Small Wars Journal

What is Terrorism? The Controversial Label that is Used and Abused Around the World

Sun, 07/29/2018 - 3:46pm

What is Terrorism? The Controversial Label that is Used and Abused Around the World by Tracey Shelton - ABC (Australia)

The word terrorism may conjure images of a train ripped apart by an explosion as innocent families lie bleeding, the destruction of a suicide bomb in a busy mall, or frightened passengers in a plane hijacking.

Key Points

  • Terrorist attacks committed by Muslims receive 357 per cent more media attention than those committed by non-Muslims
  • Less than one per cent of deaths from terrorism occur in developed countries
  • In a ranking of countries most impacted by terrorism, Australia comes in at number 65

But how many of us picture a scene outside of the developed world?

On December 16, 2014, as Australians watched in horror the events of the Lindt Café siege in Sydney that claimed two innocent lives, an attack on a school in Pakistan left 145 dead — 132 of them children.

The same day in Yemen, 25 were killed in a double bombing that hit civilian targets that included a school bus. The day before the Sydney siege, 185 were kidnapped, including entire families, from a village in Nigeria.

Since the year 2000, more than 99 per cent of global deaths from terrorism occurred in impoverished countries already dealing with conflict or political terror, according to the US-based Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

In the GTI's ranking of countries most impacted by terrorism, the US came in at number 32 and Australia 65.

So what is terrorism and, if it predominantly occurs elsewhere, how have so many of us come to associate the word with an Islamic attack on the West? …

Read on.