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Katie Wagenbrenner
Mr. Maite
Humanities VIII-1A
5 December 2014

Terrorism
Terrorism is using violence or threatening people to achieve a goal. It has lots of
components and different things that cause it. There are many different terrorist groups that
operate in different ways and want different things. Terrorism is a big problem all over the world.
Terrorists use society to spread their message. Many people are against terrorism, and this
makes it very hard for terrorist groups to operate. Terrorist groups have to work in secret,
because if they dont, governments that seek to destroy them will figure out what they are
planning. Because of this, terrorist groups will find governments to support them, for example
Syria and Libya (Darity). Terrorists have to make sure that the public sees their act of terror.
They use social media, cell phones and radios to spread their acts of terror. Terrorists can use
violence to get their point across. They use weapons like compact explosives, suicide bombers,
assassins, bombs, guns and knives. Terrorists can hijack planes or execute people (Terrorism).
One way that terrorists can get their point across without using violence is by threatening people.
Recently, terrorists have been threatening to use bio-warfare. This means that they could use
drugs, diseases, and/or radiation to hurt people (Miller 46).

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Without terrorists, terrorism doesnt exist. Many terrorists work in large groups called
terrorist organizations. There are several different terrorist groups. A very well-known terrorist
group is Al Qaida. Al Qaida is an organization that supports Muslim Extremists worldwide.
They believe that America is against the Muslim religion, so when they commit acts of terrorism
they target Americans. In 1998 Al Qaida first attacked America by bombing the U.S. Embassies
in Kenya and Tanzania. Later, on September 11, 2001, Al Qaida hijacked four airplanes. They
flew two of the planes into the World Trade Center, one plane into the Pentagon, and the last
plane was taken over by passengers who crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania. Al Qaida killed
2,996 people in the September 11th attacks (Helms).
Another terrorist group is Boko Haram. Boko Haram is a terrorist organization in
Nigeria. They are Muslim extremists like Al Qaida. They are involved in motorcycle attacks,
suicide bombings, kidnappings, and mass raids. In 2009, the Nigerian government tried to stop
Boko Haram. Boko Haram ended up killing 800 men and injuring many others (Bumgardner).
A third example of a terrorist group is ISIS. ISIS is a group that supports Sunni Muslim
extremists. They are known to be ruthless and violent. They publicize their acts of terrorism on
the internet by ISIS. For example, the execution of two American Journalists was put on the
internet. They sometimes use suicide bombers to commit acts of terrorism. One of the scariest
part about ISIS is that there are over 100 American Citizens involved in the organization
(Bumgardner). All of the organizations listed above have been fighting for their religion, but The
Red Brigades fought for change in the government. They were responsible for assassinations and
bombings in Italy. In the 1970s they almost took over their government by assassinating so
many people (Red). These are just a few of the many, many terrorists groups that exist in the
world.

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Terrorists dont terrorize people for no reason. All terrorists have a goal. Different
terrorists have different goals, but all of them are trying to change some part of society. One goal
many terrorists have is religion. They believe that people who dont believe in what they believe
are bad. They might possibly want to eradicate other religions because they think that their
religion should be the one and only religion. Another goal they might have is to eradicate races
other than their own like the Klu Klux Clan did (Moore). Terrorists also could want to have
political power over land, or a change in government, for example the Red Brigades which were
mentioned earlier (Red). Most of the time terrorists dont aim for the immediate victims of their
attacks, but the government, media, or the entire population. The point of their attacks is to
spread fear, and awareness about their beliefs.
Terrorism didnt just start recently. It has been around for an extremely long time. The
ancient Greeks used terrorism against enemies, and a few Roman emperors used it against
different empires they saw as a threat. The zealots were a Jewish group that used terrorism to
defend their land. A different time in history, that they used terrorism was in the 1400s. The
Catholic Church used terrorist methods to punish people who taught different religions. In the
1700s when people were loyal to Brittan, American Colonists would burn their houses down.
Later in the 1900s Russians who opposed their government used terrorist methods to destroy
their government. The first domestic terrorist group in America is the Klu Klux Clan. They
believed that people of other races were not equal (Terrrorism). As mentioned earlier in the essay,
on September 11, 2001 Al Qaida hijacked four planes, and bombed many highly populated
buildings. Terrorism has evolved from the ancient Greeks to now, and it will keep evolving as
long as it exists.

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Terrorism is a worldwide issue. Every government has a different way of reacting to it.
Some governments think terrorism is a good thing, like Libya, but most governments seek to
eradicate terrorism all together. All of the countries trying to eradicate terrorism made counter
terrorism policies. Some of these policies include punishment to any countries aiding terrorists,
imprisonment, and interrogation of persons connected to terrorism, spying, putting more security
in densely populated areas, and if needed, assassinating suspected terrorists (Darity). In the UN
condemned terrorism in 1985. After that, many laws and acts followed. In 1996 the US passed an
act called the antiterrorism and affective death penalty act. This let the government punish people
who were involved in any act of terrorism (Terrorism). After attacks many countries have
different reactions. For example, after the September 11th attacks many countries had sympathy
for the victims of the attacks, but some countries in the Middle East had massive street parties to
celebrate the attacks (Lerner). After September 11th an antiterrorism act called the patriot act was
passed. This allowed the government to make foreigners leave the country based on secret
evidence found through telephone, and computer communication of anybody linked to terrorism.
A second response to the September 11th attacks was Homeland Security. This is how America
makes sure there are no more terrorist attacks in America (Darity). Because of the creation of
homeland security America spent 746 billion dollars on defending ourselves from terrorism from
2001-2007 (Wilson). Obviously America and many other countries are trying to protect
themselves from terrorists.
Terrorism is a subject that goes much deeper than just hurting people. Terrorism is
organized, and done for a reason. There are many people that take part in terrorism, and different
countries react to it differently. Terrorism is a complicated subject that you hopefully now
understand.

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Works Cited
Bumgardner, Jake. "Boko Haram." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2014. Web. 6 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar755878&st=boko+haram>.
- - -. "Islamic State." World Book Advanced. World Book, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar756267&st=islamic+state>.
Darity, William A. "Terrorism." International Encyclopedia of Social Science. 2nd ed. Detroit:
Thomson, 2008. N. pag. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.
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Helms, Christine Moss. "Qa'ida, Al-." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2014. Web. 6 Nov.
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Lerner, Brenda Wilmoth, and Lee K. Lerner, Ed. "Terrorism." Introduction to Terrorism in
Society. Detroit: Cengage Learning, 2006. N. pag. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.
29 Oct. 2014.
Miller, Debra A. Homeland Security. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2009. Print.

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Moore, John Hartwell. Klu Klux Clan. Detroit: Macmillian Reference U.S.A., 2009. Gale Virtual
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Wilson, Mike. Terrorism: Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2009. Print.