The word terror was first introduced to the lexicon [“reign of terror”] during the French Revolution, since the beginning of time it was called massacre of mostly innocents — now labeled genocide —and usually in retaliation from other nations or from internal strife. Now only the names have changed, such as IRA, Zionists, al Qaeda, Baathist, PLO, FARC, the left and right in Italy two decades ago. At one time some were considered freedom fighters.

To assist in distinguishing guerilla warfare that indeed uses terror as a force — Viet Cong, and FARC, for instance —from pure terrorists groups, social scientists pin “weapon s of the weak” for guerillas, and “weapons of the weakest” for such as al Qaeda when it is unlikely to achieve military victory. Both Viet Cong and the Afghans in their fight against the Soviets were able to win, but only with outside help. Terrorism is, in a sense, brutal persuasion or savage diplomacy in an attempt to change internal policy, such as removal of US troops from Saudi Arabia. Even worse is the attempt to persuade the outside world to accept the devastating strategy in the guise of religion.

There are thus two kinds of terrorism — one is rooted in temporal gain; the other in religious nihilism. The former is in the body politic and crime; there is no difference in the psychologies of the Mafia — and the underworld of thugs — nor Stalinism, nor Saddam as all desire the fruits of the will to power for material gain regardless of the devastation left in its wake. The latter is the will to power in order to destroy all that is temporal in order to arrive at the non-material or misguided sanctity of spiritual gain.

The tool of temporal terror is to undercut established practices that strive for common good, which in theory keeps power civilized and under control. Saddam understood this and forged a terrorist body politic of secularity to counter the threat of the potential nihilism of other religious sects of Islam. By defying the submissive beliefs of the majority and by positioning himself as a god of modernity, he was able to doom hundreds of thousands of the rebellious who were not totally aligned with the dictum of a religion that fosters surrendering oneself to the almighty.

Stalin, too, brutally took advantage of the ignorant but religious serfs by destroying their only factitious hope symbolized by the orthodox church that, nonetheless, for hundreds of years condoned illiteracy and poverty as a way to sustain its power, learned from Catholicism of the dark ages. Like Saddam, who was a disciple, Stalin wreaked his terror with the pretense that religion was a threat; and methodically achieved a godless nation with the intent to dominate the world free of religion.


Just as Saddam had posed as a Sunni icon, the Mafia used religion to further strike fear and ignorance into those they controlled by terror and the facade of a Godfather, the drug lord of a narcotic faith. The individual criminal or petty gangs resort to the same psychology of undercutting relative security and faith in civilization. Their fictionalized aggressive superiority capitalizes on this faith and terrorize their “inferior” victims.

Although much of the world’s religions have grown up by reluctantly accepting a balance of secularism and religion — including some Islamic countries — hardline Islam has not. It totally dominates the temporal realm by the process of dehumanization in order to break the will to life. And as in virtually all histories of religion, the purity of its origins is lost, except for the very dangerous martyrdom incentive which absolves all sins when one perpetrates jihad against violators of Islam; also dangerous is the belief — not unlike early Christendom — that it is to be worldwide because it is the best community ever produced for all of mankind, and aberrations disputing it must be convinced by armed force or annihilated. Extreme Islam — epitomized by al Qaeda — wittingly plants the seeds of terror in its followers to wage war upon the infidels because modern civilization wants very much to generate the will to a decent life on earth — its own version of the best community for humankind. These extremists care only for the misconceived good life of Muhammad’s 7th Century and since they suspect it is impossible to spin back the globe, they want to destroy those who have reconciled an imperfect world in progress.

Though there are two kinds, terror is terror. Temporal terror — but for the underworld of criminals who operate much like al Qaeda — is perpetrated by public dictators and can be routed if they dare imperial designs. Islamic fanatics and those of any other extreme cults are more dangerous in virtue of their being undercover with an intense drive to kill, even themselves, to attain their goal.