Terrorism Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Question 1: Is the media complicit in the success of terrorist organisations?
The media, governments and terrorism have competing and different media responsibilities, roles and functions during terrorist event coverage. These competing and divergent functions and roles propel some sort of behaviour in the course of terrorist events- mostly working to the advantage of terrorism and terrorist operations because of the nature of terrorism and media. Terrorism aims at gaining recognition through inspiring fear to the global community. On the other hand, media play the role of informing the global community of the current affairs (Nacos, 2007). Thus, through broadcasting and spreading of terrorist activities, the media unwillingly promotes terrorism.
It is argued that terror is more of a psychological war than the physical one because it capitalises on fear to advance its impacts. Terrorists strategically design their tactics to play to a bigger audience in order to maximise the impacts of its activities. The media comes in to help reach the bigger audience since it is impossible for the terrorist activities being simultaneously carried out in every part of the globe. The media report and spread a terrorist event in one location to the whole world, for example, the 9/11 attacks in the United States of America were reported and aired across every corner of the world (Altheide, 2009). Through the claim of the role of informing the public and its right to freely accomplish such role, the media spread the fear caused by the attacks.
Second, publicity, especially free publicity which the terrorist group cannot afford, advances terrorism (Perl, 1997). This is because the publicity alerts more and more people of the existence of the problem. From a terrorist standpoint, unedited interviews in the media are treasured prizes whereas from the media perspective exclusives to such interviews are huge blows from the reporting agency to its competitors. As a result, different media houses are rushing to reporting such events without knowing that they are serving the interests of terrorists more than accomplishing their role of informing the society
In cases of hostage, the terrorists need information about the rescue efforts by the government. In such cases, the media works in favour of terrorists as through reporting it informs the terrorists about the government rescue mission; the equipment being used, the number of personnel involved and the time of the mission. Also, the media try to make such reporting more dramatic as much as possible to win more audience thereby amplifying terrorist events.
References
Altheide, D. L. (2009). Terror post 9/11 and the media. New York: Peter Lang.
Nacos, B. L. (2007). Mass-mediated terrorism: The central role of the media in terrorism and counterterrorism. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Perl, R. F. (1997). Terrorism the Media and the Government: Perspectives Trends and Options for Policymakers. Retrieved from;  HYPERLINK "/irp/crs/crs- terror.htm" /irp/crs/crs- terror.htm.
Question 2: Should there be separation between religion and politics?
Politics and religion address two different spheres of the same individual in their life; on addition to an individual fitting in a particular religious group, they are also an element of the secular society. This twofold alliance engenders complications. Religious beliefs involve social and moral repercussions, and it is appropriate to express them in politics as citizens of a particular country because religion being the base of such ethical convictions does not exclude them from governmental practices. However, controversy and difficulty arises on how such convictions are incorporated into the political realm given the fact that there are diverse religious constructions and practices. For instance, there are Christianity, Islamic, Hinduism and others, and within these broad categorizations there are sub-categories holding conflicting views.
Politics rivet law and policy making where such policy or law made involve imposition of beliefs of one group to the whole community. Such policies/laws are rooted in religion or some philosophy and aimed to promote the welfare of all members of the society meaning they have to suit the members belonging to different religion groups as well as those belonging to none (Norris & Inglehart, 2004). For example, legalisation of abortion has to be done on the grounds of common good and not on the grounds of one religious group that supports. This is because making laws in reference to a specific religion signifies favouritism and bias that in turn result into disarray among the residents. Thus, to objectively conduct governance, the government has to distinguish and merge together the different religions in order to satisfy their respective interests.
Second, religion serves as an identity to its followers. More so, it promotes the freedom of autonomy and choice that is internationally recognized in various constitutions of different countries. Such identity dictates how the day-to-day actions and interactions of people in different aspects of life (Haidt, 2013). For example, Muslims have “sharia” banking laws which are totally different from those serving the rest of the religions.
In conclusion, religion and politics are inseparable from and dependent to each other. In disconnect, they promote personal identity and guide day-to-day practices whereas collectively they provide objectivity and unity. Therefore, religion should not be separated from politics in order to promote impartiality and unity as well as freedom of choice among subjects being governed.
References
Haidt, J. (2013). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. London: Penguin.
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Question 3: How does Al Qaeda spread its message?
Al Qaeda is a composite international terrorist network comprising several affiliate and undercover sub-groups such as the Al Shabab (Somalia), Lashkar-e-Taiba (India) and AQIM (North Africa). The network exhibits changing communication degree and channels between its members and the public in attempts of furthering its operations and ideologies. The current channels came into existence after their public press-conferences and face-to-face communication with the public were thwarted by anti-terror agencies and further rendered obsolete with technological innovations. Such communication media include televisions and radios, websites and chat rooms, social media, sympathisers and banners.
Under television and radios, Al Qaeda produces video and audio tapes that it provides to the respective stations for broadcasting. For example, they are notoriously for providing the video tapes to Al Jazeera that in turn passes the tapes to other broadcasting organizations locally as well as internationally (Bockstette, 2010). Also, the designated group’s officials take interviews with respected journalists of stations of their choice. With this strategy, they reach target audience from their hiding place. The news corporations spread the message through their role of informing the community.
Another communication channel adopted by the group is the internet where it utilises chat rooms and websites and social media for relaying their message. The website initiative has failed since such websites are shut down by authorities once realised. Under social media, the group use twitter (Clayton, 2013), YouTube and face book to post its messages (Strohm, 2011). Just as it provides recorded videos to the news broadcasting houses, the group uploads videos showing their training and teachings on to YouTube for the purposes of radicalisation. The videos are aimed at persuading the naive public of the “legitimacy” of their stance, and are considered effective as they no longer require individuals to attend training camps (Strohm, 2011).
References
Bockstette, C. (2010). Jihadist Terrorist Use of Strategic Communication Management Techniques. [Diane Publishing].
Clayton, M. (2013). Terrorist Tweets: How Al Qaeda’s Social Media Move could Cause Problems. Retrieved from;  HYPERLINK "/USA/2013/0207/Terrorist-tweets-how-Al-Qaeda-s- social-media-move-could-cause-problems" /USA/2013/0207/Terrorist-tweets-how-Al-Qaeda-s- social-media-move-could-cause-problems.
Strohm, C. (2011). Facebook YouTube aid in al-Qaeda’s spread study says. Retrieved from;  HYPERLINK "/gsn/article/facebook-youtube-aid-in-al- qaedas-spread-study-says/" /gsn/article/facebook-youtube-aid-in-al- qaedas-spread-study-says/.
Question 4: Can a state be considered a terrorist state?
According to Westra (2012), terrorism can be described as an act entailing the use of threats, coercion and/or violence to craft volatility in one region or another region or globally. The created instability then leads to a number of repercussions such as social group/government collapse, social chaos and reduced morale. There are two categories of terrorism classified relative to the perpetrator of the terrorist activities that also affect it complexity. When perpetrated by a single person or by a few individuals in a group it is simple but more complex when committed by a nation.
State terrorism- terrorist acts committed by a particular nation’s government- attracts a debate because of the associated imperfect distinctions and fuzzy definitions. This is because there is no universally agreed distinction between legitimate use of intimidation and violenc...