Q. Make comparison between the anti-colonial wave and the religious wave of terrorism.

Give
arguments about the legitimacy about their goals and tactics.

David Rapoport has discussed four major waves of international terrorism in his article “The
Four Waves of Rebel Terror and September 11. The first wave of terrorism, also known as the
Anarchist Wave began in Russia in the 1880s and lasted till 1920s. The second wave known as
Anti Colonial wave began in the 1920s, lasted for forty years and ended in the 1960s. The third
wave known as the New Left wave began in the 1960s and continued till the 1980s, and the
religious wave of modern terrorism emerged in 1979 and continues until today.

The second wave of modern terrorism commenced with signing the Treaty of Versailles ending
the First World War. The principle of self-determination used to break-up defeated empires
provided a solid ground for formation of different kinds of terrorist organizations, for example,
The Irgun and various Jewish organizations operated fighting against British armies in the
Palestine. The campaigns of the anti colonial wave took place mainly in territories which were
facing special political problems making the withdrawal of forces by the colonial power a less
feasible option. It was in Palestine where the famous leader, Menachem Begin who was the
leader of Irgun, a Jewish organization, termed its members for as freedom fighters fighting
against government terror. This word “freedom fighters” originated from this incidence. Even the
local government appreciated the use of an “appropriate” language.

The strategy used for the anti colonial wave of terror was more complex: the primary goal of
terrorists was the elimination of the local police force who they believed were the “eyes and
ears” of the government and substituting them with military forces that were expected to be
lacking the intelligence required in dealing with terrorists, but dominating enough to cause
grievance among the masses through their inconsistent responses to the actions of these
terrorists. During this wave of terrorism it became a common practice to call terrorists fighting
against colonial powers ‘freedom fighters as the word terrorist was used in a very negative
connotation and groups believed they were fighting for a legitimate cause.

The ever increasing wave of anti colonialism spread nationalism throughout the world
incorporating nations with the identity of the citizens and an independent sovereign political
state. The nation states began to stress upon national identities of citizens who were conquered or
colonized much like the Jews during period of the Zealots, who either chose to integrate or fight
back. The “freedom fighters”were voicing out the concerns of every individual unlike the
terrorist in the religious wave voicing out concerns of only a particular group. Majority of the
terrorist organizations chose methods which allowed them to publicize their goals and
accomplishments internationally. In some cases (Cyprus, Kenya, Algeria and Israel) terrorism
helped organizations in the true understanding and realization of goals. They were usually
motivated with political ideologies instead of religious unlike the religious wave.

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Anti-colonial causes were legitimate to many more parties than the causes articulated in the
religious wave. People were fighting for an identity, a separate homeland backed with strong
political moralistic grounds. The wave was more organized in nature These ideologies were even
backed by public which gained them huge mass recognition. The word terrorist was used in a
negative connotation, the word ‘freedom fighters’ was used instead as they believed they were
fighting for a cause. They still had a moral conscience, and there were parameters which were to
be followed by these freedom fighters. The second wave had some regard for human life. In
short, the goals of anti-colonial wave were moralistic and political unlike the religious wave.

The second wave of terrorism was more organized compared to the religious wave with secular
divisions , and the wave continued to receive extensive support from various international
funding sources with the number of cases of robberies diminishing unlike the religious wave.
The religious wave believes in inculcating fear and violence among the masses whereas anti-
colonialists focused on garnering the support from public. It had more uniformity. For instance,
the Indo-pak freedom fighters while fighting the colonial powers received massive support of
public.

The ‘religious’ wave of terrorism has given prominence to suicide terrorism and witnessed an
attempt to cause mass casualties by the use of chemical weapons by the Aum Shinrikyo sect in
Tokyo in 1995. In 1983 the Shia organization Hezbollah supported by Iran carried out massive
suicide terrorist attacks on the positions of the US Marines and French paratroopers in Lebanon.
These attacks resulted in severe casualties and strongly influenced the respective governments
leaving them with no chance but to withdraw their troops from Lebanon. These suicide attacks
influenced the Tamil Tigers so much so that from 1980–2001 they carried out 75 out of the 186
(more than 40%) of suicide terrorist attacks in the world. The end of Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan and the Gulf War brought a change in the main enemy of Islamic terrorists. Osama
bin Laden found it unacceptable that since the 1991 Gulf War there were large numbers of US
troops in Saudi Arabia whom he feared were there to stay indefinitely. Soon after the Gulf War
bin Laden moved from Saudi Arabia to Sudan and Al-Qaeda (the successor organization of the
Afghan Services Bureau) became an increasingly decentralized organization defending Islam. It
must be mentioned that a specific feature of Islamic terrorists has been their desire to destroy
their American targets – a pattern which was unknown in the previous wave of terrorism. The
heinous act of terror which was committed on 11 September 2001 illustrates their methodology
of operation. The response of the international community to the attack of 11 September 2001
has been as astounding as the attack itself. Over 100 states participated directly or indirectly in
the attack against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. In spite of such a massive international support for
overthrowing the Taliban and capturing the al-Qaeda leadership, they have only been partially
successful and the man who challenged the sole superpower – Osama bin Laden and his
followers.

Furthermore, the religious wave target audience for violence are the innocent humans
irrespective of their ethnicity, age, gender; targeting public by using tactics such as suicide
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bombing in public places, plane hijacking, kidnapping, and in some cases even robberies
whereas the anti-colonialists had regard for human life, and used to deliver a warning before
conducting any attacks. For instance, in the past groups like Irgun, Irish Republic Army used to
give warnings to reduce civilian casualties. The Iranian Revolution paved way for violence, and
suicide bombing became a common strategy to achieve goals by inculcating fear. Moreover,
during the fourth wave embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were attacked resulting in heavy
casualties.

If we compare both waves, the anti colonial wave was more successful in achievements of goals
in comparison to the religious wave. The anti colonialists “freedom fighters” were unified
compared to the religious wave “terrorists”. For instance, Irish Republican Army (IRA) had
successfully acquired an Irish state, and Irgun was successful in acquiring Palestine. If we shed
light on the fourth wave, on one hand, all Muslims had been unified in their opposition to Israel,
and the Jews whereas in the other hand, the spread of secularism is of equal importance to the
religious wave too. For instance, indignation of the Wahabism was formerly directed, not against
the Western or colonial powers, but also against the practitioners of Islam whom they think are
not practicing the religion in a correct manner and betraying its teachings from within.
However, it must be noted that religious inspired terrorism has a universal theoretical basis. The
pattern of religious violence of Sikhs could be exactly that of Irish Catholics or Shia Muslims in
Palestine or a fundamentalist Christian bombers of abortion clinics in the United States.

Moreover, in the anti-colonial wave people were unified against fighting foreign intervention
and having self determination struggling for an independent identity. Moreover, international
support always provides a terrorist group with huge advantages. The extend of support for the
anti colonial wave was wider than the religious wave which is only supported by extremists.

Unlike the second wave, in the fourth wave extremists began to sponsor own groups taking part
in the anti state activities. Religion transcends the state bond, and even certain religious groups
such as Shias and Sunnis do not have unity among them unlike the anti-colonialist freedom
fighters.

The anti colonial wave had freedom fighters fighting against foreign intervention whereas in the
religious wave extremist groups such as Al Qaeda were attacking on sovereignty of different
states for instance AlQaeda claimed responsibility for the 9/11 dreadful attack. Furthermore,
there was lack of coordination between the groups. Several groups only lasted for a year and
went into hibernation. These terrorist organizations have a misconception that their mission is
divinely ordained. They consider their struggle is between good and evil; believers and non
believers. In secular terrorism the rewards of victory are finite but in religious terrorism they are
finite and achieving death by martyrdom is the most superior death. These terrorist groups view
themselves as anti-environmentalists and nationalists. The authorities of secular government are
often rejected by the religious groups. In contrast to the anti colonial wave which extended its
support towards the military units, the religious wave groups had massively resented military.

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Terrorism is not novel to humanity. It’s an ancient phenomena which has become a common
feature in today’s century, giving a rise to complex moral and practical issues. This wave of mass
paranoia, animosity, and fear which is not only affecting a particular ethnic group, but bound to
overwhelm mental health and well being of all citizens of the world. Each era, in the past and
present has taken its color from the existing injustice, inequities in different scenario to build its
own solid ground for legitimacy. The terrorist groups have borrowed knowledge from the past
experience and present technologies. Irrespective of the waves of terrorism, each group is
distinctive, their historical background, present circumstances, deprivations and degradations
have to be taken into account.