Introduction
Terrorism is a complex social, religious, and political issue that has a long history. The regularly calculated and systematic use of illegal violence or threatening to use illegal violence to incite fear and intimidation with the aim of forcing the governments and communities to pursue political, religious or ideological goals have been a common practice in history. In the view of Ayatollah Khamenei, modern terrorism has replaced traditional and classical terrorism in today’s world. Modern terrorism is a function of the technologies of modern societies. Terrorism is regarded not as a creed but as a strategy, method or tactic of struggle. This article, while examining the difference between classical terrorism and modern one, examines the context, causes, and purposes of modern terrorism from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei. This paper hypothesizes that, from his perspective, modern terrorism, unlike classical terrorism which was an act of revenge, is a proxy war using unconventional methods and weapons with complex political, historical, religious, and ethnic goals and contexts.
The Framework of the Study
The Concept of Terrorism
Terrorism is derived from the word terror. The word “terror” is derived from the Latin word terrier, which means “to frighten,” or cause “panic.” Terrorism is a pejorative term, used for inhumane acts. Terrorism is worse than war, torture and murder and denotes the meanings of hatred, negativity, and derogatory. Simon identifies more than two hundred distinct definitions of terrorism. Different definitions of terrorism show disagreement over the definition of this term. What is agreed is that violence is used to intimidate the masses for political, religious, and ideological reasons. Walter Laqueur defines terrorism as using or threatening to use violence, methods of struggle, or strategies to achieve goals. The word evil may be a good equivalent for terrorism in religious literature. An evil person is one in whom evil forces of anger and lust have been flourished negatively, and hence he uses bullying, killing and other acts of abuse to achieve his goals.
According to Ayatollah Khamenei, terrorism is making terror, frightening, committing murder and spreading insecurity among innocent individuals or a group of people. Therefore, using violence or threatening to use violence, committing murder and spreading insecurity against a human being at any time and place (female, male, children or adults), and the innocence of the person are the main elements involved in the definition and understanding the nature of terrorism.
Modern Terrorism
Traditional terrorism usually has obvious political reasons. The new terrorism has many causes which are not clear. The destruction of civil society and the elimination of many people are among the characteristics of new terrorism. The paradigm of new terrorism has been changed. The dominant aspect of old terrorism was being secular and non-ideological. The dominant aspect of the new terrorism is being religious and ideological.
The religious radicals in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and other material and immaterial religions, are the worst types of terrorists today. Religious terrorist organizations are on the rise. Before the 1990s, only 3% of terrorist organizations were religious; after the 1990s, more than 43% were religious terrorist organizations. Terrorist organizations have increased by 40% in the last 15 years.
In 2002, Boaz Ganor distinguished two types of classical and modern terrorism. The main characteristic of classical terrorism was using violence directly, destruction, and the use of ordinary weapons to kill people. Modern terrorism uses chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons with an ideological approach. Using weapons of mass destruction was common in this phase. The Salafist-Takfiri Muslim terrorists, Hindu Sikhs, Christian terrorism which is emerged by a racist interpretation of the Bible, and the Jewish-Zionist terrorists have spread all over the world.
Extreme currents kill the masses brutally, cut the heads of people, and rape their women. These acts are done in the name of religion (Khamenei, 2013/10/14). Using any kind of weapon justifies the assassination with an ideological justification. Terrorism in this phase is a war against everyone and culture. According to Ayatollah Khamenei, terrorism can be seen everywhere. Modern terrorism is transnational. Today’s catastrophes that occurred in the Islamic world in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Islamic countries, as well as the international pressure on Iran, are the result of modern transnational terrorism.
The Concept of Modern Jahiliyyah (Ignorance)
The basis of ignorance (jahiliyyah) is anger, lust, the denial of the facts and the struggle against human rights and the path to human happiness. Modern ignorance is in contrast to traditional ignorance. By using knowledge, advanced technology, nuclear weapons, and all sorts of destructive weapons the modern ignorance has unprecedentedly jeopardized human life (Khamenei, 2010/07/10), whereas traditional terrorism only puts the lives of a group of people at risk.
Modern terrorism, as an act based on anger and a modern inclination towards ignorance, justifies the mass production of weapons of mass destruction on behalf of conventional warfare. There would be no sense in the existence of a variety of weapons of mass destruction without a market for sale, spreading war and insecurity in different regions, the confrontation between humans as well as the governments. Lust, anger, and destructive atrocities are two of the most essential elements of ignorance (Khamenei, 2015/05/16) and denial of the truth and confronting human rights are two negative aspects of modern terrorism. In a society whose basis is anger and lust, bullying, beatings, killing, and all kinds of crimes will be typical. Creating intimidation, terror, murder, destruction and insecurity at various levels, as a social and political issue, are the results of organizational and governmental lust and anger. Lust and anger are two important foundations of the four foundations of ethics, both of which have positive and negative aspects. Their positive aspects are the two most important features of rational society and their negative aspects form the basis of evil traits. The common aspect of traditional and modern ignorant society is the negative aspect of anger and lust. The material, social, political, moral, and sexual lusts as well as the anger are the sources of cruelty.
Ignorance based on the negative aspect of lust and anger not only constantly is reproduced at different times, but also it becomes more complex and subtle. The unbridled lust, atrocity, and inhumane killing in modern society have not only diminished but also have been widened and softened. The current ignorance is equipped with the weapon of science and is much more dangerous than before. The current conditions of Islamic countries, insecurity, killings and the dominance of terrorist groups in the countries of the region are examples of modern ignorance resulting from the plots of extremist groups and governments, and above all dictators and arrogant powers (Khamenei, 2015/05/16).
From the point of view of ignorance, which is based on anger (cruelty) and lust (desire), the vices will be the most important terrorist tool. Defamation, accusations and lies against others are the obvious examples of terrorist acts. The last degree of animality is lust and anger.
The main supporters of terrorist groups such as Daesh are some governments that claim to fight terrorism. But in practice, they do something else (Khamenei, 2015/05/16). The dictatorial and arrogant approach that is reflected in making excessive demands and putting on the mask of righteousness is the most important factor that justifies the act of terrorism at the individual, organizational, and governmental levels.
The two main elements of a rational society are justice and security. Health and justice are at the core of all human demands (Khamenei, 2010/07/10). Direct and proxy wars (terrorism) are both creating insecurity against justice, peace and mental, social, political and international health. Therefore, combating terrorism and war has always been a major concern for societies, and even the governments that support terrorism find themselves on the verge of fighting terrorism. To have a secure and just society is the wish of all men, but in practice, they become the referent of the verse of the Holy Quran “Oh you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do?” (Quran, 61:2). This is modern ignorance. The claim of combating terrorism while supporting the most dangerous terrorist groups (arms, financial, and political support, efforts to create terrorism and helping the terrorists and putting pressuring against their enemies) is a sign of modern ignorance and modern terrorism.
Imam Khomeini divides each faculty of anger and lust into three levels of extravagance, moderation and negligence. Only the point of moderation follows the rules of Shari’ah and rationality. Courage is the focal point and the moderation point of anger. Hence, defence is a legitimate thing.
When the faculty of anger reaches its extremes point it would turn into rudeness, like a rabid dog that attacks everything, and when it is neglected it would turn into “timidity” that results in humiliation and lack of zeal.
The faculty of lust is the source of all desires. Its moderation point is “chastity.” In that point, the faculty of lust avoids having an illegitimate desire for the rights and honour of others and fantasies. Also, its negligence is called “respite” and its extremes point is greed, rudeness, hypocrisy, jealousy and the like. The extremes and neglect point of anger and lust is ignorance. The extremes points of anger and lust are a dangerous source of terrorism. In this study, ignorance is placed against reason, not science. According to what was mentioned, the most important indicators of ignorance in Ayatollah Khamenei’s view can be summarized as follows:
1) Anger and violence;
2) Egos, making excessive demands and personal interpretations;
3) Standing up against the truth;
4) Denying the Truth and distorting the facts.
With this approach in mind, this article seeks to answer two fundamental questions: What are the aims and areas of producing and expanding terrorism? Does terrorism have a definite essence or is it an ideology? This article examines the answers to these questions by citing the remarks of Ayatollah Khamenei along with other works regarding the issue of terrorism. The paper assumes that terrorism, as a complex social and political phenomenon is a rational act and one of the characteristics of an ignorant society. Different types of terrorism which seek ignorance are relativistic actions and ideological, while from the point of view of rationality and right-centeredness, they are essentialist actions.
State and Organizational Terrorism
Terrorism can be governmental or nongovernmental (individual or organizational), domestic or international. Of course, terrorism does not take place without the support of a state. Even nongovernmental terrorism is somehow rooted in the government. Is there any terrorist group that does not receive support from a government? Among the types of terrorism, state terrorism is the most complex, unpredictable, subtle, and precise type of terrorism. The acts of one person or organization are predictable and controllable.
State terrorism is of two types:
Domestic State Terrorism
The government tries to force the citizens to follow the demands of the state by enforcing intimidating policies among them. Some thinkers call this type of terrorism, the Red terrorism or Terrorism from above in contrast to the Terrorism from below or White terrorism which is applied to individual and citizen terrorism conducted against the government. At times, governments try to oust their opponents from power with the accusation of involving in terrorism, as Robert Mugabe did in Zimbabwe.
International Terrorism
It is the interference of a state or government in the internal affairs of a country by creating intimidation, killing and destruction in order to influence, weaken and overthrow it. One of the examples of state terrorism in recent decades is the torture, killing and intimidation of the Palestinian people by the Israeli regime and the supports it is received from the arrogant powers of the world as well as the distortion of reality by some governments (Khamenei, 1991/10/19). The racist nature of the Zionist regime demands that all nations and states be influenced by it, thus the ideology of racial superiority would authorize carrying out any terrorist operation, torture, rape, violence, destruction, assault and mass destruction. Menachem Begin, a former prime minister of Israel, gives a general command: “Be my brother, otherwise I will kill you.” The racist ideology and Zionism, require that such a notion find meaning among the Jewish people and the people who are not among the Jewish will never be regarded as the same as the Jewish so that to be their brothers thereby they must be obedient because otherwise they are seen as enemies (Quran, 2:120).
State terrorism whether the direct one (conducting terrorist acts by a government against another one) or indirect one (financial, political, intellectual support of a state from terrorism), is a proxy war. The United States government supports international terrorism and state terrorism of the Zionist regime (Khamenei, 2014/02/17). State terrorism pursues the goals which conventional warfare seeks to achieve them paying a big price both at the domestic and international levels. In any case, the main victims of terrorism are innocent people and citizens (Khamenei, 1992/02/19). The bomb plantings, killing thousands of innocent civilians with mass destruction weapons, using all kinds of violent behaviour and kidnapping are government-sponsored terrorist acts (Khamenei, 2010/07/10).
It is an all-out war with a new nature. The tools of terrorism are the tools of extreme anger and lust.
In addition to state terrorism, many terrorist organizations have been formed throughout the world with different purposes and bases. Many terrorist organizations have been formed in the world, including Haganah, Hashomer, Mossad, Irgun, Palmach and Stern in Israel, Boko Haram in Nigeria, Daesh in Syria, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and the Taliban in Afghanistan. These organizations have grown and multiplied with the help of big governments. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, despite their ideological differences with the Western bloc, in practice has been supported by the United States and Western and Eastern countries.
For a terrorist, either a governmental or an organizational one, it doesn’t matter who gets assassinated. From the butcher to the president... they all may be assassinated. Because the purpose of assassination is to create intimidation, despair, seize power, and overthrow the government. These assassinations are mostly committed under the pretext of proving the government’s inability to support and secure citizens and create psychological, social and political shocks.
Domestic and International Terrorism
Terrorism may be domestic or international. Domestic terrorism is the case when the agents and victims of assassinations will be within a country and its consequences are confined only to that country. International terrorism has an international nature. Its agents and victims are of different nationalities. Terrorists do not abide by the rules of the country in which they conduct a terrorist act. The planning of the assassins is separate from its location. The assassination team is backed by third parties. After the operation, the third-party governments provide a refuge for the terrorists. Today, state and non-governmental, domestic and international terrorism become complicated in terms of methods, goals, contexts and fundamentals.
Ayatollah Khamenei has greatly emphasized state and international terrorism as well as modern terrorism. This does not denote that individual, organizational, internal and traditional terrorism should be ignored, rather it means that the first category has become less important or that it has somehow rooted in the second category.
The Essence-Oriented and Ideological Terrorism
Some governments consider their interests as the “international law”, their lies as the reality, their cruelty as justice-seeking and in return, any true statement that exposes their deception as a lie, and every rightful claim as rebellion (Khamenei, 2012/08/30).
This statement demonstrates that Ayatollah Khamenei does not accept dualism regarding terrorism and its ideology; rather he believes that the concepts including terrorism the essence is one. The idea of terrorism being good or bad is the result of an ideological view of terrorism. Essence-oriented terrorism should have the same interpretation everywhere. Ideological terrorism will have different interpretations. For an individual or a government, an act at a particular place and time may be considered an assassination whereas others may not have such a view.
Terrorism has both good and bad ideology and essence-oriented terrorism is a single reality although the writer or speaker does not talk about it. Essence-oriented terrorism is condemned whether it is pursued by individuals or governments. It depends on who conducts the act of ideological terrorism and who will be subjected to it.
From the perspective of essence-oriented terrorism, terror is not divided into human and inhuman rather it is always inhumane. Terrorist is not divided into the oppressed and the oppressor and the weak and the strong because it is always an act of cruelty. Terror is not divided into religious and non-religious, it is always condemned. Terror is not divided into profitable and expedient. There will be no benefit to allowing the assassination. Humans are not divided into first, second and third-class citizens. Killing a second and third-class human is either not considered an assassination at all or it is seen as a sacred and good terror. Human lives are not divided into valuable and invaluable. Hence, one cannot say that human lives are invaluable in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and Latin America and valuable in the United States and Western Europe. Security is not divided into important and unimportant. The United States and Europe’s security is important and the security of the rest of the communities is not! Torture is not good or bad. It cannot be said that, for some, torture and terror are permissible and torture by others is considered as violating human rights.
One of the ideological effects of seeing terrorism is distorting the facts; Countries that see and recognize terror but hide and deny the truth (Khamenei, 1994/07/20).
Distorting the facts is worse than terrorism (Khamenei, 2001/08/01). Showing the oppressor as the oppressed is caused by the personal interpretation of the world’s issues which is an indicator of ignorance. Lust and anger are the sources of judgmental and personal interpretation of the realities of the universe. Today, the concept of terror, terrorists and their supporters has evolved. For those who have power, individual and mass killing, terrorizing women and children, imprisoning, torturing people, and destroying the civil infrastructure of a society are not assassinations. According to the American Centre for Terrorist Studies, the Taliban group, Boko Haram in Nigeria and Daesh are the first, second and third criminal organizations respectively, as well as the Indian Maoist Party, the Somali youth movement and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. At the same time, the United States government supports these groups (Khamenei, 2015/03/12) The paradoxical attitude not only does not eliminate terrorism but also promotes and spreads it, reflecting the ideological view of terrorism. If the actions of a terrorist group serve the interests of a state, it is not a terrorist act; if the actions of the same group threaten the interests of that state, it is considered a terrorist group.
The arrogant temper changes the concepts and facts based on the will and desire of the arrogant person. From the point of view of arrogant powers, being killed by terror and intimidation is not the criterion for terrorism, but what is important is who kills and who got killed (Khamenei, 2002/03/18). The killing of the Palestinians, the Daesh attack on the innocent people of Iraq and Syria are not terrorist acts and even they should be given credit.
The extremes point of lust and anger not only burn the person’s life in this world and the hereafter but also would spread the fire of anger over the whole environment. Westerners define terrorism in such a way that the massacre of the people of Sabra and Shatila, the massacre of a large group of people (women, men, children, hungry and thirsty) of Qana in Lebanon in front of the United Nations office committed by Israeli helicopters, kidnapping Lebanese and Palestine and the official ratification of the law which permits the Israelites to kill Palestinians would not be considered as terrorist acts. But defending the Palestinian people from their homeland and demanding their rights is seen as an act of terror! (Khamenei, 2001/06/28) This shows that terror and terrorism can be interpreted differently. Whenever an act threatens the interests of Israel, the United States and the West, it would be a terrorist act. Whenever killing, torturing and destroying the civil infrastructure of society serve their interests, it is not a terrorist act. The West is plagued by dualism and paradox in theory and practice. As far as the theory is concerned, it rejects the good and the bad terrorists and considers all the terrorists as bad, whereas when it comes to doing an action, it divides terrorism into good and bad. Shooting down an Iranian airliner in the Persian Gulf with hundreds of passengers is a good terrorist act (Khamenei, 2003/07/30).
A concept that has become relativistic is supporting terrorism or sheltering the terrorists. Therefore, the development of the concept of supporting terrorism relies on the development of the concepts of terrorists and terrorism.
If a terrorist is someone who acts against our interests or our friends and supporters (Khamenei, 2003/06/04), not someone who targets innocent people for personal and political reasons, then, the interpretation of terrorism and its support has been subject to ignorant tendencies and dualism. There are always some people who are guilty and some who are innocent.
While from a truth-oriented and rational perspective committing a terrorist act against anyone and at any time and place is condemned. But from an ignorant perspective, the concept of terror, terrorism, counterterrorism, and supporting terrorism find different meanings (Khamenei, 2003/07/30). Terrorism is something that the United States Federal Laws, the United States Department of Justice and the United States Department of Defense define. The governments’ attitude toward terrorism and its ideological support can be analyzed from an ideological and essence-oriented perspective, “in every part of the region, one can see the traces of the actions of enemies in causing the terrorist incident to occur” (Khamenei, 2015/05/16). While no government considers itself a terrorist or its sponsor, but in theory a coalition against terrorism is formed. What is important is that, from Ayatollah Khamenei’s view, terrorism is essence-oriented and has a single reality and nature, it is not subject to one’s desires, and that dualistic and ideological view of terrorism impedes reaching a proper solution to the threat of terrorism. Terrorism can have many different reasons and causes.
Archive of Ayatollah Khamenei
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