What is Terrorism?

What is Terrorism?

“Terrorism has no nationality or religion” -Vladimir Putin. No matter what your race, ethnicity, culture, background, or gender is, terrorism is not linked to just a single one of these things things. Is this really true? Is this really what we follow? If so, then as we discussed in our last blog post, why is all actual “terrorism” only deemed as terrorism largely when it is carried out by a Muslim? Or when someone of color is the perpetrator in the act? Why has there never been a white, male, U.S. citizen convicted and called a terrorist for murdering people in cold blood? We see this in the most recent mass shootings that have happened in the U.S. The Texas shooting that recently happened was not terrorism based on the definition because it was said to not have been politically motivated. However we will argue that this was in fact an act of terrorism.

Background Information

On November 5th, 26 year old Devin Kelley opened fire during a church service in a rural area outside of San Antonio, Texas. This was pronounced the deadliest mass shooting in Texas. Twenty six were shot dead, twenty were wounded, and ten critically injured. He served in the air force but later he had been court martialed for domestic violence (Mele, C, 2017). How was he able to have two handguns along with an AR 15 semiautomatic assault rifle? We all have many questions about the lenient gun laws in America. It does not make sense as to why there are not stricter gun control laws. This incident could have been most likely avoided. When you have weapons to kill people, it is an incentive to do so if you are not stable.

According to USA Today news reporter Martin, "This was not racially motivated, it wasn't over religious beliefs." Instead, reports say the motive could have arised from a domestic situation involving his mother in law (Dorell, O., & Diebel, M., 2017). Was this an act of terrorism? Many would argue it was, but according to the definition of terrorism, it is not. Instead this was blamed on “mental illness”. It seems like all white males who commit these acts of violence are let off by people calling it a mental illness. The former airman had displayed a pattern of violent and disturbing behavior according to news officials. Kelley had a past of “domestic violence, sexual assault accusations, animal cruelty, escape from a mental health facility, threatening text messages, and an obsession with guns and mass shootings according to CNN (Grinberg, E., & McLaughlin, 2017).

Ignoring the Truth

                In the past one and a half months, two large-scale massacres have been carried out and almost as instantly as they came into the news, they also disappeared? Why is this? Because the perpetrators of both the events were white men. It's horrifying to think of the acts that can be deemed explainable due to a 'history of mental illness' when carried out by a white man, but God forbid someone that may even have far away ties with Islam, or any other racially marginalised group in the United States, because we would never hear the end of it. Not only would the topic be discussed in the news over and over again for months to come, but you will never hear the perpetrator referred to as a 'mentally sick man'. No. Terrorist, yeah that's all he was. Where as what is worse is the fact that is also discussed in a CNN article that even though the Texas massacre wiped out four percent of the total population of a town, it is not being referred to as an act of terrorism. Christopher Combs who is leading the investigation in this case said that "at this time we don't have a terrorism investigation open." (Criss, D. 2017, November 06) To reiterate, this is once again because according to the U.S. regulations, due to the absence of a political motivation in this case, it can not be called terrorism. However, did this man not wipe out a percentage of the town’s population? Should that not be reason enough to deem this event as a terrorist event? The word ‘terror’ is defined as ‘extreme fear’. Then why does the word ‘terrorism’, which is derived from the base word have such a specific meaning that has been benefitting one classification of Americans since 2001? Comparing the Orlando shooting of 2016 with these two recent shootings really puts the second-class status of every non-white individual in the U.S. into perspective. Not to just think of these shootings from a critical point of view about how the gunmen are treated or referred to as, all three events were acts of immoral brutality and may all the souls of the victims rest in peace. However, we need to talk about this privilege that one race visibly has over all others, the kind that allows a murderer to die, taking twenty six innocent lives with him and to have the topic closed for discussion there.  In the words of our President, Donald Trump "This isn't a guns situation. This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It's a very, very sad event. A very, very sad event, but that's the way I view it." (Cillizza, C. 2017, November 06) To have him forgotten as a mentally sick man, as opposed to being remembered as a killer is a grave mistake.

Analyzing

In class we learned that terrorism is “premeditated, politically motivated, is violent, is against noncombatant targets, performed by sub-national groups or clandestine agents and usually intended to influence an audience” (International Politics Class Lecture, 2017). However, this particular act of violence that happened in Texas was not politically motivated, but we can still classify this as terrorism. According to the definition given by Texas Law, however, it states that an act can be described as terrorism if the action “place(s) any person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury” which the Texas massacre definitely did. The Texas law also says that anything that “place(s) the public or a substantial group of the public in fear of serious bodily injury” is also a terrorist threat. Texas law also states that an act that “prevent(s) or interrupt(s) the occupation or use of a building; room; place of assembly; place to which the public has access; place of employment or occupation; aircraft, automobile, or other form of conveyance; or other public place”  ( Harriot, M., 2017) can also be labelled as an act of terror. The massacre met all these definitions therefore just because it wasn’t politically motivated, does not mean that it wasn’t terrorism.

Whatever may be the definition, the fact is that a madman terrorized innocent people on that horrifying day by opening fire without any apparent reason, which in my opinion is an even worse scenario. Terrorizing a community without any reason is still terrorism. That day, this white man created a state of extreme fear and distress among a group of people, causing mass harm and mayhem. That, is certainly terror. The fact is that he killed and injured innocent people, possibly with a reason, but that aspect was ignored because no matter how much we deny it, there is a racial bias ever-present in the mindset of the American people and most of the western world. If a Muslim man had committed such a horrifying deed, the public and media reaction would have been completely different and the lay man would have definitely categorised this as a terror attack, however, as the culprit was a white person, this attack was not broadcasted as terrorism, but just labeled as a man with mental issues. “If Kelly wasn't White, no one would have called him mentally ill” (Harriot, M. ,2017).

Conclusion

What is technically defined as terrorism fails to see that even if it was not politically motivated, it is not considered terrorism, when it really should be. This is a huge problem because for one, certain individuals of certain race are let off the hook and had a past of “mental-illnesses”. Lets face it, if this was really the case, we could blame everything on mental-illness. We should re-evaluate what we consider to be terrorism. Mental illness is a real problem, but so is the killing off of innocent people, without any logical reason at all. Not calling it terrorism due to one aspect is almost as bad as how ethnic cleansing is not recognized as a crime today. Should the world not be different Post-Cold war? Or should it just be as unfair, oppressive and openly discriminatory? These are some questions to consider when deciding whether or not to call such incidents which are not ‘politically motivated’ as terrorism or not.

References

Cillizza, C. (2017, November 06). Why mass shootings don't change the politics of gun control, in 1 Trump quote. Retrieved November 20, 2017, from      http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/06/politics/trump-guns-texas-shooting/index.html

Criss, D. (2017, November 06). The New York attack was labeled 'terrorism.' The Texas shooting wasn't. Here's why. Retrieved November 20, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/06/us/what-is-terrorism-definition-trnd/index.html

Dorell, O., & Diebel, M. (2017, November 06). Youngest Texas shooting victim just 18months old:     What we know now. Retrieved November 16, 2017, fromhttps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/11/06/sutherland-springs-church-shooting-what-we-know-now/834997001/

Grinberg, E., & McLaughlin, E. C. (2017, November 08). Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley's troubled past emerges. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/06/us/devin-kelley-texas-church-shooting-suspect/index.html

Harriot, M. (2017, November 07). If the Texas Church Shooter Wasn't White. Retrieved November    21, 2017, from https://www.theroot.com/if-the-texaschurch-shooter-wasnt-white-1820203320

Mele, C. (2017, November 05). Church Shooting in Texas Leaves Multiple Dead andWounded. Retrieved November 16, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/us/church-shooting-texas.htm