중동테러리즘과 이슬람원리주의의 상관관계

A Study on the Correlation between Middle Eastern Terrorism and Islamic Radicalism

&nbsp;&nbsp;The tragedy of September 11, 2001, brought some hard questions about a connection between Middle Eastern Terrorism, Global Terrorism, and the Muslim World. There is a misunderstanding about Islam as a hostile religion, and confusing Muslims as a hater of the West, and Islamic fundamentalism with terrorism.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;After the fall of the Soviet Union and Saddam Hussein&quot;s call for Jihad against the West in the Gulf war, there was a growing propensity among government officials, political pundits, and the media to see a new "evil empire" replacing the communist threat.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;When it comes to the definition of terrorism however, the West hold different views from those in the Third World. For example, the west view bloodshed, destruction and hijacking committed by PLO as terrorism while the Third World and most of Muslim countries regard those activities as a part of the Jihad to liberate their people, criticizing the Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people as State terrorism. Against this backdrop, there is a need to establish a clear definition of terrorism and consider related questions so that we can come up with effective measures to put a curb on terrorism.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;As for the definition of terrorism, academics and analysts diverge in their opinions. No one has been able to produce a universally agreed definition.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Islamic fundamentalism is primarily used in the Western world to describe Islamist groups. It describes the beliefs of traditional Muslims; that they should restrict themselves to literal and conservative interpretations of their sacred texts, the Qur&quot;an and Hadith.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Islamic fundamental movement has become a political movement, and some groups turned radical by construing the concept of Jihad in its own way. Some Islamist terrorist groups, notably Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaeda have employed suicide bombers as a weapon of choice. Their use of suicide bombers occurs in spite of Islamic strictures against suicide and condemnation of suicide bombings by Muslim religious authorities not affiliated with terrorist groups.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The terms "Islamic terrorism" and "Islamist terrorism" are used interchangeably, but this use is contentious; many Muslims do not accept that attacks on civilians can ever be justified by Islam. Although "Islamic terrorism" is commonly used by Western media to describe terror activities of a wide variety of groups, "Islamist terrorism" is perhaps a more accurate term that respects the sensitivities of Muslims in that it refers specifically to the ideology of Islamism and not to the entire religion of Islam.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Jihad (Arabic: ?? ?? jih?d) is an Islamic term, from the Arabic root j-h-d (to exert utmost effort, to strive, struggle), which connotes a wide range of meanings: anything from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to a political or military struggle to further the Islamic cause. The meaning of "Islamic cause" is, of course, open to interpretation. Mainstream Muslims consider jihad to be the most misunderstood aspect of their religion by non-Muslims. The legitimacy of the goals and methods used by the various Islamic movements who adopt the terminology of jihad is often brought into question, usually by moderate and liberal Muslims.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The term is frequently mistranslated into English as a "holy war"; however, the concept of jihad encompasses more than just warfare, and a more accurate translation probably would be "holy struggle", "righteous struggle" or "holy endeavour". The denotation is of a challenging or difficult, (frequently)opposed effort, made either in accomplishment or resistance. A person who engages in any form of jihad is called a "mujahid", meaning "striver" or "struggler". This term is most often used to mean a person who engages in fighting, but, for example a Muslim struggling to memorize the Qur&quot;an is called a muja