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Osama Bin Laden Weaknesses

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In order to understand the psychological and behavioral practices of a terrorist we must first strive to understand the motivations behind such individuals. “The reason for Muslim weakness was that the Christian world — the Crusaders, as he referred to them — had imposed a series of regimes on Muslims and thereby divided and controlled them” (Friedman, 2007). Osama bin laden and the leaders of Al-Qaida used this conservative Muslim dogma like a weapon to recruit followers and further their cause. I believe that this, along with other key behavioral and psychological factors of its leaders, have defined the actions of the terrorist group and its affiliates for nearly two decades. The idea of Muslim oppression or perceived injustice played a …show more content…
This was largely due to the fact that in order to survive his anonymity must be maintained. In order to maintain that anonymity he isolated himself from the rest of the world which made it difficult to consistently contact and orchestrate the actions of the terrorist group that he founded. Varying means of communication were used but not absolutely necessary in order to further the goals of the group. A very important aspect of the survival of any terrorist organization is the dissemination of its beliefs and the recruitment of others that may share in those beliefs or eventually be coerced into sharing them. “So, violence by the state or by the non-state actor can be conceived as a form of communication that coexists with other forms of communication, sometimes used in concert with them and sometimes in their stead” (Crelinsten, 2002). Acts of terrorism are by definition, acts that are aimed at promoting a groups cause through violence. When that act of violence is paired with a tool such as mass media in order to spread the intent of the message, the effect can be so powerful that it will move whole nations to wage war, as we’ve seen with the war on terror in the United …show more content…
This means of communication has recently become a very popular tool used by terroristic organizations and individuals in order to reach out to the social media population to recruit followers and further the goals of their respective organizations. Social media platforms regularly host hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis. With a large audience and an ability to connect anywhere and remain relatively anonymous terrorist organizations have made a very startling move into modern forms of communicating their violent messages. A perfect example of this is portrayed in a review conducted by the Pakistani journal of criminology: “As member numbers for the [Facebook] groups increase, jihadist material can be slowly introduced by members of the organization to the Facebook group in a way which does not directly condone or encourage jihadist actions, and thus does not constitute a violation of Facebook policy. From this position, the group can even be directed straight to the website and forums of the terrorist organization behind the Facebook group” (Dean et. al. 2012). This is a very scary precedent and one that will have to be confronted in order to stem the flow of any extremist message to the

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