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What counts as terrorism? The view on the Arab street
05/01/2005 By Fares Braizat
The majority of the world’s citizens – in the Arab world as much as in the West – surely agree that terrorism is a bad thing but can they agree on what terrorism is?
Democratic solutions to the question of political violence require an attempt to develop an agreed language by which people can debate these issues across national and cultural borders.
A beginning – which illuminates some issues but also rises further questions – may be seen in the results of a large-scale survey research project conducted by the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) in Arab countries at the University of Jordan in Mashreq.
The surveys were conducted in collaboration with partner institutions in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt across four samples in each country (national, university students, business, and media).
The questions in the surveys addressed relations between Arabs and Western nations, and the issue of terrorism in particular.
They demonstrate that Arabs have fundamental disagreements with the West (here defined as the US governments own classification) over what is and is not terrorism.
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Keywords
Civil society Terrorism War on terrorBio author: Fares Braizat
He received his PhD in Politics and Government from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 2003.
