Sociological understanding of the relationship between terrorism and religion

Abstract

Sociology is one of the rare social mechanisms developed by individuals facing difficulties in defining, understanding and coping with the events surrounding them. Therefore, it is argued that any vague area in social life calls for sociological approach. One evident area where fuzziness prevails as to the functions and meaning is the notion of religion. Sociology did not turn a blind eye to religion and defines it as a significant institution playing pivotal roles in shaping the nature of individual’s relationship with others. Some terrorist groups attribute similar amounts of importance to religion and after reinterpretation of basic teachings, they use religion to their benefit. In this article, the attentions were drawn to the process of how religion and particularly Islam has been revisited and reinterpreted in a way to provide terrorist groups guidance - as the literature suggested - in four basic ways. First; how religion becomes the key element in legitimating violence; second, how it has been used as the cure to alienation of in-group members; third, the ways in which religion sets free the group from the need to appeal to larger constitutes; and lastly, how it is used in target selection period.