The Morality of Terrorism: Religious and Secular Justifications

Discussions held at a 1979 UCLA-SUNY Conference on Terrorism held at UCLA made it abundantly clear that there was a pressing need for new studies which could provide both historical and moral perspectives for terrorist activities, and this volume was designed to meet that deficiency. Two of the Conference papers were suitable for this purpose, and thirteen additional ones were solicited. The intent of the present work is to suggest new ways to approach the subject of terrorism. The understanding of terrorism can be enhanced immensely by expanding our historical perspective, and by stimulating a finer appreciation of what terrorist doctrines and activities involve and why they seem to create unusual moral predicaments. Many of the essays included here are historical case studies treating issues created by terror for different secular and religious purposes. The majority confine themselves to specific time periods; others range through time more freely, searching for pertinent comparisons, and a few address the problem of historical perspective. All the essays, historical or not, discuss moral matters, and in this respect they can be distinguished from those normally encountered in contemporary literature. A principal theme of this volume is that no aspect of terrorism can be more important than the moral questions it raises; yet, none in current literature has been more neglected or muddled. Terrorist activity raises a wide range of moral questions, questions pertaining to both moral fact and prescription, concepts explained and discussed here. The initial section of this book deals with religious terror; the second and third with the two major secular forms, state and rebel terror. A number of the essays focus on historic events or periods, which is why the individual sections are organized chronologically where that has been feasible. The separate introductions for each section describe the individual essays in some detail and discuss their mutual relationships.