Terrorism in Three Religious Tradition:

Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism

Disusun untuk memenuhi tugas

Mata kuliah : Intercultural Communication

Dosen Pengampu : Nur Asiyah, M.A.

Disusun oleh:

1. Zaky Kholisun Nur 196111105

PRODI SASTRA INGGRIS 3D

FAKULTAS ADAB DAN BAHASA

INSTITUT AGAMA ISLAM NEGERI SURAKARTA

A. INTRODUCTION
Terror has been generally defined as "the threat or use of violence in order to create extreme fear and an
xiety in a target group so as to coerce them to meet political (or quasi-political) objectives of the perpetrator
s. Such terrorist acts have an international character when they are carried out across national lines or directe
d against nationals of a foreign State or instrumentality of that State”. ‘The attacks of August 7, 1998 on the
United States' embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, signaled graphically how terror h
as mutated. In the 1970's and the 1980's, terrorism consisted largely of the taking of hostages, plane hijackin
g and destruction, attacks by bombs or car bombs on market places or diplomatic premises. It was engaged i
n by small bands whose goals were identifiable, were national, and had largely to do with some form or anot
her of the denial of the right to self-determination and the resistance to physical and oppressive foreign occu
pation. The face of the old terror was primarily secular, even if it adopted a religious name like Hezbollah, t
he Party of God, of southern Lebanon. It has leaders with whom one can negotiate or from whom one can ac
cept a cease-fire, or an exchange of hostages, or the return of the remains of dead soldiers for the freedom of
terrorist prisoners.
Terrorism is being increasingly seen as one of the most serious, disturbing and damaging problems of
life in our time. Research on terrorism is not abstract science; it involves real people with real lives which
are ruined, changed and controlled by the processes under study. Organised and planned campaigns of
violence do not happen within a vacuum and they are not driven by trivial or fleeting motivations which
reside in and are shared only by the perpetrators. Terrorism is not the result of psychopathy or mental
illness. After thirty years of research all that psychologists can safely say of terrorists is that their
outstanding characteristic is their normality. Terrorism is not the work of madmen or devils and to try and
fight it in those terms is to fight it with a very mistaken concept of who your enemies are and why others
may support and sympathise with them. Therefore, here we will focus on study terrorism based on several
religious traditions. These religious traditions are Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

B. DISCUSSION
1. Hinduism Tradition

In India, this violence is supported by Hindu extremists and their allies in the Indian government, which
is currently led by the Bharatiya Janata Party. One reason for our lack of attention here is that India is not a
religiously reactionary state like Saudi Arabia or Iran, and in fact faces its own threats from Islamist
militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir, as well as Islamist terrorist attacks throughout the country, most
notably the dramatic storming of the Indian parliament in 2001 and the deadly bombing in Bombay that
killed fifty-two people in August 2003. (The Indian Supreme Court itself has held that “no precise meaning
can be ascribed to the terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism’.) It was only when the census introduced by the British
colonial authorities in 1871 included Hindu as a religious designation that many Indians began to think of
themselves and their country as Hindu. The Sangh Parivar’s central organization is the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded by Keshav Hedgewar in 1925. Hedgewar was influenced by V. D.
Savarkar, who believed that Hindus were the descendants of the ancient Aryans and properly formed a
nation with a unified geography, race, and culture. Savarkar’s 1923 book Hindutva. Who is a Hindu?
declared that those who did not consider India as both fatherland and holy land were not true Indians
Declared that those who did not consider India as both fatherland and holy land were not true Indians and
that the love of Indian Christians and Muslims for India was “divided” because each group had its own holy
land in the Middle East.
 In 1938, commenting on the Nuremberg racial laws, he declared: “Germany has also shown how well-
nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one
united whole, a good lesson for us to learn and profit by.” In an address to RSS members the same year, he
also asserted: “If we Hindus grow stronger, in time Muslim friends will have to play the part of German
Jews.” He insisted that “the non-Hindu must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to
respect and revere Hindu religion or they may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation,
claiming nothing, deserving no privileges.” On March 25, 1939, the Hindu nationalist Mahasabha Party, an
RSS ally, likewise proclaimed: “Germany’s solemn idea of the revival of the Aryan culture, the glorification
of the swastika, her patronage of Vedic learning, and the ardent championship of Indo-Germanic civilization
are welcomed by the religious and sensible Hindus of India with a jubilant hope.”

Golwalkar castigated Gandhi as being soft on Muslims, while Gandhi in turn called the RSS “a
communal body with a totalitarian outlook.” Hindu nationalists blamed Gandhi for the partition of the
subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 and accused him of dismembering Mother India. The Vidya
Bharati schools distribute booklets containing a map of India that encompasses not only Pakistan and
Bangladesh but also the entire region of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, and parts of Myanmar, all under the heading
“Punya Bhoomi Bharat,” the “Indian Holy Land.” The RSS also has separate organizations for tribal
peoples, intellectuals, teachers, slum dwellers, leprosy patients, cooperatives, consumers, newspapers,
industrialists, Sikhs, ex-servicemen, overseas Indians, and an organization for religion and proselytization,
as well as trade unions, student and economic organizations, and a women’s chapter. Other Sangh Parivar
organizations include the Bajrang Dal and the Vishnu Hindu Parishad (VHP-World Hindu Council), which
engage in propaganda, virulent hate campaigns, and sometimes violence against religious minorities. It has
sought to radicalize Hindus by claiming that Hindus are under threat from an “exploding” Muslim
population and a spate of Christian conversions, and it organized the 1992 nationwide demonstrations that
culminated in the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque by Hindu mobs.

In January 2003, the head of the RSS described the Jesuits in India as the “pope’s soldiers” and alleged
that they had taken an oath to use “violence and barbaric means to decimate all those who don’t follow the
Roman Catholic religion.” Sangh Parivar groups have also been pressing for a ban on religious conversions
from Hinduism, which they allege are being done by “force, fraud, and inducement.” They accuse Christian
missionaries (who comprise about one half of one percent of the Christians in India) of converting people by
offering them money, medical help, and education.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has since 1998
formed the national government of India at the head of a coalition of centrist parties, is tied to the RSS,
VHP, and Bajrang Dal, and functions as the Sangh Parivar’s political wing.At the national level the BJP
advances the ideology of Hindutva through propaganda, the manipulation of cultural institutions,
undercutting laws that protect religious minorities, and minimizing or excusing Hindu extremist violence.

In a 1977 judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that “converting” people was not a fundamental right, that
conversions could potentially impinge on freedom of conscience, and that, if conversions disrupt
community life, they could amount to “disturbing public order.” The states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and Arunachal Pradesh have a legal ban on “forced conversion.” Officials of the
National Commission for Minorities, a government body with the mandate to protect minorities, believe that
such laws are unconstitutional; and despite many investigations into allegations, no “forced conversions”
have ever been documented or proven. Because of their desperate status in Indian society, many lower-caste
Hindus have considered converting in order to escape their religiously defined plight (most Christians in
India are from Dalit background).India’s Home Ministry (internal security) and its National Commission for
 Minorities officially list over a hundred religiously motivated attacks against Christians per year, but the real
number is certainly higher, as Indian journalists estimate that only some ten percent of incidents are ever
reported. In 2004 recommendations, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom proposed that
India be included on the State Department’s official shortlist of the worst religious persecutors for its
“egregious, systematic, and ongoing” violations of religious fights.

2. Islam/Muslims Tradition

The factor of terrorism in Islam is an internal factor, the implications of the West-Christian colonialism on
Islam are very real when we trace the history of the birth of modern Arab-Islamic movements. The collapse of
the Turkish-Islamic power and the deterioration of the condition of the Muslims under Turkish rule were in
contrast to the rapid progress and rise of the European enlightenment. It was during this period that modern
Islamic movements were born, which can be classified into two categories. First, the Purita Wahabi movement
which advocates the purification of Islamic teachings by returning to the original teachings that reject all forms
of Western culture.

Second, move modern Islam which tries to unite civilizations Europe and Islam. This second movement
attempted to find a compromise between Islam and European modernization. The main supporters of this
movement were Jamaluddin al-Afghani and Syeh Mohammad Adduh. The two movements try to purify Islam
from all aspects of its weakness and decline. However, the Wahhabi movement took a strong discourse in its
vision and mission. The Wahabi movement is a Sunni-Puritan movement founded by Muhammad Ibn Abdul-
Wahab, (17031791), who rejected all religious practices adopted after the 3rd century Hijriyah. Religious
practices here are mainly related to philosophy, Sufism and local practices even though they have an Islamic
breath that is labeled as bid'ah. This movement popularized the term bid'ah or innovation as an action without
demands and of course against pure Islam. An example is reading the biography of the Prophet Muhammad,
which was practiced by the Islamic commander Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi in order to unite the ranks of Islam
against crusading aggression. This action is considered by Wahhabi to be heretical bid'ah and must be
prohibited.

Wahhabism, without a doubt, is a reference point for Islamic thought, which in practice can be found in the
sphere of new fundamentalism. This flow follows the understanding of Islam literally and purely. This view is
trying to get rid of the various readers of the Al-quran which has been going on for centuries after the time of
the Prophet. According to them, disbelief related to rudeness, local culture, law, religious activities or rituals
and anything that is not found in the literal reading of the Al-quran should be abandoned and considered as
idolatry. The destruction of Buddhist temples by the Taliban regime is a clear manifestation of Wahabi
teachings.

Internal factors that come from the Islamic world itself, namely the existence of a rigid textual interpretation
of the sources of Islamic teachings and the implication in the form of thinking that adherents of other religions
are considered something that threatens their existence, so these two things can create a frustrated and frustrated
group of people. hopeless. These feelings in turn lead them to radical and extreme thoughts and attitudes and
actions in the name of religion. In such a situation, an idea emerges about a global struggle, a world filled with
violence, especially in the Islamic world where Islamic fundamentalists who are involved in this have misused
religion to justify their attitudes and actions in the form of terror as a means of legitimacy. as if "blessed and
justified" by God.
 In Islamic literatures or more clearly from " ngaji kitab kuning," the first form of jihad (jihad al-nafs) is
often referred to as the " jihad besar" (al-jihad al-akbar), a hard effort made by someone to fight the evil
tendencies of his soul, subordinate the pressures of his passions, cleanse the soul and despicable qualities, and
dispels envy, envy and hatred between people. With this " jihad al akbar" it is hoped that a Muslim can purify
his soul as a way to get closer to Allah SWT. The second jihad, namely jihad in the sense of war which is given
by religion, is called “ jihad kecil” (al-jihad al-ashghar). One principle that needs to be emphasized is that the
war that is allowed in Islam ( jihad) is actually more of a defensive character whose purpose is solely to defend
oneself from enemy attacks. Therefore, Islam clearly prohibits fanaticism and fanaticism, it is natural and
logical that Islam rejects all forms of anarchism and terrorism.

3. Judaism Tradition

Israel is a predominantly Jewish country and Israel is in the world spotlight for its controversial case against
Palestine even though many countries have condemned the move. Apart from the country of Israel, the Jews
seem to have a grudge and want to take what is owned by Palestine. Early on Friday morning, two masked men
entered Duma, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, where they smashed the windows of two houses, threw
firebombs inside, and fled. One house was empty; the other wasn’t. Ali Dawabsheh, an eighteen-month-old
baby, died. His parents and four-year-old brother remain in critical condition. On the house, the attackers spray-
painted, in Hebrew, the words “Long Live the Messiah King” and “Revenge.” For nearly a decade, a radical
minority among Jewish settlers has carried out “price-tag attacks” in response to Palestinian violence or any
action by the police or military that these settlers deem unjust. The attacks have included the destruction of
property—setting fire to cars, livestock, and homes—and the desecration of mosques and churches. Some
attacks, such as the vandalism of a military base in 2011, have been aimed directly at authorities, but more often
they target Palestinians. “These quote-unquote hilltop youths tried to form an equation that told us—‘You
evacuate a settlement, we will hurt the Palestinians,’” Avi Mizrahi, the former head of Central Command, told
Israel’s Channel 10, in a report on the phenomenon in 2013.

Friday’s attack came during the same week that an Israeli court ordered the demolition of two illegal
apartment buildings in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. It has also been described as retaliation for the
drive-by shooting of four Israelis in the West Bank last month, which left one dead. The price-tag attacks at
once stoke Palestinian violence and feed off it; they are cyclical and create a chilling sense of déjà vu. The
murder of Ali Dawabsheh took place a year after another Palestinian, a sixteen-year-old named Muhammad
Abu Khdeir, was burned alive. That killing, too, was an act of revenge, for the kidnapping and murder of three
Israeli teen-agers last summer, which led to a full-blown war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The
first price-tag attacks took place in 2006, in response to Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and evacuations
of Jewish outposts in the West Bank, which riled and radicalized the settler camp. The attacks grew rampant in
2008. The Yesha Council, the main body that represents settlers, denounced the attacks as immoral in 2011. But
the Yesha Council’s authority has weakened dramatically in recent years, as violent far-right settlers, backed by
extremist rabbis, have taken the law into their own hands. The group behind these attacks is estimated to range
from a few hundred to some three thousand members. As it has become more radical, so have its attacks, which
have evolved from property destruction to torching Palestinian homes at times when residents are likely to be in
them. Last year, for the first time, the U.S. State Department included price-tag attacks in its annual terrorism
report. It recorded nearly four hundred cases in 2013. In 2014, the number dipped slightly, to three hundred and
thirty.
C. CONCLUSION
 REFERENCES

Oscar Schachter, International Law in Theory and Practice 163 (1991).

John Deutch, When to Strike Back, the new york Times, Aug. 22, 1998.

https://www.hudson.org/research/4575-hinduism-and-terror. accessed on 18 November