The goals of the group’s underlying visions
A terrorist group’s objectives are the goals of the group’s underlying visions. conduct research on a specific group of your choosing, and address the following:
Classify and summarize the group’s underlying worldview and perspective (e.g., religious-based, political ideology, single-issue, and so on).
Discuss how and why the terrorist group’s objectives are linked to its underlying motivation.
Explain how your selected group’s goals might be different from another group that has a different worldview.
Sample Solution
Al-Shabaab, or “the Youth,” is an Islamist insurgent group based in Somalia. It held sway over the capital of Mogadishu in the late 2000s, but a military campaign led by the African Union (AU) and supported by the United States and other Western partners pushed it back from major population centers. Still, the insurgency has proved resilient and remains the principal security challenge in war-torn Somalia. It controls large parts of the country’s south and continues to mount lethal attacks against international forces and civilians in the region. They have an underlying worldview based on the belief of global jihad, or holy war against non-Muslims and those that oppose their beliefs (Akhtar et al., 2015). Their perspective is rooted in strict adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islamic law, which they use as justification for their violent activities. Al-Shabaab’s goal is to create an Islamic Caliphate through insurgency warfare and terrorism tactics aimed at overthrowing governments across East Africa (Lowe & Reneau, 2017). The groups’ deeply entrenched religious ideology has resulted in numerous human rights violations including forced conversions and executions (Robertson, 2018).
