Research Paper on "Terrorism: One of the Many Facets of Religious Extremism"

Research Paper 7 pages (3210 words) Sources: 6

[EXCERPT] . . . .

" No credible analyst regards the DPRK as being representative of democracy or the BNP being representative of "Britishness." Similarly, not many critics argue that those who join the BNP do so because of their patriotic nature, they also do not insist that all democrats publicly condemn the undemocratic nature of DPRK (Hasan, 2015).

Several social scientists have asserted that the religious violence is brought about by prejudice - judgment due to lack of accurate information. Here, the prescription for healing religious violence is often increased exposure and education concerning different religious traditions. However as Robert Stark, a director at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, recently noted, it is often true beliefs with regard to different religions that differentiates major faiths. For instance, on the one hand Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus Christ; while simultaneously on the other hand Christians deny the claim that Muhammad is the successor of Moses and Christ. Therefore, as Stark argues, education is not necessary and increased contact and/or exposure to other religions can result in more hostility as well as understanding depending upon the individuals involved (Stark & Corcoran, 2014).

Due to the widespread consensus of Islamic traditions, it does not come as a surprise that Muslim scholars and organizations all over the world have consistently and publicly denounced Boko Haram, al-Qaeda and ISIS. These leaders and organizations include: the Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi of Iran, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, the grand imam of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Ulema Council of Indonesia among many others. Several important Pakistani Muslim scholars have written books on the issue of jihad and two of them are worth a particular mention. Two of these scholars include Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri and Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, both of whom have significant influence and followers. These authors wrote a book and issued a fatwa (a complete legal ruling) on the definition and conduct of Jihad. The fatwa forbids terrorism and violent revolts, by citing many Quran prophetic practices and traditions, including a series of comments from renowned legal and theological scholars over hundreds of years and across sectarian divides. The two authors declare several jihadi groups such as the Kharijites to be heretics, rebels and terrorists. Just recently, some 126 Islamic leading figures from all over the world published a signed open letter refuting the Islamic basis of ISIS ideology (Azumah, 2015).

THEORY

Functionalist Perspective

From the perspective of sociological understanding, the functionalist viewpoint is constructed generally in light of the works of Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Robert Merton.

Functionalism emphasizes the value of certain social institutions and behaviors for numerous aspects of society. One of the most important insights of functionalism is that social problems can be of value in this perspective, despite the many challenges they might otherwise cause, as they bring understanding to areas where society must face and conquer challenges. In light of this point, functionalism in the same way highlights the ways in which war and terrorism can be of value to society, despite the many difficulties they always seem to cause.

One of the first sociologists to highlight the usefulness of these social behaviors for the society was Robert E. Park, the president of American Sociological Association (ASA) in 1925 (Barkan, Sociological Perspectives on War and Terrorism).

His essay highlighted several functions of war. First, war serves as a method of resolving international disputes pertaining issues such as territorial boundaries and religious ideologies. Even though just a handful of people would say that war is the ideal approach of resolving disputes, it has historically helped to resolve disputes between different nations -- the winner of the war winning the dispute (Barkan, Sociological Perspectives on War and Terrorism).

Second, war creates a stronger sense of unity and solidarity within the societies that are at war. Having a common enemy, individuals within a society that is at war "unite" with a common purpose and have a stronger sense of patriotism than before. Even though Park did not cover terrorism in his essay, this particular form of armed conflict can also generate solidarity within a society. In the weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attack by al-Qaida on United States, Americans united as one people. The President of France was even famously quoted in the weeks after that attack as having said "we are all Americans."

Third, hundreds of years ago, kingdoms and nations such as the Roman Empire grew from conquering various warring tribes and clans; this led to the establishment of nation-state as a political institution. As these tribes were brought under the rule of nation-states, their separate and unique tribal identities gradually weakened as they increasingly identified themselves as one people belonging to their nation-state. Furthermore, the size and national resources of these nation-states allowed them to make cultural, political and scientific advances that played a crucial role in changing the world history. War, therefore, indirectly accelerated many of these advances (Barkan, Sociological Perspectives on War and Terrorism).

Conflict Perspective

Even though there are numerous variations in terms of conflict perspective for crime and criminality, they all entail confrontations or conflicts over scarce resources. These resources can be power, prestige, or economical. According to Marx and Engels (1848) there are essentially two different and conflicting classes in any particular society; the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Bourgeoisie refers to persons who own and control the means of production including labor, while proletariat refers to the rest of the people who do not have anything else to trade other than their own labor. To Marx, this accounts for the exploitative relationship between the two classes of society and even amplifies the perceived conflict between the two (Cino-lu & Ozeren, 2010).

Although classical conflict scholars did not come up with a separate position on terrorism, this does not mean that terrorism did not exist at their time. It did; however it was only on a smaller scale such that it was not significant enough for these scholars to come up with separate perspectives on it. Unfortunately, many modern conflict scholars feel the same way. As mentioned above, differing perspectives all suggest that various types of exploitations are the major sources of confrontations. With regard to the conflict perspective, discrimination is one of the expected outcomes of conflict. Discrimination has a huge impact; not only could it be seen as a driving force behind more conflict and discrimination, but also discrimination hardens the stances between groups in all spheres of conflict including terrorism (Cino-lu & Ozeren, 2010).

According to Chambliss (1973) who investigated societal discrimination, members of the upper classes of the society enjoy more tolerance from society compared to members of the lower classes of the society. This is seen in terms of the criminal/legal system, where there is perhaps favoritism for a perceived 'elite' and/or monetary class vs. The non-elite, even when they had committed similar crimes. It would be very interesting if we extend his findings to terrorism. As we noted earlier, conflict scholars and theorists have a strong belief that crime is an expected outcome of discrimination and conflict. According to these conflict theorists, a marginalized or disadvantaged group has no other option but to try and topple the system of exploitation they suffer from. Thus, criminals, including terrorists for that matter, become members of organizations or groups that are in the proletariat, and consider themselves to be disenfranchized. Even though people of the proletariat are still the major source of recruitment for terrorist organizations, new terror organizations do not reflect the expected social composition (Cino-lu & Ozeren, 2010).

CONCLUSION

The confrontations and key questions around terrorism today remain confusing. From one perspective, those involved in terrorist activities are convinced that their path is 'right', as they have chosen to use massive 'shock tactics' to convince non-believers in Islam that it is the only path. Simultaneously, those in the West who do not believe in Islam see only the terror and are confused by such actions; the Western perspective no longer views killing for faith as positive. A key difference in perspective is that Western political systems generally are distinct from the religious systems (as seen by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States -- separating religion and politics), whereas the Islamic political systems are fundamentally based upon religion.

Even though many scholars argue that religions are the root cause of all of today's terrorist attacks, recent studies have refuted this position. This has led to other scholars attributing modern terrorism to socio-political restrictions in repressive administrations. Another group of scholars argues that even though modern terrorism is at times provoked by socio-political demands in the social structures, because religion is a socio-spiritual phenomenon that influences individuals' lives, it cannot be absolved from terrorism in the modern world. Therefore these scholars are of the viewpoint that religion is consistently at the background of these terrorism, providing it with spiritual… READ MORE

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