Since 1967 at least, when the Terrorism Act was passed by the South African parliament, I've known that at least nine times out of every ten times the word is used it is used for disinformation rather than information, so whenever I've seen it in print since then it has made my bullshit detectors very twitchy.
But I was still surprised to discover how little I knew about it and how much disinformation I had absorbed, in spite of being on by guard against it. Take the Terrorism Quiz to check your own knowledge.
Hat-tip to Clarissa, who posted this excerpt Clarissa's Blog: The Terrorism Quiz:
1. Who made the following statement? “To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom.”
5. How many suicide bombings had Iraq experienced before the 2003 US invasion?
13. True or False: The majority of terrorists come from the lower classes.
17. True or False: The religion of Islam is an important cause of terrorism.
One thing that I did know, though, or rather guessed, is that in the majority of cases the primary motive for terrorism is revenge, at least in the case of individuals. The majority of individuals who opt for terrorist methods do so because they have a close friend or relative who has suffered violence or injustice at someone else's hands, and they take revenge.
4 comments:
The depth of ignorance about terrorism is, indeed, staggering. I still have trouble convincing my students that Al Qaeda was not funded by Saddam Hussein and that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11
"... in the majority of cases the primary motive for terrorism is revenge"
Ideology (in broad sense) is what moves terrorists. Revenge, money and so on are only the means of achieving control. One won't bomb if he didn't know that he would go to the place of joy and bliss.
Hatta,
On the contrary.
Where revenge is the motive, one would blow up someone in the hope that he would end up in eternal torment.
But not random people in the street. To do that he will need a special kind of ideology, mythology -- basic program in his mind. In 1970s there was an organization in West Germany -- Socialist Patients' Collective, founded by a former psychiatrist, connected with Red Army Faction. I suppose he could induce whatever sentiments in its members, his former patients. Technically revenge would be primary reason in this case but if fact...
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