Compare and Contrast Crime and Terrorism
ADJ 215 Criminology

Islamic Jihad Group The Islamic Jihad group is known today as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. This group has been active since the 1970’s. This group is under a worldwide embargo through the United Nations because of the affiliation of the Al-Qaeda. Several governments has banned this group including The Russian Federation. The leader of this group since 1991 has been Ayman al-Zawahiri. The primary goal of this group was to overthrow the Egyptian government which was planned to be replaced with the Islamic state. In later years the interest of this group was broadened to include in attacking the United States as well as Israel with interests in Egypt and abroad. This group has thought to have suffered setbacks from numerous arrests of operatives worldwide. The most recent being in Lebanon and Yemen. In 2001 Al Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad became known by a different name which was “Qaeda al-Jihad.” This merger originally started in 1980 which came from two clusters of the Islamist groups. The Cairo branch which was under the rule of Mohammad abd al-Salam Faraj. The Saidi (upper Egypt) branch under the rule of Karam Zuhdi. The assassination of the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was carried out October 6, 1981. After the assassination all members of the Tanzim al-Jihad were captured by the Egyptian government. During the Egyptian trial the government was rather lenient on them only the four direct perpetrators and Faraj the Cairo leader were the only ones that received the death penalty. The Islamic group al-Gama’a al-Islamivva was later formed from the two terrorist factions the Saidis and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Abud Zumour an army intelligence officer was the leader for the Cairo militants and is presently serving a life sentence for his plot to kill the leader Sadat. The Islamic Jihad even though it was a small group were a very disciplined group. Another great setback that failed in 1995 was the attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak. The Sudanese intelligences and the al-Gama’a al-Islamivva had joined forces which were secretly based in Sudan. Mustafa Hamza was a senior member and a big part of the Al-Qaeda network. He was the responsible party for the attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak. The Jihad was the group that was thought to be responsible for multiple lethal sucide bombings. Some of these includes U.S. Embassy, Israeli Embassy and the Uzbek prosecutor general’s office. The Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization in Uzbekistan is the official designated organization with the U.S. State Department. The Jihad group seeked to overthrow the Uzbek president Islam Karimov which would lead to an establishing of Islamic government in the region. On May 12, 2005 the U.S. seized the financial assets of the Jihad’s to prevent the movement of the group. Richard Boucher spokesman for the state department announces that the Islamic Jihad group is a very serious threat to the U.S. and the American way of life. The Jihad group is known to have close ties with Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in which they provide terrorist with explosive training. This group has also been thought and accused of having ties with the former Taliban chief Mullah Omar. The motivation of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group is the fact of being able to control through terrorism and fear. Making political statements through the use of violence and destruction. Islamic Jihad is a small terrorist group with a violent past. It espouses the ideology that the destruction of Israel and any Western influences in the Middle East will lead to the liberation of Palestine and the convergence of the Arab and Muslim countries into one great Islamic state. The members of the group believe the way to accomplish this is via jihad, or holy war (Allison Weisberg , 2003). All the thinking and motivation of this group stems from the beliefs that have been taught through the generations as well as the Ideology. This group doesn’t seek power. The whole idea of this group is to attack those that are perceived to be an enemy of Islam. The aim is to also inspire and store incite into Islamist movements as well as the Muslim masses worldwide. Not all Muslims agree or support the Al Qaeda’s beliefs or motives. Some motives that is included is in the Al Qaeda movement is the exploiting widespread suffering, resentment and anger of all Muslims which in return presents itself as turning against the United States and its allies. The more knowledge that a country can gain against a terrorist group will serve in better preventing future attacks. As long as the motivation is known and you are able to slow or take that motivation away from a group it makes them have to find another game plan which then in return allows time to get one step ahead of them again. Terrorist groups are making statements when performing the bombing attacks so why are we not doing the same thing? As long as we stand up to these groups we will get their attention and make a believer out of them. As long as we continue to clean up their countries when we do go to war with them what message are we sending beside yeah we won’t take your crap but in return we feel bad and will rebuild the country. The motivations of terrorist different from other violent criminals in the way that they are acting upon a belief and as a martyr. They are doing it for the good of all Muslims so they think to where the acts of a violent criminal who commit crimes such as murder, rape and domestic assault do this for revenge or self satisfaction. Cultural, socioeconomic or political factors may lead a individual or group to become a terrorist or a criminal by the way of interfering with one’s ideal way of life, freedom or their beliefs.

References

Whales, J. (2009, November 23). Egyptian islamic jihad- wikipedia. Retrieved from www.wikipedia.org, retrieved November 29, 2009.

(2005, June 3). U.s. adds islamic group to terrorism list. Retrieved from www.adl.org, retrieved on November 29, 2009.

Weisburg, A ( 2003, May, 01). Islamic Jihad, Retrieved from www.frontpagemag.com. Retrieved on November 29 ,2009.