SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF TERRORISM (FROM TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE: LIMITS AND POSSIBILITIES OF LEGAL CONTROL, P 189-195, 1993, HENRY H HAN, ED. -- SEE NCJ- 141768)

• NCJ Number: 141776
• Author(s): P Johnson
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: Oceana Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

There are seven reasons ("Seven Deadly Sins of Terrorism") why terrorism is intrinsically evil, necessarily evil, and wholly evil.

Abstract

First, terrorism is the deliberate and cold-blooded exaltation of violence as the primary means for achieving political goals. Secondly, terrorism deliberately suppresses all moral instincts and principles in its adherents that would challenge its violent and inhumane tactics. Third, terrorists reject politics (compromise and negotiation) as the normal means by which communities resolve conflicts. The fourth deadly sin of terrorism is that it actively, systematically, and necessarily assists the spread of the totalitarian state through its methods and sources of support. Fifth, terrorism inevitably destroys democratic institutions and undermines democratic principles. It turns a nation struggling toward progress and law into a nightmare of oppression and violence. Sixth, terrorism exploits the freedom provided in liberal societies, such that democratic societies must limit freedom to counter the threats of terrorism. The seventh and deadliest sin of terrorism is that it saps the will of a civilized society and pressures it to capitulate to terrorist methods and goals. Terrorism can only be destroyed or emasculated when there is international recognition of the severity of its threat and united action by civilized nations to counter it without sacrificing the foundations of civilized behavior.