Interese politice sau valori morale? Discursurile liderilor politici și religioși cu privire la terorismul islamist

• Main Author: Paul ȚAP
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Institutul European Iasi 2021-09-01
• Series: Polis: Revista de Stiinte Politice
• Subjects: religion; terrorism; political leaders; religious leaders; 9/11; discourse analysis; the u.s.
• Online Access: http://revistapolis.ro/documente/revista/2021/3(33)/13.%20P.%20Tap.pdf
• ISSN: 1221-9762; 2344-5750

The role of religion in influencing the evolution of both political and social dynamics at the local, regional and international level has been extensively analyzed in the last decades. Similarly, the growing popularity of the terrorism in the 21st century enhanced reserchers’ interest in studying its motivations and effects on the international level. While the values of both religion and terrorism are antagonistic and they cannot co-exist with each other, the contemporary evolutions tend to contradict this perception. There were and continue to be plenty of accounts in which religion was used as a justification for explaining the reasons for why terrorist organizations commit acts of violence. In this sense, much attention was paid to studying the particularities of Islamic terrorism and its driving forces. However, little attention has been paid to analyzing the discourses of political and religious leaders concerning this phenomen. This study uses thematic analysis to analyze the discourses of three religious leaders (i.e. Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis I) and three political ones (i.e. George W. Bush Jr., Barack Obama, Donald J. Trump) regarding the contemporary Islamic terrorism between 2001-2021. The findings show that while all of the six leaders refer to the terrorism and its linkage to Islamism in a similar way, there are differences between how religious and political leaders portray the solutions for combating this phenomen, differences in which religion appers to play a role.