Global Jihad, Islamic Radicalisation and Counter Strategy by Noor Dahri

Author:Noor Dahri [Dahri, Noor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Terrorism
ISBN: 9789388161510
Google: 9hmWwgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 44335091
Publisher: Rohan Vij
Published: 2019-01-15T09:37:25+00:00

Chapter 3

Suicide Terrorism, Rational or

Irrational

A suicide attack is an operational method in which the perpetrator knows it costs his or her life. This characteristic distinguishes the suicide attack from any other acts of terrorism. It places this action in the psychological realm and requires the suicide bomber to create a sort of tunnel vision. A cognitive solution for the gruesome action to come. The suicide bombers and indeed the terrorists’ organisational goal is to spread fear and panic within society, instil fear and the feeling of helplessness regarding the inability to prevent such attack. Operationally, suicide attacks require no escape plan and reduce the fear of the perpetrator being caught and interrogated afterwards.

The number of suicide attacks has skyrocketed over the last two decades. Appearing first as a threat in Lebanon in the 1980s (in 1981: Al Dawa against the Iraqi Embassy and in 1983: The Hezbollah-led campaign of suicide attacks against Western targets) and then in Sri Lanka (1987: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) against a Sri Lanka Army camp). The phenomenon of suicide attacks has spread exponentially since then. Affected countries include, among others: Israel (1994), Turkey (1995) India (1999), Pakistan (1999), Russia (2000), the United States (2001), Kenya (2002), Saudi Arabia (2003), Iraq (2003), Indonesia (2005), the United Kingdom (2007) and Yemen (2008). In addition, many other plots were foiled in various other countries around the globe. This increase can be explained by the fact that suicide terrorism is a smart bomb at the low expense for modern terrorists – a product of radical ideology with a modus operandi easily exportable and imitable.

Rational or Irrational

I strongly disagree with what some experts stated about the irrationality of suicide attacks because the rationality of these attacks has provided strong evidence in those countries that were or still are facing these deadly attacks. Among these countries are Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Indonesia, India, Russia and other countries. This phenomenon of suicide terrorism is not a new to the world, but this tactic is an old phenomenon practiced by radical Islamists since it started in Israel, Sri Lanka, and the USA, the UK and other countries. Israel is the only country who had faced a very high quantity of suicide attacks in the second Intifada. From 2000 to 2005, there were around 147 suicide attacks carried out against the state of Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organisations. These attacks caused the deaths of more than 500 Israelis, the overwhelming majority were civilians. These suicide attacks were extremely lethal and the impacts of these attacks on the victim’s population left a high grade of fear and panic among them.

These figures were successful suicide attacks only, around 450 suicide attacks were foiled on various stages by the Israeli security forces. These 147 suicide attacks were carried out by 156 Palestinian males and 8 females. It is essential to understand that suicide attacks are always carried out by organisations not by individual lone wolves. The main reason that suicide terrorism is growing is that terrorists have learned that it works.

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