The Four Evolutionary Phases of Terrorism

If there is one simple fact that we learned throughout the last few years which witnessed the increase in the frequency and devastating impact of terrorism, it is the fact that terrorism cannot be faught by security measures and relying on military and intelligence actions. In our Arab and Muslim society terrorism should be faught at the upstream level which is the mindset. This is easier said than done. How can be terrorism prevented by cultural and social factors?

Every terrorist act is unique in its planning and implementation despite having the collective thread of targeting innocent people for political or religious reasons. However, there are four distinct phases in the evolution of any terrorist act.

The first phase is how to instigate a terrorism act. This is when terrorism is born in the mind. This can be caused by any, or a combination of two ways. The first is a programmed scheme of inserting hatred, anger and fundamentalism in the minds of people, especially youth. This is how a cleric, a religious idol or a head of an organization sends hatred messages through various media that will turn people into bombs ready to explode. The hatred can be inserted using legitimate arguments especially the suffering of Arabs and Muslims under tyranny and/or occupation.

The second way to instigate a terrorist act is a spontaneous and passive process of changing ideas and convictions based on anger and frustration that can be derived from watching the miserable state of the Muslim world. The violence against muslims and sufferings caused by Israel and the USA in particular can turn ordinary people into extremists ready to engage in terrorism. I am certain that the Israeli aggression against Lebanon last month has created thousands of "ready-made" extremists that can be exploited by terrorist organizations. In this phase the only thing that can prevent terrorism is to break-down terrorism cells and provide a fundamental change in the political circumstances in the Muslim World towards justice for Arabs and Muslims especialy in Palestine.

The second phase of terrorism is Planning for the terrorist act. This is the main stage in which most of terrorist cells are caught and discovered by intelligence action. Planning can be rapid or can be slow. It can be technically complicated or as simple as having a gun and shooting at foreigners in Amman. Planning can be prevented only by intelligence action since at this stage the majority of people involved in the terrorism have their mindsets organized for the sake of terrorism and it is difficult for a "cultural and social" action to stop that. However the newly endorsed "Preventing terrorism law" in Jordan focuses on the need to inform security forces of any planned terrorist attacks. I doubt that ordinary citizens will know about such planning unless a mistake is committted by terrorists. Most of the interruption of planning occures when inteligence agents penetrate terrorist cells.

The third phase is implementation of the terrorist act. This is a very critical stage and difficult to anticipate or prevent. Each terrorist act is a unique one and terrorists are developing new and more barbaric ways to implement their crimes on daily basis. It is almost impossible to stop terrorism upon implementation and the focus should be on the first two steps.

The fourth phase is often neglected by politicians and analysts, which is justifying terrorism acts. Justification and explanation of terrorist acts always follows any crime, and the argument used is that of the sufferings of Arabs and Muslims as a cause of terrorism. This is technically true but ethically wrong. Any justification or even explanantion of a terrorist act based on identifying sufferings and traumas of the community to which the terrorists belong is a clear invitation for another terrorist act.

There should be no deviation from the very simple principle of the value of each human life and the complete refusal of any acts that kill innocent people. If we Arabs justify the act of our terrorists by the suffering of our brothers in palestine and Iraq, then G.W Bush can justify the barbaric wars against the Arab people in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and all other Arabs by the sufferings of the 9/11 victims which is also a real suffering that resembles those of Palestinians and Lebanese.

No political or religious argumnet should be used to justify terrorism. It is a double crime to do this. First it gives "credibility" to a crime, insults the victims of that crime and even can facilitate another terrorist act.

Security cannot prevent justification of terrorism but the cultural and social and also the religious principles of the values of human lives should prevail to stop this "terrorism-wash" process and this a big dificit in the mindsets of the Arab and muslim societies and political arenas where justification seems to be the main reaction to any crime committed in the name of Islam or our justified Arab causes.