What is the Middle East?

The Arab World An Ethnic/Linguistic Area

The Muslim World: A religious area

Largest Muslim Populations, by country

# Country Muslims

1. Indonesia 188,619,000

2. Pakistan 144,788,000

3. India 131,213,000

4. Bangladesh 118,512,000

5. Turkey 67,864,000

6. Iran 67,647,000

7. Egypt 64,647,000

8. Nigeria 54,891,000

9. Algeria 31,729,000

10. Morocco 31,642,000

North Africa

The Levant

The GCC States

Yemen- an outlier?• 140 on the UNDP

Human Development Index 2009

• 138/140 in Save the Children’s “Mothers' Index” 2007)

• 18 on the Foreign Policy Index (2009)

of failed/fragile states

What is terrorism?

• What is legal/illegal violence?

• How has creating a War on Terror defined terrorism?

• How does the WOT align with or bypass international law?

• What then is Counterterrorism?

Who are terrorists and who do they target? Why?

• Do motives matter?• Do targets matter?• Does civilian/military status matter?• What about when those are blurred?

– Are there “innocent” civilians in Israel?– Are civilians “innocent” in democratic societies?– Are civilians “innocent” even when they pay taxes?

(Mohammad Sidique Khan employed this logic for targeting civilians in the 7/7 attacks in Britain )

– What about when no military exists to fight for freedom/ideals/redress grievances?

Should there be distinctions between:

• terrorism and revolution or national liberation struggle

• terrorism and internal conflicts

• state-sponsored and individual terrorism

Consider the following:• "If the existing government of Afghanistan had declared war on the

United States at 8 A.M. EST, September 11, the attacks on New York and Washington would have been air raids” (Anonymous, European Union representative, Marvasti 2008, 3)

• “The massacre of the American Marines in Beirut in 1983 by a suicide bomber was considered terrorism, but if that same act were performed by an Egyptian or a Jordanian soldier, it would be labeled an act of war rather than terrorism” (Marvasti 2008, 5).

• The bombing of Hiroshima is now considered an act of war due to legitimate government action. "Bin Laden in 1997 condemned the United States government as hypocritical for not calling the bombing of Hiroshima terrorism” (Slovenko 2008, x).

USS Cole Bombing, 2003• Despite the bombing in a non-war setting (and

by civilians rather than military), many Yemenis considered the act as opposition to U.S. warships fuelling in the port of Aden for military operations in Iraq.

• This action thus targeted U.S. military presence on Yemen’s shores.

• Was the U.S.S Cole bombing an act of terror?