by Steve Miracle

Created on: December 31, 2007

The misconception that terrorism and religion are strongly related is rooted in another misconception that terrorism is a product of the Muslim world. If one only attempts to understand terrorism in the modern sense it would be very easy to come away with the conclusion that religion is strongly ensconced in its existence. However, if one takes a deeper look at the history of terrorism it becomes possible to see beyond the erroneous belief that it derives from the Muslim world. It is much clearer at that point to understand that Terrorism, while sometimes definitely derived for religious reasons, may also be the product of political factors or of the two combined. It requires a deeper study to be explained clearly.

A deeper look at the history of terrorism will reveal that terrorism is not new to the world. In fact terrorism in some form or other has been around for thousands of years but was not actually termed "Terrorism" until the French Revolution during the 1790's. Continuing back through time we can find that the Assyrians implemented a very effective form of terrorism in the conquering of their empire. They would ride into a village and kill and inform the occupants that they were now Assyrians who must accept the Assyrian king as their leader, the Assyrian language as their language, and all other customs of the Assyrians would become theirs as well. The new subjects were to forsake their own leaders, religion, language, and customs immediately. It was a simple choice. Submit or die. Those who did not submit (many at first) were put to death immediately. Sometimes entire villages were killed. As news spread of the Assyrian brutality the number of those refusing to submit decreased. The Romans used a similar method.

Under the Romans in Judea a group called the Zealots (Sicarii to the Romans) conducted their attacks on Roman political figures and other Jews whom they believed to be Roman sympathizers. An interesting aspect of the Zealots is that they were no trying to force their religion or customs on anyone but believed that the roman way of life was in conflict with the ways of Judaism. The Romans eventually massacred by the Zealots at Masada.

In the Muslim world the first group to engage in terroristic acts was the Ismailis of Iran. Known as the Assassins they served the "old man of the mountain" their leader who ruled from the mountain fortress Alamut. Much like terrorists of today the assassins were too few to engage in open warfare with their enemies

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