No one can just stand up and say
that “this is the only definition of suicide bombing or terrorism”. This is
because there is no particular definition of the concepts. One defines them the
way they construe them. Before one defines suicide bombing, they will first
answer the questions; what is suicide? And, what is bombing?
The oxford English Dictionary
defines suicide as:
1. The action of killing oneself
deliberately.
2. a person who commits suicide
3. a course of action which is likely to
be very damaging to one’s career,
position in society etc36.
The Longman Dictionary defines
bombing as; “the use of bombs to attack a place”37. If we go by the
etymological combination of the two words, suicide/bombing, we will hastily and
inappropriately define suicide bombing as ‘the act of killing oneself by the
use of bombs to attack a place” And this will be rather insufficient to a
person who “hungers” for a complete meaning of suicide bombing, and shallow to
a person who longs to appreciate the paper. On this note, let us examine some
definitions given by scholars on this subject matter.
Thesaurus37 defines
suicide bombing as ‘a terrorist bombing carried out by some who does not hope
to survive it”. The definition above covers the meaning of suicide bombing in
this study. The concept of suicide bombing connotes that the perpetrator of the
evil act deliberately takes their life and the lives of other people.
According to Dr. Boaz Ganro38, “A suicide
attack is an operational method in which the very act of the attack is
dependent upon the death of the perpetrator”. This definition would have been
the best definition for [1] this
study if not for the use of ‘attack’ in lieu of bombing”. However, we can still
make it up by the subtraction and addition of “attack” and “bombing”
(respectively).
Therefore, suicide bombing is an
operational method in which the success of the act is dependent upon the death
of the bomber. This however means that the perpetrator certainly, must die.
Now, what is terrorism?
Martin Harrow39 states,
“That terrorism is not evenly distributed across space and time, but rather
occurs in waves is a well known and generally overlooked piece in the puzzle of
understanding why terrorism happens. That terrorism, rather than being the
extremist version of an ideology, is the contingent result of the availability
of a number of factors.…”
The task of defining terrorism is
complicated, but absolutely necessary in order to develop a sufficient
understanding of this phenomenon and to deal with it effectively. The
complexity of defining terrorism has many aspects40.
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[2]
contrary,
to coerce them into a certain behaivour, is as old as mankind. Such use of
violence has served states and various regimes over a long period of time”.
The term “terrorism” is coined from
the Latin word “terrere” which means “to frighten” and when anglicized, because
“terrorize” in its verb form and “terror” in its noun form.
Though terrorism has become an
everyday vocabulary, we shall know if what people construe terrorism to mean is
what it truly is.
According to Bruce Hoffman in his
book; “inside terrorism,” “terrorism, in the most widely accepted contemporary
usage of the term, is fundamentally and inherently political. It is also
ineluctably about power: the pursuit of power the acquisition of power, and the
use of power to achieve political change. Terrorism is thus violence-or,
equally important, the threat of violence-used and directed in pursuit of, or
in service of, a political aim41”.
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[3]
In consideration of the divergent
definitions offered by Harrow, Mannik, Hoffman and Sandler, we can observe that
terrorism despite their divergent opinions, has to do with use of violence by a
group in pursuit of a goal be it political, economical, religious or social to achieve
such goal. It is the victimization, humiliation intimidation of a target
audience to meet an”expected end”.
In whichever way one construes
terrorism, it must be understood as a use of violence to instill terror in the
minds a large audience (the public). Since we have by way of coherent explicability
done justice to the meaning of suicide bombing and terrorism, we shall now go
on to know what National development means.
36 Edited by
Catherine Soanes with Sara hawker, Compact Oxford English Dictionary for
students
37 www.thefreedictionary.com
38 (supra) pg 19 above
39 ““Inside a Wave of Terrorism”, the dynamic
relation between terrorism and the factors leading to terrorism journal of
global change and governance vol.1, no3, 2008.
40 Erik Manik, Terrorism: Its past, present and future
prospects, (2007) page 152
41 Bruce Hoffman,
inside terrorism (2002) pages 2 and 3
42 Todd and Walter economic consequences of terrorism
in Developed and Developing countries: An Overview pg 2