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The disparities in news coverage of attacks based on the perpetrator’s religion may explain why members of the public tend to fear the “Muslim terrorist” while ignoring other threats. More representative coverage could help to bring public perception in line with reality.

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- Targets African-American and Catholics

- In 2017, a clash with protesters at the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., left one woman dead. In 2015, the shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME church in Charleston, S.C., killed nine black churchgoers. And in 2012, a rampage at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, Wisc., killed six people.

- In every era there were multiple Klans, they all have different names, they all have different leaders — they are trying to extract money from their groups, and they are all fighting about money .... and then over power, and who controls the power, because white supremacy groups don't elect their leaders right away. To be a leader just means to grab power and control. So there's a lot of contention in these groups of control.

- The 1920s Klan [was] very anti-Catholic, as well as racist and anti-Semitic. Part of this anti-Catholicism [was] based on the idea that Catholics were going to start controlling politics as well as the police.

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Terrorism is over-represented relative to its share of deaths in media coverage

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Terrorism is over-represented relative to its share of deaths in media coverage

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A fact-based overview of the world we live in — a perspective that includes the persistent and long-term changes that run as a backdrop to our daily lives on terrorism.

The media provides a near-instantaneous snapshot of single events; events that are, in most cases, negative. The persistent, large-scale trends of progress never make the headlines.

But is there evidence that such a disconnect exists between what we see in the news and what is reality for most us?

One study attempted to look at this from the perspective of what we die from: is what we actually die from reflected in the media coverage these topics receive?

To answer this, four key sources of data were used:

the causes of deaths in the USA (statistics published by the CDC’s WONDER public health database)

Google search trends for causes of deaths (sourced from Google Trends)

mentions of causes of deaths in the New York Times (sourced from the NYT article database)

mentions of causes of deaths in The Guardian newspaper (sourced from The Guardian article database)

For each source the authors calculated the relative share of deaths, share of Google searches, and share of media coverage. They restricted the considered causes to the top 10 causes of death in the US and additionally included terrorism, homicide, and drug overdoses. This allows for us to compare the relative representation across different sources

What we die from; what we Google; what we read in the news

So, what do the results look like? In the chart below I present the comparison.

The first column represents each cause’s share of US deaths; the second the share of Google searches each receives; third, the relative article mentions in the New York Times; and finally article mentions in The Guardian.

The coverage in both newspapers here is strikingly similar. And the discrepancy between what we die actually from and what we get informed of in the media is what stands out:

around one-third of the considered causes of deaths resulted from heart disease, yet this cause of death receives only 2-3 percent of Google searches and media coverage.

just under one-third of the deaths came from cancer; we actually google cancer a lot (37 percent of searches) and it is a popular entry here on our site; but it receives only 13-14 percent of media coverage;

we searched for road incidents more frequently than their share of deaths, however, they receive much less attention in the news;

when it comes to deaths from strokes, Google searches and media coverage are surprisingly balanced;

the largest discrepancies concern violent forms of death: suicide, homicide and terrorism. All three receive much more relative attention in Google searches and media coverage than their relative share of deaths. When it comes to the media coverage on causes of death, violent deaths account for more than two-thirds of coverage in the New York Times and The Guardian but account for less than 3 percent of the total deaths in the US.

What’s interesting is that Americans search on Google is a much closer reflection of what kills us than what is presented in the media. One way to think about it is that media outlets may produce content that they think readers are most interested in, but this is not necessarily reflected in our preferences when we look for information ourselves.

How over- or underrepresented are deaths in the media?

As we can see clearly from the chart above, there is a disconnect between what we die from, and how much coverage these causes get in the media. Another way to summarize this discrepancy is to calculate how over- or underrepresented each cause is in the media. To do this, we simply calculate the ratio between the share of deaths and share of media coverage for each cause.

In the chart below we see how over- or underrepresented each cause is in newspaper coverage. Causes shown in red are overrepresented in the media; those in blue are underrepresented. Numbers denote the factor by which they are misrepresented.

The major standout here – I had to break the scale on the y-axis since it’s several orders of magnitude higher than everything else – is terrorism: it is overrepresented in the news by almost a factor of 4000.

Homicides are also very overrepresented in the news, by a factor of 31. The most underrepresented in the media are kidney disease (11-fold), heart disease (10-fold), and, perhaps surprisingly, drug overdoses (7-fold). Stroke and diabetes are the two causes most accurately represented.

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State-Sponsored terrorism
Dissent terrorism
Terrorist and the left and right
Religious terrorism
Criminal terrorism

https://ekuonline.eku.edu/homeland-security/definition-history-and-types-terrorism

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How Religious Extremism Changed the Face of Terrorism

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How Religious Extremism Changed the Face of Terrorism

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Terrorism receives media attention which is disproportionate to its frequency and share of deaths. This is also the intention of terrorists. Fear and attention is, after all, a core tactic of terrorism: media covering the attack is a key part of the terrorist’s strategy.

Terrorists are rarely successful at hijacking airplanes anymore. But they are very successful hijacking global news cycles. But media coverage of terrorism is also highly unequal: some events receive a lot of attention while most receive very little

Which are the characteristics that influence whether an attack is covered in the media or not? A previous study which looked at terrorist attacks in the US from 1980 to 2001 found they received more attention if there were fatalities; airlines were a target; it was a hijacking; or organized by a domestic group. Incidents received less coverage if they are framed as a crime (akin to homicide rather than terrorism, for which there is not always a clear boundary).

What’s striking is the much larger coverage if the perpetrator was Muslim. Across all media sources, attacks received on average 357% greater coverage if the attacker was Muslim; for major outlets this was higher still at 758%. It appeared to play less of a role for local outlets. From this analysis we also see that media coverage was higher when the perpetrator was arrested (partly because an arrest is a reportable event in itself); the target of the attack was law enforcement or government; and when people were killed in the attack. One additional fatality meant an average increase of coverage by 46%.

Which events do and do not receive media coverage matter: evidence shows that media plays a defining role in shifting public opinion; perceptions of the importance of particular issues; and national policy conversations. It can have a significant impact on how the public perceives terrorism and its associations.

In particular, increased coverage when a perpetrator is Muslim presents an unbalanced overview of US terrorism to the public. In the dataset that this study relied on, Muslims perpetrated 12.5% of attacks in the US, yet received half of the news coverage.

Combined with the fact that terrorism in general gets a disproportionate amount of media attention, the fact that the worst attacks – those that cause the greatest number of deaths – get most attention further exacerbates public fear. But it does mean that it’s not just terrorism that receives a lot of attention; it’s the rare but most extreme events that become easiest for us to recall.

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Buddism : Buddhism is a religion or approach to an enlightened life based on the teachings of the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama 25 centuries ago in northern India. The edict not to kill or inflict pain on others is integral to Buddhist thought. Periodically, however, Buddist monks have encouraged violence or initiated it. The primary example in the 20th and 21st century is in Sri Lanka, where Sinhala Buddhist groups have committed and encouraged violence against local Christians and Tamils. The leader of Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult that committed a lethal sarin gas attack in the mid-1990s, drew on Buddhist as well as Hindu ideas to justify his beliefs.

Christian : Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, whose resurrection, as understood by Christians, provided salvation for all mankind. Christianity's teachings, like those of other religions, contain messages of love and peace but also those that can be used to justify violence. The 15th-century Spanish inquisition is sometimes considered an early form of state terrorism. These Church-sanctioned tribunals aimed to root out Jews and Muslims who had not converted to Catholicism, often through severe torture. Today in the United States, reconstruction theology and the Christian Identity movement have provided justification for attacks on abortion providers.

Hinduism : Hinduism is the world's third largest religion after Christianity and Islam and it is the oldest. Hinduism takes many forms in practice among its adherents. It valorizes non-violence as a virtue but advocates war when it is necessary in the face of injustice. A Hindu assassinated (also Hindu) Mohandas Ghandi, whose non-violent resistance helped bring about Indian independence in 1948. Violence between Hindus and Muslims in India has been endemic since then. However, the role of nationalism is inextricable from Hindu violence in this context.

Islam : Adherents of Islam describe themselves as believing in the same Abrahamic God as Jews and Christians, whose instructions to humankind were perfected when delivered to the last prophet, Muhammad. Like those of Judaisim and Christianity, Islam's texts offer both peaceful and warring messages. Many consider the 11th-century "hashishiyin," to be Islam's first terrorists. These members of a Shiite sect assassinated their Saljuq enemies. In the late 20th century, groups motivated by religious and nationalist goals committed attacks, such as the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, and suicide bombings in Israel. In the early 21st century, al-Qaeda "internationalized" jihad to attack targets in Europe and the Uniteed States.

Judaism : Judaism began around 2000 BCE when, according to Jews, God established a special covenant with Abraham. The monotheistic religion focuses on the importance of action as an expression of belief. Judaism's central tenets involve a respect for life's sanctity, but like other religions, its texts can be used to justify violence. Some consider the Sicarii, who used murder by dagger to protest Roman rule in first century Judea, to be the first Jewish terrorists. In the 1940s, Zionist militants such as Lehi (known also as the Stern Gang) carried out terrorist attacks against the British in Palestine.

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October 17, 2017

It is far too easy to focus on individual acts of terrorism and extremism, and ignore the global patterns in such violence. The Burke Chair at CSIS has assembled a wide range of indicators that help quantify and explain these patterns, and that look beyond the crises of the moment to examine longer term trends. They include a range of tables, graphs, and maps that help put the global patterns of terrorism in perspective, and that show the relationships between extremist and terrorist movements, the reject of such movements by the vast majority of Muslims, and the critical role that Muslim states play as strategic partners in the fight against such movements.

This analysis is entitled Islam and the Patterns in Terrorism and Violent Extremism and is available on the CSIS web site at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/171017_Report_Islam%20and%20the%20-War_on_Terrorism_.pdf?iI4pb6Py.S_5J9D73QmtXxX5NlXev5bv
Putting the Links Between Islam and Violent Extremism in Context
Any analysis of the patterns in terrorism faces major challenges simply because of the lack of reliable and comparable data, and the tendency to compartmentalize analysis to deal with given threats, nations, and regions. The problem becomes much greater when the analysis attempts to deal with issues as controversial as the links between Islam, extremism, and terrorism.

It is far too easy for analysts who are not Muslim to focus on the small part of the extremist threat that Muslim extremists pose to non-Muslims in the West and/or demonize one of the world's great religions, and to drift into some form of Islamophobia-blaming a faith for patterns of violence that are driven by a tiny fraction of the world's Muslims and by many other factors like population, failed governance, and weak economic development.

It is equally easy to avoid analyzing the links between extremist violence and Islam in order to be politically correct or to avoid provoking Muslims and the governments of largely Muslim states. The end result is to ignore the reality that most extremist and terrorist violence does occur in largely Muslim states, although it overwhelmingly consists of attacks by Muslim extremists on fellow Muslims, and not some clash between civilizations.

If one examines a wide range of sources, however, a number of key patterns emerge that make five things very clear:

First, the overwhelming majority of extremist and violent terrorist incidents do occur in largely Muslim states.

Second, most of these incidents are perpetrated by a small minority of Muslims seeking power primarily in their own areas of operation and whose primary victims are fellow Muslims.

Third, almost all of the governments of the countries involved are actively fighting extremism and terrorism, and most are allies of Western states that work closely with the security, military, and counterterrorism forces of non-Muslim states to fight extremism and terrorism.

Fourth, the vast majority of Muslims oppose violent extremism and terrorism, and,

Fifth, religion is only one of many factors that lead to instability and violence in largely Muslim states. It is a critical ideological force in shaping the current patterns of extremism, but it does not represent the core values of Islam and many other far more material factors help lead to the rise of extremism.

The analysis draws on a wide range of sources to illustrate these trends and how the global patterns in terrorism and violence interact with Islam. It cannot overcome the lack of consistent and reliable data in many key areas, or the fact that many key factors do not lend themselves to summary quantification and trend analysis. It is also impossible to go into depth in analyzing the individual the trends in Islam and extremism in a broad overview of global trends, or to highlight all of the limits in the quality and reliability of the data available.

The analysis does, however, make use of the same START database that the U.S. State Department uses in drafting its annual country reports on terrorism. While there is no agreement between open source databases in terms of numbers, there does seem to be broad agreement as to the direction and intensity of most trends. Uncertain as the numbers may be, the vectors in these numbers do seem to reflect many areas of consensus. (See Global Terrorism Database - START.umd.edu, https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/.)

It also draws on a wide range of other materials to reflect recent polling of Muslim opinion, data on the broader divisions that lead to violence and extremism in much of the Muslim world, and various official sources to show the trends in the current "wars" on terrorism, the degree to which partnerships between Muslim and non-Muslim states form the core of the effort to defeat extremism, and the extent to which the rise of extremism ensures that it may take several decades of active security partnerships to end the threat.
Global Patterns of Terrorism Are Dominated by Extremism in Largely Muslim States
The first section of the report makes it clear that the patterns of extremist violence are dominated by violence in largely Muslim states and by extremist movements that claim to represent Islamic values. It shows that the START database counts a total of 70,767 terrorist incidents between 2011 and the end of 2016. A total of 60,320 of these incidents-85% of the global total-occurred in largely Islamic states. A total of 51,321 of these incidents-73% of the global total-occurred in the Islamic states in the Middle East and North Africa or MENA region.

It is important to note, however, that only a relatively small portion of the incidents can be attributed to ISIS, even using the highest START estimate. More broadly, even if Afghanistan is added to the total for Iraq and Syria, the three major countries where the U.S. and other outside states partner with Muslim governments accounted for 26,113 incidents-or only 37% of the global total. Moreover, even if one counts all of the MENA region and South Asia, key organized extremist groups like Al Qaida, Al Nusra, ISIS, and the Taliban accounted for 12,159 incidents or 17% of the total. Defeating today's key perpetrators is critical, but it in no way will defeat the longer term threat.
, there is No "Clash of Civilizations." The Vast Majority of Muslims Consistently Reject Extremism and Terrorism
The second section of the report draws on a range of polls to put these statistics on incidents into perspective. There is no poll of opinion in every Muslim or Arab state, and many of the polls available-including the ones in this report-have serious flaws and limitations. Nevertheless, the polling data still seem good enough-and consistent enough-to show that the vast majority of Muslims do not support extremist violence, and that their primary concerns are jobs, the quality of governance, security, and the same practical values shared by non-Muslims.

Moreover, for all the talk of "foreign fighters," even the high estimates in the media represent a negligible portion of the total number of young men who might join in such movements. Arab youth do not support extremist violence. Moreover, the small portion that does in given countries in given polls is often reacting to a crisis in Israeli-Palestinian relations or some other major incident, and that limited support tends to drop sharply when it no longer is driven by the heat of the moment.
The Battle of Perceptions, and Popular Motives in the MENA Region and Islamic World
The third section supplements the second by showing that only 17% of Muslims saw religion as the key factor in recruiting fighters for ISIS, and that interpretations of Islam ranked seventh in a poll examining Arab views of way to defeat extremism. At the same time, it warns that the rejection of extremism and terrorism does not there was popular support for many U.S. and other
western foreign policies. Moreover, 77% of Arabs polled still felt that the Arab peoples were a single nation, rather than focused on the actions of their government and their own nation situation.
Casualties in the U.S. and Europe Are All Too Real. But, it is Muslims that Are the Overwhelming Victims of Extremist Attacks
The fourth section of the report shows the trends in terms of death, injuries, and kidnappings/hostage taking. No one can condone or ignore the numbers killed in the U.S. and Europe, but they are relatively tiny in actuarial terms. For example, there were 658 deaths in Europe and all of the Americas between January 1, 2015 and July 16, 2016. There were 28,031-or 43 times more deaths-in other regions-most of them consisting of largely Islamic countries. Almost all of the human impact of extremist attacks is Muslims killing or injuring fellow Muslims.

Seven of the ten countries with the most terrorist attacks in 2016 had vast Muslim majorities, and the death and injuries in the other three involve large numbers of Muslim deaths. A total of 83% of the attacks and 90% of the deaths occurred in solidly Islamic countries. The vast majority of suicide and vehicle attacks came from "Islamist" extremist groups that killed Muslims in largely Muslim countries.

If one looks at the five worst perpetrator movements in the world in 2016, four are "Islamist" extremist. A total of 88% of 2,916 attacks and 99% of 14,017 deaths that resulted from the top five perpetrators were caused by Islamic extremist groups.
Restrictions on Religion Attempt to Limit Extremism in Much of the Islamic World
The fifth section makes it clear that most governments in largely Muslim states are actively moving to suppress religious extremism in their country. State Department Country Reports on Terrorism and Treasury Department lists of designated groups and individuals funding terrorism show both major progress in largely Muslim states in fighting extremism and limiting the funding and support of extremist groups and that much more needs to be done.

At the same time, work by the Pew Trust highlights the fact that many largely Muslim states have placed growing limits on extremist preaching and religious activity. This necessarily interferes with freedom of religion and speech, and given states often exert excessive limits and control, but vague charges that such governments are failing to act do not reflect the real-world actions of many-if not most-governments in largely Muslim states. (See International Religious Freedom Report - US Department of State, https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/; and Country Reports on Terrorism - US Department of State, https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/.)

Islamophobia is Dangerous and Ignores Muslim Patriotism and Support for Their Country in nations Outside the Muslim World

The sixth section provides a short case state in the dangers of Islamophobia. Polling data illustrate the degree to which American Muslims show consistent loyalty and support for the U.S. It also shows that the vast majority of terrorist attacks in the U.S. did not involve Muslims, and that those attacks that did involve "Islamist" motives were generally by American-born Muslims or full citizens and not by recent immigrants.

The data also show that American Muslims have seen some slight rises in the violent impact of Islamophobia. The risks of becoming a U.S. victim of Islamist violence have been tiny relative to other causes of death and violent death since 2011, but the size of anti-Muslim hate crimes has grown. Islamist violence still produces more deaths, but FBI reporting shows that anti-Muslim hate crimes produce higher levels of overall violence, rape, and serious injury.
Extremism Poses a Critical Threat to the Ability of Largely Islamic States to Meet the Needs of Their Rapidly Growing Populations
The data and trend charts in the seventh section provide a wide range of metrics showing the other pressures that divide largely Muslim states, and that can drive their populations towards extremism. Each can be a study in itself, but it is clear that many Muslims feel their governments are corrupt and that secular options fail to protect them and provide adequate future opportunities.

Population pressure and corruption are critical factors, as are ethnic and sectarian divisions and hyperurbanization. Youth lack jobs and opportunity in many states, and per capita incomes are sometimes critically low. (For detailed country-by-country comparisons, see Instability in the MENA Region, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Key Conflict states: A Comparative Score Card , https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/170928_Scoring_Instability_MENA.pdf?Rx8YruTusj_FyLrQjXRMCQQB.xVZ.63F, or https://www.csis.org/analysis/instability-mena-region-afghanistan-pakistan-and-key-conflict-states-comparative-score-card.)
Islamic States Are Key Strategic Partners in the Fight Against Extremism, and the Rising Global Impact of Islam Makes These Partnerships Steadily More Critical
The eighth section of the report highlights two key factors in dealing with the threat of "Islamist" extremism. First, almost all of the states with large Muslim majorities have governments that already cooperate with the U.S. in the struggle against extremism. These strategic partnerships are critical to containing the threat and limiting its impact outside the countries where it is now centered.

Second, the need for lasting strategic partnerships with Muslim states is reinforced by key demographic trends on a global basis. Work by the Pew Research Center estimates that the total number of Muslims will increase from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.76 billion in 2015-an increase of 73% or 1.16 billion people.

Dividing the world on a religious basis, or even seriously alienating a substantial portion of the world's Muslims could create all too real a clash between key elements of the global population and economy.
ISIS, Al Qaida and the Taliban Are Key Current Threats. But are Only One Small Part of a Far Broader Problem that Will Endure for Decades
The trend charts in this section reinforce the points made in the previous sections about the enduring threat that extremism and instability poses to the Islamic world and the state outside it.

When they are compared to the previous trend data on incidents and deaths, they show that Al Qaida, ISIS, the Taliban, and the other main targets of today's anti-terrorism and anti-extremist efforts are only a comparatively limited part of even current threats.
Even Total Victory in Syria and Iraq Could Only Have a Limited Impact:
Most IISS "Affiliates" Outside Iraq and Syria Are Not Closely Linked to the ISIS "Caliphates" and Will Survive ISIS Defeats in Iraq and Syria
It is also striking that ISIS's "affiliates" outside the current range of major military efforts-those only tenuously tied to ISIS central-have been responsible for more terrorist incidents than ISIS central has been in Syria and Iraq.

The Current Fighting in Syria and Iraq is Unlikely to Bring Any Lasting Security and Stability

The data in this section of this report documents major progress in fighting ISIS and a major joint military effort between a US led coalition and host country allies. It also, however, highlights the lack of any clear grand strategy to bring security and stability to Syria and Iraq. Defeating extremist organizations like Al Qaida, ISIS, and Al Nusra will be a critical step in limiting the threat, but even near total defeat of today's major perpetrators will leave major cadres and large numbers of fighters.

As yet, there are no indications that such defeats will be followed by recovery and reform efforts that will bring lasting security and stability to the divisions within Syria and Iraq shown in this section. Extremist groups will remain, governance and economic development will be weak and divided, ethnic and sectarian differences will be critical, and the outside role of powers like Iran, Russia, and Turkey will be deeply divisive.

Limited tactical victories are no substitute for a meaningful grand strategy that addresses the lasting outcome of such victories.
This is Even More True of the Fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan
The trend data in this section show that even tactical success is uncertain in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Again, there is no clear indication of the capability to build on the defeat of the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and other extremist groups to bring lasting security and stability to either Afghanistan or Pakistan
Terrorism and Extremism in Yemen Have Become a Strategic "Black Hole"
The final section in the report provides a different kind of warning. It shows that the cost of failing to create effective strategic partnerships can be far greater and more destabilizing even if such partnerships only really address a limited part of a nation's tensions and divisions and focus almost exclusively on security.

Yemen is only one such case study. Libya, Somalia, the Sudans, and a number of Sub Saharan African countries already present similar challenges. The study referenced earlier in section seven, Instability in the MENA Region, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Key Conflict states: A Comparative Score Card , https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/170928_Scoring_Instability_MENA.pdf?Rx8YruTusj_FyLrQjXRMCQQB.xVZ.63F, or https://www.csis.org/analysis/instability-mena-region-afghanistan-pakistan-and-key-conflict-states-comparative-score-card.)-highlights the scale of these challenges and causes of current and future extremism.

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Islam and the Patterns in Terrorism and Violent Extremism

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Download the Report It is far too easy to focus on individual acts of terrorism and extremism, and ignore the global patterns in such violence. The Burke Chair at CSIS has assembled a wide range of indicators that help quantify and explain these patterns, and that look beyond the crises of the moment to examine longer term trends.

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The world's great religions all have both peaceful and violent messages from which believers can choose. Religious terrorists and violent extremists share the decision to interpret religion to justify violence, whether they are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, or Sikh.

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Terrorist acts can cause ripple effects through the economy that have negative impacts.

The most obvious is the direct economic destruction of property and lives.

Terrorism indirectly affects the economy by creating market uncertainty, xenophobia, loss of tourism, and increased insurance claims.

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"relations between states"
Allowing nations to cooperate with one another, pool, resources and share information as a way to face global issues that go beyond any particular country or region

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How important is social media for recruiters who work for extremist groups?

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How important is social media for recruiters who work for extremist groups?

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Without social media al Shabab, ISIS and other extremists would have been forced to use traditional ways for recruitment. (F2F - Harder to recruit as it takes up more time, lesser audience it can reach)

It is fair to say that traditional methods would not have resulted in such a high number of new recruits. Recruiters are dependent on social media. They use it to recruit, fundraise and disseminate propaganda.

For example, on social media you can talk to recruiters to get personalised clarifications on ideology. They use social media to answer all sorts of questions. This is important to understand as it can give you the needed justifications to abandon everything and start a new life in an extremist group. Recruiters also help with practical things such as buying tickets and preparing the trip. Social media is key for those groups

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The role of social media in international relations

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The role of social media in international relations

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But more recently, we’ve seen the role social media plays in constructing narratives and political rhetoric for the audience at home, and the damage that can be caused to foreign relations on the global front. Perhaps we naively chose to ignore the opportunity social media provided for international leader, to shore up domestic support at the expense of international relationships.

The Trump presidency has given us a robust selection of Twitter diplomacy example, as heated exchanges have played out between government officials and foreign dignitaries for the world to follow, and all in 120 characters or less.

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Terrorism's Impact on International Relations

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Terrorism's Impact on International Relations

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Enhanced Security -  In the 18 months that have passed since the events of 9/11, the world has changed in many profound ways. A small band of terrorists, a tiny fraction of a percent of the global population, have succeeded in changing most of our lives, perhaps forever. Questions of security now permeate our lives. When considering a business trip or holiday, we now routinely factor into the equation whether a destination is considered ‘safe', what is the least potentially dangerous route and method of travel to get there, and what additional time must be added to account for the now ‘routine' enhanced security checks.

The Impact of Globalization - terrorist organizations have "harvested" the globalization process to improve their methods of operation. They often refrain from using factory-made explosives, for example, and instead use materials that can be easily obtained from local sources (such as ammonium nitrate). And, ironically, locally-made materials are being used with greater frequency to achieve terrorist objectives.

A Changed World - How the world's civilized nations collectively fight against terrorism will determine the future course of international relations. The stakes are extremely high in a war on Iraq, for a variety of reasons. If the United Nations Security Council is unable to reach a majority consensus on the best path for eliminating the threat of weapons of mass destruction from Iraq, it stands little chance of achieving the same where North Korea and other “problem” nations are concerned.

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People join extremists organisations for quite a number of reasons.

Some - especially those locally recruited - mostly join for economic benefits.

-15% mentioned religious reasons (Religion and Islam in particular is used by recruiters, foreign fighters and extremists to recruit, fight and justify their actions. So yes, religion does plays an important role. A study conducted by Dr Anneli Botha at the Institute for Security studies (ISS) shows that 87% of respondents gave religion as the reason why they joined al Shabab. But I think religion could could also be used as a de-radicalisation tool if we manage to create counter-narratives based on religious traditions.)

-13% were forced to join. We found that there is no easy answer to why people join terrorist organisations.

It's a complex picture, we have to take into account processes linked to political and social exclusion dynamics, poor governance structures as well as religious and ethnic discrimination.

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Since 2001 religious extremism has overtaken national separatism to become the main driver of terrorist attacks around the world, according to the Global Terrorism Index.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/nov/18/religious-extremism-main-cause-of-terrorism-according-to-report

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Religious extremism has become the main driver of terrorism in recent years, according to this year's Global Terrorism Index.

The report recorded 18,000 deaths in 2013, a rise of 60% on the previous year. The majority (66%) of these were attributable to just four groups: Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida.

Overall there has been a fivefold increase in deaths from terrorism since the 9/11 suicide attacks.

The report's authors attribute the majority of incidents over the past few years to groups with a religious agenda.

While the chart below shows that this varies across region, bear in mind that more than 80% of deaths from terrorism in 2013 occurred in just five countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Before 2000, it was nationalist separatist terrorist organisations such as the IRA and Chechen rebels who were behind the most attacks. The number of incidents from nationalist separatist groups has remained relatively stable in the years since while religious extremism has grown.

The prevalence of Islamist groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria is the main driver behind these trends.

Just 5% of terrorist fatalities occur in OECD countries. The UK had the largest number of incidents with 131, while Turkey had the most fatalities (57).

The Global Terrorism Index gives a score to each country dependent on how affected they are by terrorism. The results in full are mapped below.

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Religious extremism main cause of terrorism, according to report

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Religious extremism has become the main driver of terrorism in recent years, according to this year's Global Terrorism Index. The report recorded 18,000 deaths in 2013, a rise of 60% on the previous year. The majority (66%) of these were attributable to just four groups: Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaida.

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Negative: actively providing resources to terrorist group
Positive: prevent terrorist from using territory and resources

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In the Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report(2019), the treat to Singapore remains high because of volatile regionakl

- Singapore is particularly vulnerable to terrorist threats and other extremist ideologies because of its strong position against terrorism as well as its alignment to the west.

- More radicalised individuals here are uncovered and terror groups continue to make their presence felt globally

- Detecting more Singaporeans and foreigners working in Singapore becoming radicalised by terrorist propaganda

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Terrorism is the use of violence aimed at furthering a political or ideological goal at the expense of the general population.

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The JI considered several Singapore places to attack. The JI explored the idea of sabotaging the MRT System & Jurong Island .

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EW13NS25 City Hall

N E W S
2  1  3  5 (timing (?) that the terrorism actions will be carried out)

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What is required to tackle these causes of terrorism?

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What is required to tackle these causes of terrorism?

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Singapore approach:
Singapore’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious population, its leaders consistently stress the importance of social harmony.

1. Creating Inter-Racial Confidence Circles (IRCCs)
- role of IRCCs in bridging different religious groups at the local level.
-  local-level inter-faith platforms in every constituency formed to promote racial and religious harmony. The work of the IRCCs is instrumental in strengthening social cohesion and supports the SGSecure movement.

2. the government also launched the Community Engagement Program (CEP)
- to provide more integrated and comprehensive efforts in preparing the populace to be psychologically and socially resilient to terrorism. Example initiatives over the past few years include introducing Safety and Security Watch Groups at industrial and commercial premises; outreach to foreign worker populations through the foreign worker dormitories; and expanding the scope of Emergency Preparedness Exercises to cover the readiness to detect and prevent the fallout from potential communal tensions in a crisis.

3. Aside from the IRCC and CEP, the government also formed the Religious Rehabilitation Group (RRG), which is an unpaid, all-volunteer grouping of Islamic scholars and teachers who possess formal Islamic educational credentials from both local madrasas and foreign universities.
-  to counsel detained JI members and to counter their ideological beliefs

4. Singapore government introduced a series of measures to harden “soft targets” in the public sphere. A new Singapore Standard for Hotel Security was launched to enhance the conduct of systematic and regular reviews of emergency operating procedures, security plans and equipment. The TRANSCOM (MRT) Unit was enlarged to form the Public Transport Security Command, where 400 policemen will patrol the bus interchanges and MRT stations.

5. The Protective Security Command (ProCom) was also formed to protect security-sensitive locations and provide security coverage at key national events.

6. Finally, the Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority was established to protect critical IT infrastructure against increasing global trends of cyber-espionage and cyber-terrorism

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DT15CC04 - Promenade

EW13NS25 - City Hall
NE04DT19 - Chinatown
DT16CE01 - Bayfront

The letters are the line code, the numbers are the station number

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"We wish for the fireworks we use, will make it big in the NEWS"

(this is the additional clue that will help to decide ONE of the secret codes is correct)

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Terrorism can take multiple forms and has many causes, often more than one. It can have its roots in religious, social, or political conflicts, often when one community is oppressed by another.

Religious: Several attacks carried out in the name of religion.

Socioeconomic: explanations of terrorism suggest that various forms of deprivation drive people to terrorism, or that they are more susceptible to recruitment by organizations using terrorist tactics. Poverty, lack of education or lack of political freedom are a few examples.

Political conflicts: Terrorism was originally theorized in the context of insurgency and guerrilla warfare, a form of organized political violence by a non-state army or group. Individuals, abortion clinic bombers, or groups, like the Vietcong in the 1960s, can be understood as choosing terrorism when they are trying to right what they perceive to be a social, political or historical wrong

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In 2017, Singapore become Indonesia's second trading partner.

Importance of Bilateral Relations:
- The countries need a good bilateral relationship, so that we can be in unity and work together and help one another in time of crisis (Terrorist attacks).
- Having good bilataral relations help the different countries share resources and and expertise on anti-terrorism
- Improved security as friendly countries may help defend you against hostile aggression
- Less chance of war that could cost millions of your citizens lives, and cause massive destructio
- Possibility of good trading relationship which could generate wealth for both parties.
- Ability to tackle things too big for your nation alone, or any single nation. E.G global warming, or in the case of Europe the large hadron collider.