Terrorist Groups the Intentions Behind Religious Fundamentalist

Terrorist Groups

The intentions behind religious fundamentalist terrorist activities are varied. It is noteworthy that terrorists are psychologically normal and are neither depressed, severely emotionally disturbed, nor crazed fanatics. In fact to ensure that their members are not clinically psychotic, emotionally unstable individuals are regularly screened out because they can be a security risk.

Religious fundamentalist terrorist groups are driven by a sense of giving power to the powerless. Some always want to seek revenge over religious grievances, while others seek to gain a sense of significance. They are driven by group interests as opposed to self serving actions hence their group, organizational, and social psychology. The responsibility of a leader of a terrorist organization like Al Qaeda is to interpret religious scriptures to justify their extreme acts of violence. He draws frustrated leaders into a coherent organization (Neumann, 2005).

Their unifying message to disparate followers is lined with religious, political, and ideological undertones. He identifies an external enemy as the cause and draws his disparate followers into collective identity. That is why thousands of alienated Arab and Muslim youth saw Osama Bin Laden as a positive identification object. In fact most of the youth saw in him a heroic revenger who had the guts to stand up against a superpower. Most of this youth could do anything that was asked of them by Al Qaeda because to them Bin Laden was unselfish, altruistic, and heroic to the point of self sacrifice. Al Qaeda seeks to expel westerners and to be specific Americans from the Muslim lands because they consider America's power and influence as one of the largest impediment to the establishment of a pan-Islam nation.

America, to them props non-Islamic governments in the Middle East and North Africa. Al Qaeda's strategy is therefore tailored towards driving U.S. out of Muslim land by waging extended terror campaigns that causes substantial physical, political, and economic damage. Because the Al Qaeda organization has no resources to facilitate this, it relies on the services of the local affiliates and allies to strike the U.S. And western interests (Neumann, 2005). Al Qaeda does find justification for their killing in the name of God from the Koran.

Deterrence should be the underlying principle in initiating counterterrorism strategies against the Al Qaeda. After the September 11th attack, laws were instituted that ensured that everybody entering or leaving America through primary ports of entry was subjected to thorough screening. PATRIOTIC Act was also put in place. Moreover, different departments of Homeland Security were merged. This enabled for sharing of intelligence that could be used to counter terrorist attack. However, these are not enough bearing in mind that terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda keep "mutating." Therefore, counterterrorism strategies have to manifest strength, purpose and determination.