Let's dispel the myth that poverty causes terrorism. It Doesn't!

Let's dispel the myth that poverty causes terrorism.

It Doesn't!

Google: "poverty does not cause terrorism"

Then read what you find.

http://www.google.com/m?q=poverty does not cause terrorism&client=ms-opera-mobile&channel=new

Got it?

Good!

 

How about "terrorism is a tactic and not a condition"? Having said that I agree that someone who says that poverty causes terrorism is simply wrong.

 

Currently i only read the link to The American Spectator and this is my reply to the views expressed

1- Quote "Yet no Zimbabwean national has been caught trying to blow up U.S. airliners. There’s a simple reason for that. Less than 1 percent of the population of Zimbabwe is Muslim" what does this sentence have to do with the connection between poverty and terrorism ? Zimbabwean's do not believe the US is out to get them, Zimbabweans do not have beliefs that lectures them to hate the US, and the absence of attempts on US airlines by Zimbabweans does not mean the absence of terrorists in their country.
2- Quote "Despite Zimbabwe’s crushing poverty, al Qaeda has almost no one to radicalize and recruit there. In Yemen, an almost entirely Muslim nation, al Qaeda’s pickings are easier" again no relevance to topic of poverty and terrorism because the writer is thinking terrorist = Muslim that's why he concludes zero terrorism due to the lack of Muslims in Zimbabwe, terrorism is not limited to Al Qaeda, other groups might have terror cells in Zimbabwe with completely different agenda that has nothing to do with the US or Islam.
3- The post on The American Spectator then goes on listing the terrorists on the 9-11 attacks saying non of them is poor, so what ? what about the others who are terrorizing else where and are so poor by any standards ? 13 rich terrorist on that list, what percentage is that ? 0.00001% ? in addition attacking the US takes intelligence, money and wits amongst other things, not so much for other targets, only those who had these qualities succeeded, the majority can not, take a sample of terrorist from another country and lets see the results.

My own family was tremendously poor during 1996-2003 i was aged 15 at the time, could not go to regular school, had no job, we rarely had a good meal, so what did i do ? i turned to religion, i read and read and read and believed every word as is, i know i could have been easily influenced during those times, luckily for me i was reading through my dad's collection of books which were mostly from mainstream authors, but what about the others? those who are picked up by the nut jobs ?

Poverty + Ignorance = Terror

 

Bullying, theft and murder by imperialists tend to be the main causes of 'terrorism', as everyone knows.

 

My thought exactly. It's a method of warfare and why Bush proclaiming a "war on terror" is about as astute as proclaiming a "war on machine guns".

 

What about in the Netherlands? Are the Dutch bullies, thieves and murderers, too?

Yeah?

Well, I guess that would explain why Muslims have stopped immigrating to the Netherlands. Oh, they haven't stopped?

I should think they wouldn't since there seems a large clueless and docile native population to infiltrate.

Mind you they aren't all docile and stupid. Theo Van Gogh made a film exposing some aspects of Islam that many Muslims felt should have remained hush-hush.

So that explains why Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a radical Muslim. Oh, he was killed because he blasphemed? And the murderer wasn't technically a terrorist?

What do you call carving a message into Van Gogh's chest but an act designed to produce a chilling effect on anyone who might even think of expressing a negative opinion of Islam, the Prophet or Allah.

And ladies and gents, that is terrorism.

 

I believe W was trying to prevent patriotic Americans from attacking Muslims on sight on our streets. He also wanted to avoid inciting hot headed Muslims who were 'chomping at the bit' waiting for W to say we were at war with Islam or Muslims. Yet, he couldn't limit the war to just capturing/killing OBL. So, he artfully decided on war on terror. It's as specific as he could get and as vague as he could be and still get the point across succinctly as to what and who we were getting after and implied what our goal was.

Many things in American life have had to change to keep up with modernity. Not everything can, will or must change but many things have, should and will. The traditional concept of naming the enemy was turned upside down when a group of RELIGIOUS TERRORISTS committed an act of war on a sovereign state.

That change was thrust upon us and W responded by introducing a whole new paradigm.

A war on an act. A war against evil doers.

What would have been better???

 

Yeah? So where are all the NON MUSLIM terrorists?

After all, we certainly must have bullied, stolen from and murdered other peoples besides Muslims, right?

 

Sometimes you just shouldn't ask a question.

Terrorism has a long history. For some non-Muslim terrorism may I refer you to the Stern Gang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehi_(group)

 

Yeah but sure terrorism causes intellectual poverty .

 

I don't know about any serious terrorism in the Netherlands - just the assassination of one Nazi that I know of, very well deserved.

 

Ahhh! You can now forget about ever denying you condoned the murder of someone just because they violated your religious belief. Sounds little different than what convicted Muslim terrorists (not to mention between 20% -30% of all British Muslims who say they approved of violent terrorist acts in some instances) say when questioned about their victims. Called a minor league artist a Nazi because he made an unflattering depiction of Islam and showed an artistic representation of the ugly side of Islamic practices in a film.

Noted.

 

Many terrorists leaders aren't poor, and they never were... they only use poor people to brainwash them into thinking that violence is necessary to change their destinies.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Bouyeri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstad_Network

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempt_at_kidnapping_Juliana_of_the_Netherlands

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Anti-Racist_Action

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director)

Just because you have not heard of it, that does not mean it has not happened.

 

You are a disgrace to the great nation of Britain. So people don't deserve a trial because of their political views any more?

 

Quite a few are actually from fairly wealthy families. OBL comes to mind, as was Abu Nidal.

 

When did Nazis ever deserve anything but a de-nazification tribunal? They have resigned from the human race and forfeited all rights, surely?

 

(No 'S' in 'Mill', by the way. And he had a great deal more sense than to go near any wars himself, please note). There are many things I haven't heard about, but serious developments in the Netherlands are not among them.

 

you'll need to define terrorism then...many americans would define Che Guevara as a terrorist (others say revolutionary) there's not much doubt poverty was his inspiration even though he didn't come from an impoverished background...

 

ya and you'll say that about my signature too but it was a cut'n paste and I'm too lazy to go in and change it...

 

well there was that train hijacking many years back...but I think if you go through the years you can find terror acts in most countries but they're long forgotten, muslim terrorism is just the soupe du jour...

 

No - I'll just ask you where he said it.

 

I despise his legions of air headed chic-ophants® who wear his image on their shirts as a sign of defiance and cool. He was a communist revolutionary with blood on his hands like the Muslim Nigerian who murdered the Brit soldier.

However, he belongs to a different discussion than this one.

 

I've thought about this a lot and I think there are several reasons why people resort to Islamic terrorism, much like there are many reasons why a person may choose to join the military.

1. Living conditions. Poverty leads to real or perceived inequality. This is one of Hezbollahs greatest recruiting tools. They most certainly target Arabs and Palestinians who are disenfranchised with little or no economic opportunities. I had a counterterrorism professor who would put sex in this category too. If you're a young horny male and sex is taboo, but martyrdom is encouraged and leads to 72 virgins why would one not do it?

2. Presence of western armies. Islamic terrorist organizations thrive when the US, UK, France or whoever are seen as "occupying" land in the abode of Islam. Looking at it through the flip side there are no "Islamic armies" occupying "Christian" lands. Which is a fairly recent historical revelation.

3. Israel. I'm not really sure if I even have to explain how this leads to Islamic terrorism.

4. Islamic empire. Related to the second point but many Islamic terrorist organizations simply want to kill non-believers, as they believe God is on their side and will intervene directly on their behalf.

5. Natural resources. Many types of Islamic terrorists in Africa are targeting western oil and fishing companies for their pilferage of "Islamic resources".

Most terrorists will fall into at least one of the aforementioned categories. You're welcome, all!

 

Really?

Have you never heard of such groups as "The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord" (CSA), the "Army of God" (AOG), the "Phineas Priesthood", the "Ku Klux Klan", the "Jewish Defense League", or the "Earth Liberation Front"?

Have you never heard of such individuals as Ted Kazinski, Eric Robert Rudolph or Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols?