The religious terrorist groups are the GIA, Hamas, and the American Christian White Supremacists.
The GIA terrorist group comes from Algeria. The country got its independence from France in 1962 after a bloody battle that left several people dead. The existence of Islam was not felt in Algeria in the 1960s. Islamic revival began in the late 1970s. Violence erupted in 1982 due to the conflict between the secular elements and the traditional, fundamentalist sections of the population. The political temperature was aggravated when the elections of 1991, won by the Islamic Salvation Front, were annulled by the government. This led to major confrontations and the extreme Islam terrorist group, the GIA, joined the conflict.
The goals of the GIA were to effect a regime change by overthrowing the government and replacing it with one led by them that ensured that Algeria was an Islamic state. The group also aimed at social control of the population by introducing strict Islamic laws in the country. The terrorist group targeted whole groups of the population, especially teachers, journalists, intellectuals, and government workers. Foreigners also became a major target. The terrorist tactics that the group uses are assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings.
Hamas is a terrorist group found in Palestine. On November 15, 1988, the PLO declared the independence of Palestine that made it to be recognized as a state. Jerusalem is its’ capital city. The United Nations granted its observer status, and the PLO movement represents it the Assembly.
Hamas was founded as a de facto branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987 at the beginning of the first conflict against Israeli presence in Palestinian boundaries.
Hamas has the goal of enacting a territorial change by replacing the West Bank and the Gaza strip portions of Israel with an Islamic state. Hamas is deeply religious than their rivals, the PLO, hence it is determined to bring an Islamic revival in the Palestinian state. Their key targets are the Israeli society, the rivals of Fatah, and the Palestinians, who collaborate with their enemies.
Hamas uses violent demonstrations, stone-throwing by the youth, barricades on roads, suicide attacks, and rocket attacks to carry out its mission. Hamas also threatened Israel to be prepared for attacks by having thousands of coffins ready.
American Christian White Supremacists have been in existence in the United States. One of these organizations is the Michigan Militia which was formed in 1994. It is a paramilitary and survivalist organization that derives membership across the U.S. The movement consists of two factions; the ‘talking’ militia (also known as ‘out-front’ militias) to which most membership is composed of and the ‘marching’ militias (also known as ‘up-front’ militias), which are mainly involved in violent activities.
The movement’s goal is to maintain the status quo by resisting any political force that threatens to change it. This Christian extremist group aims to span a broad spectrum of anti-federalist and seditious beliefs. They oppose any program that they believe gives the government the opportunity to completely controlling the life of every American. In the past, they have resisted the use of force against citizens who had not done any federal crimes but held contrary opinions to that held by the government. In addition, they opposed the anti-gun legislation enacted by the government.
The movement targeted government officials, government buildings, and the Jews who were seen as imposters and children of Satan that needed to be eliminated.
The Michigan Militia used different terrorist tactics to air their grievances. They used non-violent ways (talking faction), violent actions (bomb), seditious activities, and they embraced the combination of revolutionary, racist, and anti-Semitic doctrines.
Most terrorist groups in the world today have a religious affiliation that they use to justify their cause. Although terrorism can be carried out for political reasons, the religious aspect often stands out in such circumstances. Religious terrorism is regarded by the practitioners as a divine duty that has been commanded by God. This forms the basis of justifying violence as a sacred duty. These factors distinguish it from secular terrorists and make it to be more destructive when it is carried out.
Terrorist incidents propelled by religious influence end up in so much destruction and deaths due to the thoroughly different value systems, methods of legitimization and justification, perception of morality, and the different views for carrying out the attack held by the religious terrorist as compared to the secular terrorist.