Citation

Burstein A. Terrorism Polit. Violence 2018; 30(1): 1-21.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/09546553.2015.1135424

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article compares the violent activity of secular and religious terror organizations. Utilizing data compiled by the Global Terrorism Database cross-referenced with secondary and primary sources regarding the degree of religious components embedded in organizations' ideologies, it tests the violent patterns of activity carried out by organizations guided by predominantly secular, secular/religious, and religious ideologies, between the years 1970 and 2012. The findings confirm that a) religious ideology correlates with specific, more deadly, attack tactics and violent patterns; and b) the degree of religious components within terror organizational ideology should be tested along a spectrum: the more religious an organization is, the more attacks it tends to carry out, and the deadlier its attacks become.

Language: en

Keywords

Hybrid terrorism; ideology; religion; religious; religious terrorism; secular terrorism; terrorism tactics