New Terrorism Described as a Religious Wave

30.01.2023 | Selim KURT

The motivations behind terrorism, which can be summarized as the use of violence for political purposes, have differentiated in the historical process. People and groups have challenged political authority with actions motivated by different reasons. Although there are various attempts to classify these motivations, the most accepted one in the field is David C. Rapoport’s the Four Waves Theory. According to the theory, which claims that modern terrorism has progressed in four waves until today, the current wave of terrorism is labeled as the “Religious Wave”. It is seen that this wave has significant differences compared to the previous ones in terms of the covered area, the form of organization, the tactics it uses, the choice of target, its ideological background and effective use of the technology. For this reason, it is observed that there is a tendency to call the Religious Wave as “new terrorism” due to its above-mentioned distinctive features. Indeed, when terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida and ISIS, which are the most important representatives of this last wave, are examined, it can be said that they represent these features of the new terrorism.

Kurt, S. (2023). New Terrorism Described as a Religious Wave. Journal of Terrorism and Radicalization Studies, 2(1), pp.40-73, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.29228/trad.19