Terrorism, Orientation and Substantial Directions : Islamic Terrorism in the Syrian Context

• Main Author: Skaik, Hammam
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, REMESO - Institutet för forskning om migration, etnicitet och samhälle 2018
• Subjects: Philosophy; Filosofi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-149080

Terrorism and its causes have been widely discussed in academic literature, and especially the issue of Islamic terrorism has gained broad popular, academic and political interest. However, theories of terrorism do not seem to engage with the orientated aspect of terrorism and how terrorism can be ideologically orientated. The dominant understanding of terrorism in scholarly works argues that terrorism cannot be created by the state; rather it can be manipulated or triggered by it. Especially in the wake of the Arab Spring those theories do not engage in studying the interplay of state strategy and ideology in the making of the phenomenon while at the same time relegating the effect of humiliation and colonialist heritage and the industrialization of the body terrorist. This paper brings a new theoretical understanding about the causes of terrorism in the Middle Eastern context in the wake of the Arab Spring. This understanding draws from the theory of ideology by Louis Althusser, and the concept of orientation by Sara Ahmed in order to reach a better diagnosis of the phenomenon. Examining journalistic works written about terrorism in this context, this thesis identifies the processes of ideological orientation to produce terrorism.