Terrorism and Tamil Tigers Essay Example

the way people live their lives. A well-known example would be Al-Qaeda, with Osama Bin Laden being their figurehead. As the United States took over the lands of Islam, they saw that as Americans committing crimes and sins, also declaring war on their God and Muslims. Thus they believed that killing Americans and destroying whatever they have is an order from God. One of their famous acts was the September 11 attacks, which took place in 2001; four planes, were hijacked, two of which crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade

Center in New York City. Al-Qaeda commits terrorism with its eye on the prize of establishing its version of Islamic rule across all Muslim territory. Last but not least, people resort to terrorism due to social reasons. This happens in areas where minority feels that they have not been granted with the rights they deserve, hence resorting to terrorism. One example would be the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The terrorist organisation strived for an independent state for Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamils and fought between 1976 and 2009.

Ethnic conflict arose when the Sinhalese majority began to ostracize the Tamils in their common homeland, Sri Lanka. The Tamils felt deprived of their rights, as the government did not take their needs into consideration; the Tamils were denied of their citizenships, had to face the change of language policy, and were deprived of entering the universities. LTTE’s attacks include suicide bombings and massacre. The attack that had the highest death toll was the massacre of Sri Lankan Police Officers, which happened in 1990.

Therefore, political reasons, religious reasons and

social reasons contribute to the reasons of why people turn to terrorism. As an old saying penned by Gerald Seymour in his book was “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”. My personal view on this quote is that people are making use of this cliche saying in defense of the terror they have caused. However, to be fair, it’s all about a matter of perspective. It’s hard to draw a line between a terrorist and freedom fighter because they are of overlapping categories.

Terrorism is a strategy planned out to achieve a specific goal, while freedom fighting describes a motivation; hence it is possible for a person or group to be engaged in both at the same time. In certain cases, these terrorists are considered to be freedom fighters to some. Taking the Palestinian suicide bombers as an example. In the views of Israel and the United States, they are considered to be terrorists.

Whereas many Arabs, Muslims and even some Europeans view them as freedom fighters as heir attacks are acknowledged to be part of the struggle for Palestinian national liberation, the Palestinians are merely trying to get and fight back what the Israelis had taken away from them. Therefore, the fact that Palestinians are trying to get back whatever that was rightfully theirs is considered to be part of “freedom fighting”, but the act of them killing Israelis wildly is considered to be terrorism. Another example of freedom fighters would be the Tamil Tigers of LTTE. Through the years, they were seen as terrorists as they have launched tons of brutal and violent attacks.

Their campaigns of terror

against the Sinhalese majority were merciless, as they have resorted to illegal means of warfare, from suicide bombings to child soldiers. However on the other hand, many Tamils view the Tamil Tigers as their freedom fighters as they helped to achieve the closest to having a fair government of their homeland. I strongly believe that in no circumstances should terrorism ever be justified or accepted. I feel that there are other ways to solve problems and getting points across instead of resorting to violence. The impact of terrorism would cause the death and injury of many innocent parties.

Moreover, it will never come to an end; the problem will never be solved, as people would want to fight back. Taking the incident of September 11th as an example, it caused a loss of over 6,000 lives in that attack. Besides disrupting people’s way of lives and causing grieve, the world’s economy was affected and went downhill as well. How could that ever be justified? It’s been more than a decade till date, but people can never forget about the incident and the fear of losing their loved ones. Hence, in no way terrorism can ever be justified or accepted in our society.