An Analysis of Jihadi Terrorism and Its Impact on Global Security

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the multifaceted threat of jihadi terrorism to global security, with a particular emphasis on its impact on the Middle Eastern states. The essay begins by defining the nature of jihadi terrorism, its various forms, and its association with groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS, highlighting their ideologies and motivations. It then explores the shift in focus of jihadi activities from Western countries to the Middle East, examining the vulnerability of cities and the recruitment of extremists. The essay further discusses the role of social media in radicalization, the challenges for intelligence organizations, and the rise of lone-wolf attacks. It concludes by emphasizing the need for strict regulations, legal checks, and proper surveillance to combat jihadi terrorism and protect countries from its devastating consequences. The essay references various academic sources to support its arguments and provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic.

Running head: GLOBAL SECURITY
GLOBAL SECURITY
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Authors Note:

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Terrorism is very complex and continuously changing phenomenon that makes headlines
related to national and international agendas. It has various forms and is associated with various
groups. It ranges from right-wing and left-wing groups, nationalist separatist organizations to
political religious networks. They commit all the terrorist attacks based on their own ideologies
and mixed motivations (Muggah, 2018). The term jihads is used more widely after the 9/11
attacks, since the year 1991. After the attack the government of United States had insistently
generated a new body related to the international law. This law is also called global security law,
which is still the most persistent legacies since the so called ‘jihadis’ terrorist attack. The essay
discusses the threats caused by jihadis terrorism to the Middle Eastern States than to the people
belonging to the Western countries.
The high profile attacks that took place in the western countries like Belgium, United
States and France have set the world on edge. The jihadis war is now stretching from the
American countries to Middle- East, African and Arabian countries. The people involved in this
are the group of terrorists like Al Qaeda and ISIS (Lekhraibani, Rutledge & Forstenlechner,
2015). They are hitting particular groups of people or organization. In addition to this symbolic
sites and popular cities are their main aim. The violent extremists are actually recruiting the
people to spread this from the marginal and poorer neighborhood across the western countries.
The extent to which the local-recruitment and extremist travelling is spread from the western
countries is actually a cause of great concern (Seth et al., 2018). As per the reports 31,000 people
from different countries are now travelled to Syria or Iraq to join ISIS and other extremist groups
since the year 2014. Besides North America and Western Europe, Central Asia and Russia is
increasingly becoming the fertile place for this remote radicalization. Moreover, various foreign
fighters are sabotaged while fighting with such people abroad. The politicians in the recent times

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are also participating to respond and hate such crimes against all the minority group are also
rapidly increasing. Terrorism especially in the form of jihadis is the non-state actors imposing
violence on civilians to achieve ideological or political religious change.
As per (Keeffe, 2018) a recent assessment for terrorist risks in various cities all around
the globe, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Somalia and Pakistan are more vulnerable than
France, Belgium, the US or the UK. On the top of it 65 cities are described to face the most
extreme form of risks, which includes Baghdad, Al Ramadi, Mosul and Al Hillah in the top 10
targeted cities. There are dozens of jihadis terrorist attacks in the recent years. As per the Global
Terrorism Database (GTD) the terrorist linked fatalities are tracked between 2005 and 2014 and
most of the countries that are affected now are in the Middle East. There is still an ongoing
continuous warfare in the Middle East countries that includes Syria, Iraq, Yemen and
Afghanistan. Majority of countries that are prone to jihadis terrorism is now clustered in the
Middle East, South Asia and Northern parts of Africa.
In the name of jihads, innocent civilians are ultimately getting killed during the armed
conflicts. As per Jalal (2015), there is quite a difference between war and terrorism. In war
killing the innocent civilians are strictly prohibited. While the jihadis terrorisms is intended
particularly to kill the civilians indiscriminately. It is seen that generally small number of
countries are relatively more at risk like, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria (Archetti, 2015). It is a high
time for such countries to protect their homeland from terrorism in the name of jihads. They need
to nurture better resilience and should have the ability to adapt, cope and rebound by avoiding
high risks. When the existing communities suffer from neglect and highly disorganized in nature.

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It is crucial time to address jihadis terrorism with all sincerity due to distinct terror group
that is spurred through by the common ideologies. After the collapse of ISIS and Al Qaeda (AQ)
dreams for Caliphate and Islamic states, the major focus has now shifted to spread the terror
globally. ISIS which raise to popularity in 2014 after being separated from their parent
organization AQ. It has now become the ultimate trend setter for spreading jihadi terrorism in the
global level. As per the reports, after the death of the most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden,
AQ lost its sheen as well as the leadership related to global jihads. Majority of the ISIS fighters
have already returned to their nations and furthermore redeployed in smaller groups by. They are
relocating themselves in various parts of the Middle Eastern countries and thus expanding their
wings related to the terror groups.
The major networks related to the radicalized Islamic extremists are spread by the Al
Qaeda. They are raising more and more jihadist by giving them immense and adequate training
in the training camps for terror activities in Afghanistan. Though since last few years Al Qaeda
has not been involved in any major terror attack. Their actions are now restricted to intermittent
terrorists act through its associated group and the lone-wolf operations (Un.org, 2018). The
tumult of the AQ jihadi terrorists has now been widespread in Islamic Maghreb, Arabian
Peninsula and Indian Subcontinent. While ISIS is changing itself into a terror firm that is
increasingly acting autonomously and increasingly exercising influence in various regions such
as through its regional allies and groups (Klausen, 2015). The hatred for West, democratic
regimes, non-believers and Islamic regimes has still not been diminished.
In the recent era of globalization, due to improved technologies and latest gadgets better
integration has been formed between the terror worlds all around the globe. The jihadi terrorism
is increasing now at a more rapid rate. Increasing solidarity among the Muslim across the world

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has given a high rise to boost the potential related to the catastrophic global terrorism. Though
every Muslim with radical thoughts are not extremists. In fact the unemployed and educated
youth are generally attracted to widespread jihadi terrorism. They are used as an instrument to
avenge their supposed injustice done to the community members all over the world. Increase in
the rate of solidarity among such people has given spur to the resistance movements throughout
the world. Although global jihadi terror is not going to end anytime soon. As mentioned by there
has been made fervent appeals to the jihadist recently to unite the world but the impact is in vain.
As per the reports, Al Qaeda main leader Ayman al-Zawahri has urged the jihadists to
support, merge and work together while preparing for the attacks (Gupta, 2018). In the recently
released video of the mastermind behind the terror attack it was revealed. The jihadist wants to
link up and communicate with other while extending helping hand to their Muslim brothers in
the Muslim lands. As per Zawahiris recent audio message, it has been revealed that they are
urging unity to fight for their Muslim brothers, who faced major problem not only in Syria but all
over the world. Due to the vast differences as well as ego clashes between the major terror
groups, now the idea related to Universal Jihads has been created. Universal jihad will be
henceforth directed against man-made laws, democratic Government and kafirs of the particular
region. The terror groups will be now united to form a Universal Jihads that would be further
funded, motivated and financed through a core central global leadership (Cheterian, 2015).
Through the social media recently the Jihadists are motivated and radicalized to fight in
the name of religion. They are also the major contributor towards the Universal Jihads. The fight
with them is ideology driven and there are no such barriers related to geographical boundaries. It
is a major challenge for the intelligence organization to operate and detect them at various levels.
The wide spread of jihadi terrorism in the middle East is also rising due to the widespread of

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Internet. As it has become the most primary source for target nomination, training, technical
know-how and coordination of all the terrorist related activities that aims to high visibility and
mass causalities. The terror threats are now manifesting in the form of lone-wolf attacks through
the application of explosives-laden vehicles and suicide attacks.
The jihadi terrorism is not actually using weapons for attack but instead they are involved
in operational costs such as design, scope and support arrangements for the attacks. In the
Middle Eastern countries the threats are gradually more due to less or minimal global; security.
With the rise in global jihads, many skilled and highly educated youth are joining the jihads and
thus the chances for cyber-attack are also increasing (Neo et al., 2015). The application of jihadi
terrorism is the new challenges that are faced by the eastern countries recently.
The success related to terrorism operations will mostly depends on the capabilities and
willingness of the nations to fight effectively with terrorism on their own land. The universal
jihads if gained more strength will drastically affect all the countries throughout the world. It is
highly important to incorporate internal security apparatus that includes capacity for capability
building and several issues that are related to control and command (Sirgy, Estes & Rahtz, 2017).
In the European countries, jihadi terrorism was undermined and overlooked but the
Madrid bombarding shook everyone to their core. The scenario had a deep impact on the mind
and the life of the people or the general public. Though jihadi terrorism is not a new concept for
the people but they felt that terrorism has actually reached to the European countries. Even
France has its own terrorists attack in the name of jihad during the mid-90. Major Madrid
bombings have left the people to live under continuous threats. Security forces, Intelligence and
Politicians have focused predominantly on the foreign jihadi network that has operated in abroad

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and were responsible for the ultimate 9/11. The threats of jihadi terrorism are coming from
radicalized members.
The threats in the Middle Eastern countries are rising as compared to the Western
countries. More than a decade after the unfortunate 9/11, it is highly significant for all the Middle
Eastern countries to set strict regulations related to the global security of their country.
Moreover, the terror prone places due to jihadist activist should also have reasonable legal
checks and track the jihadi terrorist’s activities through proper surveillance.

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References:
Archetti, C. (2015). Terrorism, communication and new media: Explaining radicalization in the
digital age. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(1).
Cheterian, V. (2015). ISIS and the Killing Fields of the Middle East. Survival, 57(2), 105-118.
Gupta, A. (2018). Emerging global jihadi terror. Retrieved from
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/emerging-global-jihadi-terror.html
Jalal, A. (2015). Politics Of The Middle East.
Klausen, J. (2015). Tweeting the Jihad: Social media networks of Western foreign fighters in
Syria and Iraq. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(1), 1-22.
Lekhraibani, R., Rutledge, E., & Forstenlechner, I. (2015). Securing a Dynamic and Open
Economy: The UAE's Quest for Stability. Middle East Policy, 22(2), 108-124.
Lutz, B. J., & Lutz, J. M. (2015). Globalisation and terrorism in the middle east. Perspectives on
terrorism, 9(5).
Mueller, J., & Stewart, M. G. (2016). Misoverestimating ISIS: Comparisons with Al-
Qaeda. Perspectives on Terrorism, 10(4), 30-39.
Muggah, R. (2018). Terrorism is on the rise – but there’s a bigger threat we’re not talking about.
Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/04/terrorism-is-on-the-rise-but-
there-s-a-bigger-threat-we-re-not-talking-about/

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Neo, L. S., Khader, M., Ang, J., Ong, G., & Tan, E. (2017). Developing an early screening guide
for jihadi terrorism: A behavioural analysis of 30 terror attacks. Security Journal, 30(1),
227-246.
O'Keeffe, C. (2018). One jihadi terror arrest in Ireland in 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/one-jihadi-terror-arrest-in-ireland-in-2016-
470742.html
Seth et al., (2018). The Evolving Terrorist Threat. Retrieved from
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Sirgy, M. J., Estes, R. J., & Rahtz, D. R. (2017). Combatting Jihadist terrorism: A quality-of-life
perspective. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 1-25.
Smith, C., Burke, H., de Leiuen, C., & Jackson, G. (2016). The Islamic State’s symbolic war:
Da'esh's socially mediated terrorism as a threat to cultural heritage. Journal of Social
Archaeology, 16(2), 164-188.
Un.org. (2018). UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy | Counter-Terrorism Implementation
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counter-terrorism-strategy