Why is terrorism difficult to define Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why is terrorism difficult to define - Essay Example Terrorism, as Oxford dictionary describes, is (1) "government by intimidation as directed and carried out by the party in power in France during the Revolution of 1789-94 . . . " and (2) "policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted." It is interesting to see that both definitions hold a common viewpoint for those people who resort to threats and violence that is outside the normal oppositional struggle against their enemies. Although this definition is easy to understand, if we look deeper we can find that this definition is vague. The question that this definition fails to answer is ‘How do we measure what extent of violence is considered ''outside the normal oppositional struggle'’? As we begin to understand this problem, we find that there is no objective criterion available to us to gauge what extent of violence and threat can be called as an act of 'terrorism'. This difficulty to find what qualifies as an act of terrorism is even more diff icult since ‘terror’ is used to describe a strategy rather than an act. The strategy is to send a message to the higher ups in the government that they and their policies are vulnerable, that there is common voice in the public that are against government’s policies and that public has the capacity to attack the government in case those policies aren’t removed. The most common type of terrorism in the world is religion related. Multitude organizations all over the globe fight to uphold their religion.