Locate an example of a terrorist organization from the Foreign Terrorist Organization List http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/fs/2002/12535.htm

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One approach to help you with a paper like this one is to look at relevant information from various sources, which you can then draw on for your final copy. I also attached an excellent APA resource. This is the approach this response takes.

Let’s go with Al-Quaeda.

1. Explain the motivation of the selected terrorist organization?

Al-Quaeda (other ways to spell it as well), like other terrorist groups, has an evolving ideology and strategies, meaning that motivations often also evolve and change. According to Boyne, German and Pillar (2005), for example, terrorists see the world at a tipping point, and their goal is to devise an attack that will alter the status quo; that will throw the world into chaos, a cleansing war, a jihad. White Supremacists call it RAHOWA, short for Racial Holy War. Charles Manson called it Helter-Skelter. Whatever they call it, the terrorists believe that out of the chaos, their people will rise and dominate, either because God, or simply justice, is on their side (http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/report/2005/pub613.pdf).

Research suggest that Al-Queda’s has evolved, and bin Laden has reported changing political aspirations over the years, but the theme underlying most spoken motivations is that Islam is the true religion and should be the dominating religion of the world. Some to these motivations and intentions listed in the literature are as follows……