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Don't Panic!

• What is terrorism?
• Who are the terrorists?
  • Political
  • National liberation
  • Religious
• Terror tactics
• When panic attacks
• Holidays in hell
• Find out more
• Credits

Graphical site

Who are the terrorists? – Religious

From Guy Fawkes to the Christian militants who bomb abortion clinics in the United States, acts of terrorism have long been committed in the name of religion.

The Islamist terrorists

Since September 11, the image of the Islamist terrorist has become all too familiar. Yet Muslims around the world say that Islam is a religion of peace. The roots of this contradiction go back at least 50 years. One Islamic teaching divides the world into:

• dar al-Islam ('house of peace'): countries where Islamic law is in effect;
• dar al-Sulh ('house of treaty'): countries on good terms with the Islamic world;
• dar al-Harb ('house of war'): countries seen as hostile to Islam.

Beginning in the 1950s in Egypt, a group of militants redrew the Islamic map of the world. The grey area of the dar al-Sulh was eliminated, while dar al-Harb became identified with the secular West.

This Islamist view – that of seeking a political role for Islam – had no room for compromise. The aim was the strict enforcement of Islamic law wherever Muslim communities lived, and ultimately throughout the world. The means were political. In the 1980s and 1990s in particular, Islamist opposition movements flourished in North Africa and the Middle East. However, these were mass movements that made little use of political violence or terrorism.

At the end of the century, the focus of Islamism shifted to Afghanistan. Here, in territory ruled by the Islamist Taliban, Osama bin Laden built the al-Qaeda movement. A network rather than a centralised organisation, al-Qaeda differs from its predecessors in two crucial areas:

• It is international: rather than fighting a single national government, al-Qaeda aims to attack what it sees as the worldwide influence of the United States and Israel.
• It is committed to terrorism rather than open political activism.

Paradoxically, al-Qaeda's deadly tactics reflect the organisation's weakness rather than its strength. Groups powerful enough to achieve their aims through political means rarely choose terrorist tactics.