The Ideology of Terrorism: Radicalism Revisited
![handle is hein.journals/brownjwa15 and id is 11 raw text is: The Ideology of Terrorism:
Radicalism Revisited
MICHAEL CHERTOFF
Secretary
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
SINCE THE SEPTEMBER I I ATTACKS seven years ago, the United States has continued to
confront the threat posed by its terrorist foes. Just two summers ago, for example, a plot
to hijack transatlantic airliners was disrupted in London. It served as a stark reminder
of how our enemies continue to target this nation and its allies.
In response to this threat, the United States and its friends must maintain their
vigilance against terrorism. But they must also combat the ideas that drive the ter-
rorists. As Jonathan Evans, Director General of the British Security Service once
said, [A] Ithough the most visible manifestations of this problem are the attacks and
attempted attacks we have suffered in recent years, the root of the problem is ideologi-
cal.1 Al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations are inspired by a malignant ideology, 11
one that is characterized by contempt for human dignity and freedom and a depraved
disregard for human life.
The terrorists claim that they are practicing Islam, but in the words of Bernard
Lewis, one of the foremost western scholars of Islam, At no point do the basic texts
of Islam enjoin terrorism and murder. At no point do they even consider the random
slaughter of uninvolved bystanders.2 Indeed, an increasing number of Muslim scholars
and clerics have voiced the same objection to conflating Islam with extremists who
claim to act in its name.
What, then, is the ideology of the terrorists who commit acts of mass murder
against non-Muslims and Muslims alike? What is it that distinguishes the violent extrem-
MICHAEL CHERTOFF was sworn in as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in February
2005. Previously, he served as a U.S. Circuit Court judge and as Assistant Attorney General at the Criminal
Division of the Justice Department, where he helped trace the 9/11 attacks to the al-Qaeda network and
increased information sharing with the FBI and with state and local officials. Secretary Chertoff also spent
more than a decade as a federal prosecutor for the District of New Jersey and for the Southern District
of New York, where he successfully prosecuted landmark cases involving organized crime, political cor-
ruption, and corporate fraud.
Copyright © 2008 by the Brown Journal of World Affairs
FALL/WINTER 2008 - VOLUME XV, ISSUE I](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/brownjwa15&div=5&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Ideology of Terrorism: Radicalism Revisited
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