September 11, 2001: The Day That Changed America

Question 1 

After the events of September 11, 2001, terrorism has changed in the sense that terrorist groups no longer focus much on attacking countries directly, especially seemingly impenetrable countries like the United States. Currently, terrorists focus much on radicalization efforts especially on the basis of religion. In the United States, for instance, there have been numerous concerns about ‘home-grown” terrorism, which means that terrorist groups who can be as far away as the Middle East use various channels, particularly the internet to appeal to individuals in the United States to take part in their course. There have also been numerous cases where some individuals have traveled from the United States and European countries to the Middle East to join the terrorist groups. Secondly, the terrorist groups have also changed their strategies and tried to attack countries who are allied to their perceived enemies and that have weaker security systems. The strategy is aimed at provoking these perceived enemies and trying to make the targeted countries to stop their cooperation with the perceived enemies. Thirdly, some terrorist groups have been capturing citizens of enemy countries, and more especially journalists and holding them at ransom. Some of those captured have been executed by the groups on camera in an attempt to instill fear and spread propaganda of how capable they are. 

Question 2 

A terrorist is an individual who uses violence and intimidation methods in an attempt to cause fear to achieve a certain objective. Secondly, a terrorist is most of the time an individual who has been radicalized along the lines of religion or ideology to believe that only his or her line of thinking is the best, and therefore, cannot negotiate. Quite often, terrorists develop the “us vs. them” attitude and can go to the extent of killing innocent lives and even losing their own lives to the course. On the other hand, a freedom fighter is an individual who agitates for the emancipation of people or a group that has been oppressed. A freedom fighter always fights for a just course because the oppressors may be adamant to allow them to enjoy their rights. A freedom fighter does not kill innocent people, and if he or she has to use violent means, the target is always the oppressor. An example of a terrorist is Osama Bin Laden who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attack while an example of a freedom fighter is Martin Luther King Jr. who fought for the rights of the black people. 

Question 3 

Left wing terrorist groups that have existed in the United States have always embraced communist-like or Marxist ideologies. The main aim of these groups, which seem to have disappeared, was to fight against capitalism, and some of their attacks were in the form of attacks against capitalist institutions like banks and the money looted would be used to fund their activities. An example of a left wing organization in the United States was the May 19 th Communist Organization which operated during the 1980s. On the other hand, right wing terrorist groups’ main agenda is to preserve racial supremacy. The main right wing group that ever existed in the United States was the Ku Klux Klan, which was founded in the 1970s, and which mainly targeted African Americans. 

Question 4 

Currently, terrorism in the name of religion is mainly perpetrated by terrorist groups operating in the Middle East. The best example of such a group is the Islamic State (IS) group. The objective of this group seems to inclined towards establishing a caliphate in the world, which means a world where Islam is the only religion and where a religious leader known as a caliph is the head. This group has mainly been targeting countries such the United States, those in Europe, as well as the allies of these countries because of the belief that they are anti-Islam. Therefore, the symbolism is that if their agenda is to succeed, they need to conquer these countries because they are the perceived enemies of Islam.