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Nick Johnson
Professor Pelletier
Core 101
10 November 2018
Why Do People Become Terrorist?
My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest as I raced down the countless
flights of stairs. The hotel fire alarm was blasting in my ear, this was the third time in four days
the fire alarm had went off. My family and I were staying on the twenty-third floor of a hotel in
the heart Boston, and the fire alarm kept getting pulled. Who was behind it? The employees of
the hotel were unsure at the time. While this was not terrorism, it did have a lasting effect on my
seven year old self. I refused to stay in a hotel unless our room was on the first floor. Beyond
that, I become scared to participate in what only a few weeks ago seemed normal to me. Simple
tasks like going to the grocery store with my mom was terrifying. When sitting in a movie
theater, I could not take my eyes off the exit doors. The loud sound effects made me jump
instantly flashing me back to being awoken in the night by a similar deffing noise. This is the
closest I have ever been to experiencing terrorism and hopefully it stays that way. As the United
States continues to experience an increasing number of attacks on its nations, I often find myself
thinking back to these nights. When I see the attacks on the news I feel like I can in some way
relate to these people. This intrigues me, I want to know more about the people behind these
attacks and why they think it is a reasonable course of action. Many factors affect what makes a
person become a terrorist: personal upbringing, religion, and life events could be proven to be
some of the strongest influences.
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This event had a long lasting effect on myself along with my family. The fire alarms
incident put a pretty big damper on our trip, we packed up a departed from Boston two days
earlier than we had initially planned. After the third time of getting woke up the middle of the
night, my parents packed up the family, and we left for home without even going backup to the
room. Although we were happy to hear that this was not a terrorist attack. With the current
state of the world today, terrorism is starting to become much more prevalent. It has become
almost impossible to watch the news anymore without seeing terrible events taking place.
During my last trip to the local barber shop I overheard a man in the chair getting his
haircut say to the barber “ I won’t even watch the news anymore.” Unfortunately this line of
thinking is not only shared by him but countless others who simply decline to take part in seeing
such devastating news. Something must be causing people to want to act this way and take part
in these senseless acts.
Why would someone think killing innocent people is acceptable? One factor to consider
is religion. If you are ever on the streets in Jerusalem ask any police officer about the
psyicalicigac phenoem called Jerusalem sydrome. A news company known as The Telegraph
from London England picked up on this story and wrote about when “ An Irish School teacher
who came to a Jerusalem hospital convinced she was about to give birth to baby Jesus when in
fact she was not even pregnant.” (Tarlow 2) As defined by Peter Tarlow in The interaction of
religion and terrorism
“ Jerusalem syndrome is an example of the power of religion over human
behavior and emotions.”(2) This is only one example of religion affecting the way a person
thinks about themselves. In this case, religion starts to have serious effects on alternating what is
taking place inside the minds of these people, they now seem to be drifting off into a much
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different direction than most religions hope to see their members go. Jerusalem syndrome is a
prime example of how religion can persuade people to do certain things. This can have both
positive and negative outcomes. In some cases it can be great and totally turn a person’s life
around, but in others it can drastically change the course that they were on. Most of this stems
from extreme religious groups. As reported by the Global Terrorism index “ Religious
extremism has become the main driver of terrorism in recent years.” Religious extremism can be
described as “ faith-based actions that are deliberate attempts to cause harm to other people.”
(Crabtree 1) The Global Terrorism Index showed growth of 60% from 2012 to 2013. Not only
that but 66% of these attacks were carried about by only four groups ISIS, the Taliban, al-Qaeda
and Boko Haram. What are some factors that would push someone to get connected with and
