YouTube carries a very interesting Al-Jazeera English Service examination of the nature of terrorism through interviews with two internationally-renowned experts: Dr Jerrold Post (author of The Mind of a Terrorist) and Dr Louise Richardson (author of What Terrorists Want).
The link can be found at:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dTM_DrGlux0
Some of the difficult points addressed by the two experts were:
Defining Terrorism
Richardson: Terrorism is the deliberate targeting of civilians.
Post: The need to identify both the “target of violence” and the “target of influence”, which may be different.
Post: Terrorism should be a dispassionate term that refers to a particular type of tactic. We should be able to use the word terrorism even when we agree with the cause, if it describes the action, eg targeting civilians.
Terrorism and Human Rights
Post: The need to be careful how terrorism is dealt with so that we do not degrade the very human rights we are trying to protect.
Negotiating with the Adversary
Richardson: Advocates discreet negotiations with Al-Qaeda (Ayman Al-Zawahiri).
Suicide or Martyrdom?
Post: Al Qaeda strongly rejects that the notion that suicide and martyrdom are the same, asserting that suicide is weak, martyrdom is great.
Terrorist Profile
Richardson: Difficult to produce a terrorist profile since terrorists are essentially psychologically normal people who have chosen to pursue a cause in a violent manner.
Support
Post: There are 5,000 websites worldwide that promote the agenda of Al Qaeda.
