AT8- A Study of Terrorism

As we begin AT8, a study of Terrorism, it is important to understand what about this topic makes it worthy of our energy, our lessons, and our research.

The history of terrorism began long before the attacks of 9/11, but it was following this day that terrorism became one of the most talked about topics in school classrooms, office buildings, government policy documents, and family get-togethers...so much so that the first ten years of the 21st century have been marked as the "Decade of Terrorism".

There are many different definitions of the word "terrorism", but they all seem to share one common meaning:
1. the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear;

2. the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion;

3. the deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda; Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.


Terrorism is an emotional topic-- both because experiences of terrorist acts arouse tremendous feelings, and because those who see terrorists as justified often have strong feelings concerning the rightness of the use of violence.

Our main challenge in understanding Terrorism is both acknowledging the moral outrage at terrorist acts, while at the same time trying to understand the rationale behind the terrorism. Or should we? Is it our responsibility to understand the rationale? Watch this clip from the film "Crossing Over" and see what you think about "hearing" the reasons for terrorist acts....