Religious terrorism is terrorism performed by groups or individuals, the motivation of whom is typically rooted in the basic tenets of a faith. Terrorist acts throughout the centuries have been performed on religious grounds with the hope to either spread or enforce a system of beliefs, viewpoints or opinions. Religious terrorism does not in itself necessarily define a specific religious standpoint or view, but instead usually defines an individual or a group view or interpretation of that belief system’s teachings.

Bin Laden, who is on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) list among the ‘Ten Most Wanted’, is also considered to have financed the 1997 killing of 58 tourists in Luxor, Egypt, by the Egyptian fundamentalist Islamic group, and the attempts in 1999 and 2000 of fundamentalist groups from Afghanistan to infiltrate Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia, Uzbekistan and Kurdistan all in Central Asia. In retaliation, the USA and United Nations (UN) imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban militia. In May 2001 a New York State federal jury found four followers of bin Laden guilty of all charges arising from the 1998 US embassy bombings. The Talibans declared the conviction unfair, and reiterated their refusal to hand bin Laden over to the USA.

The phantom called “Terrorism”

Paragraph 129a of the German criminal legislation enables the prosecution of terrorist activities or membership in a terrorist organisation, but even the highest judges of Germany are not quite sure what terrorism actually is. The Federal Minister for Justice doesn’t think that 9/11 was terrorism, but everyone’s scared of it. German criminal legislation, the UN and also the EU have no clear definition of the term “terrorism”. We’re now asking: What exactly is terrorism? Who is a terrorist? And what’s a terrorist act?

Short definition of terrorism

The word “terrorism” is politically and emotionally charged,[1] and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. A 2003 study by Jeffrey Record for the US Army quoted a source (Schmid and Jongman 1988) that counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered a total of 22 different definitional elements.[2] Record continues “Terrorism expert Walter Laqueur also has counted over 100 definitions and concludes that the ‘only general characteristic generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence.’ Yet terrorism is hardly the only enterprise involving violence and the threat of violence. So does war, coercive diplomacy, and bar room brawls.”[3] Angus Martyn in a briefing paper for the Australian parliament states that “The international community has never succeeded in developing an accepted comprehensive definition of terrorism. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations attempted to define the term, but foundered mainly due to differences of opinion between various members about the use of violence in the context of conflicts over national liberation and self-determination.” Because of this and for political reasons, many news sources (such as Reuters) avoid using this term, opting instead for less accusatory words like “bombers,” “militants,” etc. A government could be terrorist as well.