of young Muslims in France has significantly increased the risk of religious extremism in France (Groppi, 2017). Usually, the young Muslims who migrate from the middle east and Africa, among other regions in the world, often feel alienated and lost due to the diversity of culture in France compared to their countries of origin. The feelings of alienation and the culture shock then creates an identity crisis among young Muslims. Over time, the young Muslims turn to the Islam religion in a bid to find themselves and solve their identity crisis but end up being radicalized due to their vulnerability. The radicalization then creates religion extremism among the young Muslims, who are then recruited to carry out terrorist attacks and other forms of violence against people of different religious groups.

Institutional Factors

Institutional factors such as lack of a country to provide its citizens' protection and fundamental rights, high levels of corruption, failure to uphold the country's rules and laws, as well as high levels of criminal activities, provide an ample environment for religious extremism to thrive. For the religious radicles to perpetuate their mission of radicalizing people, they need a situation in which there are less strict rules with high levels of criminality, which makes them less visible (ouglas Pratt, 2013). Moreover, religious extremists thrive in countries where there are high rates of corruption so that they can easily bribe their way into getting weapons of a terror attack and other tools. Further, corruption enables religion extremists to quickly identify and recruit young individuals into religion extremism without being harassed or questioned by government officials. The lack of a country or state to uphold its laws and rules for reasons such as political transitions provides an ample physical location for the extremisms to conduct their terrorist attacks domestically and internationally with ease and without any restrictions.

The Role of Religious Extremism in International Terrorism

Religious extremism is one of the leading causes of international terrorism since it plays a critical role in various aspects. It is estimated that more than 70% of the total number of global terrorism is associated with religious extremists and religious extremism groups (Joscelyn, 2013). To begin with, religious extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) which mostly operates in Syria and Iraq, the Taliban group which often works in Afghanistan, the Al-Shabaab group which primarily operates in Somalia and the Boko Haram group operating mostly in Nigeria plays critical roles in facilitating terrorist attacks from all over the world. All these groups aid the terrorist with the necessary training required to carry out terrorist attacks. Often the religious extremist, in the form of spiritual leaders such as Imams, take advantage of the youth and teenager's nativity to indoctrinate them into the extremist doctrines. One way in which the religious extremists use to entice their victims is through financial aid and promises of stable jobs domestically or internationally. Usually, the target victims of religious extremists are the jobless youths who would easily be enticed into their beliefs through financial aid and employment. The other tactic used by the religious extremists to infiltrate their doctrines into their victims is through the radicalization of the older generation, and convincing them to offer their young and energetic children for the sake of the religion. Children are thus, sometimes radicalized without their knowledge and consent. The religious extremists radicalize young children through the various spiritual teachings, and over time, the children become religious extremists themselves. Following the extremist instructions and enticement through financial aids, the victims are made to believe that they must protect their religion and that through protecting the faith in the form of violence and terrorism, they would receive a higher reward.

The religious extremists' groups, such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, also offers a training ground for the newly indoctrinated believers in countries such as Pakistan and Iraq (Joscelyn, 2013). While some terrorists are trained domestically by the religious extremists available in their countries, others are transported into various countries where the extremist groups are dominant. Therefore intensive training for the terrorists is easily coordinated. The extremists, through multiple platforms such as the internet, also inspire some religious extremists to travel and relocate their entire families into countries such as Iraq, where the religious extremist's ideologies are popular. The ISIS extremist group, for instance, has seen thousands of women and children being transported into the Islamic states, where women become Jihadi brides for the terrorists while children are recruited to either become terrorists or jihadi brides. The Religious extremist groups have increasingly inspired women to participate in the holy war not only as jihadi brides who are primarily supposed to ensure the continuity of the group through bearing children and influencing them but also as suicide bombers (ouglas Pratt, 2013). Women suicide bombers are also religious extremists who believe in fighting for their religion. The religious extremist groups strategically radicalize women to become terrorists and suicide bombers because female suicide bombers tend to get more attention compared to male suicide bombers. Therefore, terror attacks by women tend to have more impacts.

Additionally, it is relatively easy for female suicide bombers to conceal and hide the weapons of terror such as explosives, since the security checks for women are less strict compared to security checks for male terrorists (ouglas Pratt, 2013). Moreover, it is relatively hard for people to suspect women of being terrorists, making it easier for women terrorists to travel internationally without suspicion. Further, female suicide bombers provide more inspiration to other religious extremists, both male, and female, to courageously engage in the holy war, both internationally and domestically, even if it means losing one's life.

The newly recruited religious extremists are then sent into terrorism attacks often internationally. Before deploying the recruited religious extremists to specific countries of the target, the religious extremists use a chain of other religious extremists to organize and gather information about the particular target locations of terror attacks. Moreover, it is often through the religious extremists that the terrorists acquire th...