Sutton Beckwith

UWRT 1103
11/30/15
Final Conversation

Ever since we were young, weve been constantly reminded of the

terrible things that happened on 9/11. Innocent lives were taken, but why?
Among all the reasons Bin Laden rambled about in his letter to America, the
ones I couldnt wrap my head around were the ties back to the Islamic Faith.
Even before I started doing research, I knew Islam wasnt a religion that
would encourage actions like this. However, to this day more and more
groups of religious extremists are claiming Islamic justifications for acts of
terror. More recently, ISIS started posting beheading and torture videos
online with the same message. But why are so many groups acting violently
in the name of a peaceful religion? That is exactly what I wanted to find out
with my research. I looked at all types of views and perspectives on the
subject, in order to grasp all aspects of this group and their actions. Also, I
looked into the evolution of views on terrorism in our literature and how it
changed with our advancement in the war on terror.

The first thing I looked into was the psychological aspect of the
extremists. I wanted to know exactly what they are thinking and what is
going on in their head that separates them from their natural sense of

humanity and morality. There have actually been multiple studies on this
that have drawn some interesting conclusions. The first questions they asked
were ones about the sanity of these extremist. If they are divorced from their
natural feelings of empathy, are they insane? The studies actually show that
most extremists are very stable individuals. For me, this posed more
questions than provided answers. If they are stable, then why are they acting
this way? So I dug a little deeper in my research and found that
psychologists believe that what separates extremists from us, is their ability
to turn off empathy. They find a way to view other people more as objects
than people, and see these objects as obstacles standing in the way of their
goal. So they can now kill these people with out feeling any remorse because
they can dehumanize them in this way. Another area they researched was
why are young people drawn to these extremist groups. What they found
was a lot of these people feel as if they are outcasts and begin to crave
identity. These organizations provide these young men with a sense of
community and accept them into their group with open arms. But why join
extremists? These kids see these organizations not only as a way to fit in,
but also as a way to serve the religion they grew up believing. So they
believe theyre actually doing positive things for their people by killing in the
name of Islam. (Taylor)

My next source went into how our country viewed terrorism before
9/11. The book Morality of terrorism: religious and secular justifications was

published in 1982 long before 9/11, and provides a whole new prospective on
how our media and experiences change our view of what terrorism actually
is. The main thing I got out of this book was before this war with the middle
east situation, our definition of terrorism was vastly different. This book talks
about events in history that they describe as terrorism that I personally
have never thought of that way. One example was the holocaust. In history
class I was always taught about how terrible the holocaust was, but never did
I hear it be referred to as terrorism, but essentially it is. An organization
targeting a group of people and acting violently against that group to
complete the organizations goal. Thats exactly what is happening here, but
the holocaust and modern terrorism still seem so different. Rapoport talked
about how Hitler was feeling that his people were losing power and that
more Jewish politicians were becoming involved in power positions. This
caused him to get involved in politics, ultimately beginning his mission and
the Nazi campaign. (Rapoport, 170) This is similar to how extremists today
say the US becomes involved in things that dont involve them and they act
violently against the US for it. This shows how the media and current
literacies in our country have actually changed to define terrorism as more
an act directed towards our country, even though terrorism actually fits for a
lot events that have happened in history.

9/11 served as a wake up call to America. It put into perspective that

these extremist are serious and arent afraid to act on their beliefs. Also, this

was the first major attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. The post-9/11 era
awakened an uproar of patriotism and pride for our country. This is the era
that I was brought up in and has a large role in how our generations views
extremists. Waves of patriotic literacies swarmed through our media as
anything from songs to books. One song proud to be an American
resurfaced as a type of reuniting anthem for our country. I remember hearing
it played every ten minutes on the radio and pretty much at every sporting
event I went to growing up. Our society used these literacies to help bring
our country together and pick ourselves up from the devastation effects of
9/11. This made me more interested in what literacies in the middle east
were doing to influence these extremists and their actions. I found out in my
research that some middle eastern governments actually fund and supply
weapons, war materials, and training to these terrorist organizations. Also,
schools preach the message of the extremists in a positive way, providing a
mind set that these acts are justified from a very young age, paving the way
for future generations of extremists. This encourages new group to emerge,
and grow posing more of a threat to our country. (OKane)

One of the most recent organization to emerge and the biggest treat to
our country today is ISIS. ISIS really began to become a threat right after we
pulled troops out of Iraq. They took advantage of the fact that their
government was no longer supported by the US and thrived. ISIS is the most
powerful extremist organization up to date and is well funded. ISIS also has

large quantities of oil that is sold to over 40 countries providing millions of

dollars of funding for their organization. Son of Turkish president, Bilal
Erdogan, alone funds over half of ISIS operations through the purchase of
millions of dollars of ISIS oil. ISIS not only takes advantage of these oil thirsty
countries, but uses this as leverage against them, making them dependent
on ISIS for its oil. This just helps illustrate how much a factor these
extremists are in todays world. Now, how big of a threat is ISIS? A massive
one. An organization with millions of dollars, loyal followers, and possibly
weapons of mass destruction. Thats a recipe for disaster. These extremists
dont care about the possible consequences of their actions their only goal is
to carry out their message. If we dont act soon or some how reverse this
pattern of ISIS supporting youth, our country could be in big trouble in the
future.

After all my research, I now have a greater understanding of what is

going on in the middle east and how it came to be. Can I say that I
understand why extremists kill in the name of Islam? No, not entirely. But can
I say I understand how our different up bringings and influences cause these
deviations in our culture and beliefs? Yes. Whether its government and media
influence or philological differences, our two worlds are extremely complex,
and I dont think we will ever be able to completely resolve our problems.
However, by gaining a better understanding of each other I believe that a
difference can be made. Of course Im not making light of the horrifying acts

of extremists, but ignorance and intolerance does fuel the fire of their hatred.
Our country still has areas thats tradition is to have intolerant beliefs, and
this is why there is still a stereotype in other countries that Americans are
ignorant red necks. In the end we are all humans, and the only thing that
separates up is how we have developed into who we are through culture and
environment. This directly plays into the effects of our literacies, and how we
were educated and influenced by them. Religion and education are used as
tools to dictate behavior. Used positively or not, these literacies are the basis
of how a lot of this hatred began, and will remain the thing that is keeping
this feud alive. In the end, you cant help to believe what you were raised to
think is right. I still might not understand why exactly extremists do what
they do, but I understand there is opportunity in taking the first steps to
dissolve this hate and brighten our future.

Annotated Bib
Stern, Jessica. Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants
Kill. New York: Ecco, 2003. Print.
This book is basically about all religious extremists. The author traveled
around the world and talked to extremists from all three of the major
religions, but the one I found to be the most interesting, obviously, was the
Islamic jihad writings. She talks about how terrorist organizations are formed

by religious extremists, who use religion as motivation and justification to

recruit the confused and unaffiliated people in their country.
This article helped me understand more about how the recruitment process
works for more than just Islamic extremists but all extremists as a whole. It
also went into beliefs and goals of these terrorist organizations, and gave
some insight into the future. I wish the book was mainly about Islamic
extremists but I still found the book to be very helpful.
I know this is a credible source because I found it in the UNCC data base that
we discussed in class.
Rapoport, David C, and Yonah Alexander. The Morality of Terrorism:
Religious and Secular Justifications. New York: Pergamon Press,
1982. Print.
This book, unlike some of the other sources, was written pre-9/11 so it
focused more on the history of extremists. The book is basically a group of
articles and journals that try to cover the moral aspect of terrorism with
religious justifications. It divides the book into three parts: secular, state, and
religion. The book hits a lot of solid points and gives good insight on the war
on terror.
Like I said above this is very helpful because a lot of other sources I found
were post 9/11, and focused a lot on current war on terror. That is what my
paper is on but it was really helpful to get some background on these
organizations and it was interesting to see how they were depicted before
America really started cracking down on it.
This source is credible because I found it in the UNCC data base.
Esposito, John L. Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
This book is about how after 9/11 the awareness of terrorism drastically
increased. When the extremists claimed the act was in the name of Islam,
people every where were shocked. They couldnt wrap their head around
why someone would kill so many people for their religion. This book also
covers the rise and fall of some of the organizations that use these
justifications.
This source was helpful because it went a lot into how 9/11 changed the
game when it came to major terrorist activity. It really but their way of
thinking into perspective, and really went into depth on their intentions. It
also broke down their organizations as a whole and discussed ranking
process. It talked about the effects on our country and what weve done to
prevent terroristic acts.

I know this is a credible source because I found it in the UNCC data base that
we discussed in class.
Jones, James W. Blood That Cries Out from the Earth: The
Psychology of Religious Terrorism. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2008. Print.
This book was really interesting because it actually got into the heads of
terrorists. This book is primarily on the psychology of extremists and how
their brains actually justify these acts. A common question that is asked is,
how can you feel good about killing people. This book goes deep into all
these aspects and uses a scientific way to explain why these people are
doing what they are.
This book is helpful because instead of religious justifications and explaining
it gives you cold hard facts. It uses science and proven methods to break
down step by step how these people actually believe what they are doing is
right. This is different from all my other sources and will really help me on
this project.
I know this is a credible source because I found it in the UNCC data base that
we discussed in class.
O'Kane, Rosemary H. T. Terrorism. Harlow, England: Pearson, 2012.
Print.
This book goes into how common stereotypes of terrorists arent necessarily
true. How you cant only think of terrorists as terrible acts justified by
religion. It goes into how a lot of this is brought on by their government. And
also strongly supported and funded by the government.
This was helpful because it gave a completely different view than I was
reading before. The other barely mentioned the involvement of the
government in the act. It went into financial stuff along with a lot of politics,
and gave me a lot of key information that I didnt have before.
I know this is a credible source because I found it in the UNCC data base that
we discussed in class.