Nationalist terrorism is very widespread in the world. Its existence was revealed in terrorist activities of groups that seek independence from a particular country, ensures the superiority of one nation over another within one country (Ciment, 2015).
The main reason for the period of nationalist terrorism in the United States from 1960s to 1980s was the beginning of Islamization. US Islamization began in the 1960s, when there was an influx of people coming to the United States of America from Muslim countries, mainly from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Pakistan. According to the latest statistical research, the number of US Muslims today is more than 7 million people (Haque, 1999). We can say that Muslims, using very liberal immigration laws passed by the US Congress in 1966, anchored in the American society. From the very beginning, the Islamic Diaspora remained a closed society as it is now. They vigorously promoted the advantages of Islam to any religion and the Muslim mentality to the modern way of life. In this propaganda they very quickly and clearly promoted the overthrow of other beliefs, underlined their power to change American civilization (Ciment, 2015).
Their attacks loudly proclaimed that the government is unable to guarantee the life, health and tranquility of citizens; therefore the government is responsible for terrorism. Islamic nationalist terrorist used the mechanism of political blackmail.
In the 1970s, most terrorist organizations have changed their tactics - from blowing up airplanes, they moved to their capture. Their reasons were to achieved several goals - they attracted the attention of the public, seek the release of comrades who were imprisoned, and sometimes tried to achieve broader political objectives. So, in 1970, Palestinian militants took over three aircrafts with 400 passengers on board - they landed in Jordan and 24 days have been negotiating an exchange of hostages for prisoners in Israeli jails (LaFree, 2010).
According to aforesaid facts, it can be noted that the reasons for nationalist terrorism in the United States from the 1960s to the 1980s was a provocation of ideologically and politically minded terrorists who were seeking violent reactions form American government and American citizens as well (Law,2009). Using terrorist tactic involves a set of socio-cultural and political characteristics of the society. If these characteristics are absent, the tactic of terrorism cannot be realized.
In my opinion, terrorism, as a way to achieve political goals by sabotage, blackmail the lives of the hostages and the forcing of public fear, always develops new ways to hurt innocent people. Leaders of Muslim extremists have developed other tactics of subversion in America. The likelihood of future terrorist attacks is very high. Climent (2015) argues that nationalist terrorists are preparing for terrorist attacks and have already sent their people to the United States in advance. As a rule, they are born in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace and stronghold of Wahhabism. Muslim diaspora also defines the role of the perfect environment, which multi-million dollar structure allows to “dissolve” considerable number of trained martyrs among peaceful American Muslim citizens. Terrorists may say for a long time in the position of “sleeping agents”, smoothly and quietly preparing their destructive acts while being safely hidden and ensuring that all required local coreligionists are ready.
References
Ciment, J. (2015). World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post–9/11 Era, 1st Edition. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Smith, B. L. (1994). Terrorism in America: Pipe Bombs and Pipe Dreams. New York: State University if New York Press.
Haque, A. (1999). Muslims and Islamization in North America: Problems and Prospects. Oxford: AlaMira Press.
LaFree, G. (2010). The Global Terrorism Database: Accomplishments and Challenges. Perspectives of terrorism. Retrieved form http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/89/html
Law, R. (2009). Terrorism: A History. Cambridge: Polity Press.
