Cultures Effect on Terrorism

In general, there are a broad array of reason that one might become a terrorist. Money plays a large factor, sometimes revenge, but today, a vast amount of terrorism springs up from cultural diversity. In the middle east, war is rampant and sometimes the reasons is just for being or belonging to another cultural group. The Sunnis, the Shiites, Syrian rebels, Muslim extremists, the list goes on.
One example is the conflict between the Shiites and the Sunnis. This has been a widely religious conflict that for a long time was not a problem until relatively recently. Because of the widespread use of communication devices and with borders being drawn in different places, the “assumed” Sunni superiority started to be challenged, and old previous conflicts reappeared and started causing a large amount of problems. “Many of today’s most militant Islamic terror cells, including the Taliban and al-Qaeda, are members of a fundamentalist Sunni sect called Wahhabi.  Since the earliest days, Wahhabis have been particularly hostile toward the Shiites” (aim.org).
Another example is killing an “enemy of god” where in someone may kill someone(s) who is deemed an enemy and usually killing them in a way that qualifies as terrorism. This is common among people in the holy war, or jihad, when following muslim interpretations of the Koran. With the promise of splendid things in heaven, this is also often a motivation for terrorist acts. The following is an excerpt about a legend and what happened to him after being rendered unconscious: When he awoke, he found himself in the fabled garden, where the young women fed him morsels of the most delicious foods. They treated him to every sexual delight he had ever heard of, and to some that he had never imagined. When he awoke the next morning to his usual surroundings he recounted his adventure. Someone told him that he had received a gift from Allah by allowing him a glimpse of the highest level of heaven reserved for those martyrs who die for their faith. The delights he had experienced so briefly would happen to him through all eternity if he met the test for his faith. Now he begged for nothing more in the world than to die in the service of Allah. In answer to his plea, he received intense training to kill an enemy of God, identified by his leader, a grand master.”
Cultural motives for terrorism are perhaps the most prominent and in this “sub group” of terrorist motivations, religion is probably a larger component than anything. “ religiously oriented and millenarian groups typically attempt to inflict as many casualties as possible. Because of the apocalyptic frame of reference they use, loss of life is irrelevant, and more casualties are better. Losses among their co-religionists are of little account, because such casualties will reap the benefits of the afterlife. Likewise, non-believers, whether they are the intended target or collateral damage, deserve death, and killing them may be considered a moral duty. The Kenyan bombing against the U.S. Embassy in 1998 inflicted casualties on the local inhabitants in proportion to U.S. personnel of over twenty to one killed, and an even greater disparity in the proportion of wounded (over 5000 Kenyans were wounded by the blast; 95% of total casualties were non-American ). Fear of backlash rarely concerns these groups, as it is often one of their goals to provoke overreaction by their enemies, and hopefully widen the conflict.”
There are however, a couple more cultural motives for terrorism. Things like the implementation of a different government can do the trick. Sometimes it could even be as simple as a military presence that prompts a terrorist attack but by in large, the cultural side of things is the most prominent.




http://www.terrorism-research.com/goals/
http://www.aim.org/guest-column/sunnis-and-shiites-why-do-they-fight/
http://www.nobeliefs.com/terrorism.htm