Comparing Terrorist Networks
...Terrorist groups are defined by their actions. Many groups call themselves freedom fighters, revolutionaries, or members of an insurgency to regain their lost sovereignty. What makes them a terrorist organization, however, is the tactics they use and who they use them against. The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka began their “freedom” fight against the Sinhalese government when they felt all democratic means at gaining autonomy had failed. Their complaint is small and confined, for the most part, towards a single oppressive government. But their attacks against Sinhalese citizens, defines them as a terrorist group. Jemaah Islamiya is a group also striving for a new state to be created. Their fight is more ideological and encompasses a wider scope. They wish to create a pan-Islamic state that includes all of South East Asia. Their tactics are also violent and aimed at innocent people, putting them in the same category as the Tamil Tigers. While their scopes and goals are both different, and these two groups have absolutely no connections and are geographically separate from one another, there are many similarities between the two groups. This study will illuminate those similarities and also explain the many differences between these two groups.
Velupillai Prabhakaran, first formed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, in 1972 as a reaction to failed diplomatic struggles to form a separate Tamil Eelam state (Tamil 3). The goal of the Tigers is to create a separate and sovereign Tamil country in the Northern and Eastern provinces. For the past thirty-six years the LTTE have been fighting the Indians and the Sihalese, who they share the island with. Jemaah Islamiyah has a more religious-based founding. In the 1970’s Abu Bakar Baasyir and Abdullah Sungkar, two clerics demanding the induction of sharia law in Indonesia established a boarding school...
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