Transnational Crime
Introduction
Transnational crime is a form of criminal activities that occur across the national borders hence it is not restricted by geographical or political jurisdictions. However, even crimes which are not necessarily international are also included in transnational crimes due to the fact that more than one country is involved. Similarly, crimes which are conducted in one country and their effects felt in another are also classified as transnational due to different countries being involved in one way or the other. Crimes that are mostly included are human trafficking; drug/arm trafficking, sex slavery and pedophile. In this PowerPoint project, two ethnicities namely; Arab and Islam are analyzed, as well as, their ill-will towards the United States. In both cultures, socialization and religion have played a significant role in enhancing their transnational crime against the United States in different capacities.
Discussion
The role of religion in shaping these cultures
Islam
Islam is religion and way of life that characterized by a monotheist life, as well as, strict adherence to the teachings of the Qur’an, the holy book of the Muslims. The term Islam refers to individuals who are strictly submissive to God and the Prophet of Islam; Mohammad. The doctrines of Islam teach that there is only one God who is incomparable while the purpose of life is depicted as worshiping God. Various laws have been specifically made for Muslims as common belief states that the original message has been distorted overtime hence the need to formulate staunch laws which are referred to as the pillars of Islam. These pillars which are obliged to increase worshiping in Islamic culture encompass various dimensions such as welfare, warfare, banking and the environment (Cragg, 1991).
Muslim as a culture is made up of two denominations namely the Sunni and the Shi’a with the largest population of Muslims being in Indonesia. However, over the years the culture has spread to almost all corners of the world and the United States of America has more than 100, 000 legal Muslims. Islam as the second largest religion in the world has grown considerably fast in the recent century, as well as, gaining cognition all over the world due to involvement in warfare and terrorism. War has been a trademark for Muslims as their demographic expansion has been through wars that have seen the culture amass more land and convert the residents of newly acquired land into Islam (Cragg, 1991).
Justifications of terrorist attacks by the Muslims
The concept o martyrdom is seen as a key value in Islam such that those who die while carrying out a noble cause is regarded highly by Allah. Thus most of the suicide bombers and terrorist attackers who have participated in transnational crime at one point are often assured of an elevated position in the after world. This is exhibited by the increased number of suicide bombers that is present in Muslim world as the members believe in enhancing their afterlife by doing good all in their present life (Lockman, 2004).
The other justification for war-like deeds is elimination of oppressiveness against Muslim brothers and sisters. Oppression is condemned by the Qur’an and anyone found oppressing their neighbor is often subjected to war or eviction from the land to ensure fair treatment for all regardless of their social status. This has been the case where Muslims have been fighting the United States whenever they feel that their own is being oppressed hence in an attempt to create equality war is declared to push the oppressor from the territory (Halliday, 2003).
Over the years, Muslim culture and religion has been known to cause adverse restrictive efforts on their women together with girls to minimize their involvement in public life. Consequently, the female species is threatened in terms of exploring the world and investing in activities which could boost the livelihood of the entire Muslim community. Such prohibitions have reduced the presence of Muslim women in the world’s events which may enable them elevate their lives and careers. Similarly, the western culture especially United States allows women to enjoy the same rights as men in terms of pursuing their goals and career paths hence women are not restricted to certain roles. During the scramble for Africa and other lands which were colonized, there was intense spread of western culture, as well as, its infiltration into the Muslim world such that women were subjected to civilization. Consequently, most of them were at the verge of abandoning Islam much to the chagrin of the Muslim men. This revelation was quite tantamount and the erosion of the Islam culture in the late century was blamed on western influence on women hence as a way of revenging this phenomenon, Muslims had to engage in endless hatred with the United States to counteract the effects of westernization (Lockman, 2004).
The other reason which according to Islam justifies ill-will against the United States is increased intervention of the United States in affairs which are specifically Islam. This is further on enhanced by presence of Kadhi courts among Muslims which are avenues for availing justice to the people. These courts usually follow the doctrines of the Qur’an hence are useful in solving all nature of case. However, the United States judicial system has an entirely different way of ensuring that justice is achieved which is different from the process applied by the Muslims. Thus intervening and forcing Muslims to adhere to the Western judicial system was an unwelcome move which infuriated Muslims who were content wit their own way of doing things (Lockman, 2004).
The other justification of terrorism among the Muslims is based on Jihad which calls for war on non-Muslims and apostates. Jihad is a teaching of the Qur’an which entails struggling to ensure that Islam is maintained at all times hence those who deviate from the teachings should be brought back regardless of the means. According to this notion, Islam has been eroded and interfered with by the west especially the United States such that to regain the initial purity that was present in Islam the “enemy” has to be fought to reduce the impurity among Muslims (Lockman, 2004).
These struggles results in defensive jihad which makes the terrorist Muslims appear as victims of terrorism rather than aggressors. This is achieved by ensuring that wars against non-Muslims are positioned to benefit the entire community. Hence it becomes an obligation for each Muslim to engage in activities that are beneficial thus increasing Islamic group’s participation against the United States(Lewis, 1994).
Consequently, the unending war between Christians and Islam has been a major issue in inflicting more pressure on Muslim involvement in war against the United States. This hatred can be traced back to the early centuries where the world’s religions were fighting for supremacy. Christianity has a larger following in the United States while Islam has lower occupation thus increased hatred. Consequently, there are crucial issues such as problems when converting from one religion to the other which have resulted in the Muslims fighting against the Christian-region of United States(Esposito, 2003).
There are some parts of the Qur’an which calls for violent occupation of land and increasing the Muslim flock through invasion. In this case, Muslims can forcefully acquire new land which is later on converted to Islam coverage. As per the teachings of the Qur’an Allah, requested the Muslims to spread the religion to very corner of the world and one way of carrying out this task is through war to conquer new areas previously inhabited by non-Muslims then converting them to Islam (Cragg, 1991).
According to the law of Islam, killing of non-combatants is considered a sin hence the suicide bomber or terrorist has to make sure that the target is armed. Consequently, communities which have shown adverse problems such as inflicting pain on others are easy targets for the Muslim terrorists. In this case, the United States has posted quite a number of anti-Muslim activities and policies on Muslims such as diminished morals in the presence of Muslims. Thus war against the United States by Muslims is considered as a holy war which is aimed at wiping out the culprit causing Muslims to commit sin (Halliday, 2003).
Arabs
Arab is a cultural group that is exemplified by sharing a common Semitic language that unites the individuals who live in diverse geographical regions. Arabians emerged way before the Muslims although most people often tend to confuse between the two hence a distinguishing feature had to be developed such that Arabians are often found in desert like condition of Western Asia and North Africa while Muslims are present in almost all the regions of the world. Arabs are however united by their common origin, history and culture such that individuals from other parts of the world who share in these three ideologies are often categorized as Arabs (Cragg, 1991).
The Arabs are depicted as peace loving people and over the years, their territory in the Middle East has been coupled by series of civil wars which have resulted to thousands of deaths while families became separated by the war. Consequently, the Arabs had placed their entire hopes on the United States to help them end the wrangles between countries in the 1990s. However, the nature of polices which had been laid out for the war to end aggravated matters such that by the end of the war there were more casualties and the Arabs blamed the united States for the situation created by the war (Lewis, 1994).
The Arabs zeal for sanctity of life and respect for human life coupled with cultural norms that are aimed at enhancing quality of their livelihood is depicted as quite diverse from the typical cultural values that are portrayed by the United States. Although the population of Arabs in the United States is not as big as that of Muslims, recent census results place Arabs at 50, 000 of the entire United States population (Cragg, 1991).
Reasons as to why Arabs harbor ill-will against the United States
West Bank is an exclusively fertile region that is shared by Palestine and Israel hence a coveted property to own. This region had been the cause of many endless wrangles between Israeli and Palestine as neither side could contend with loosing this “jewel”. However, as the wrangles intensified, the United States provided adequate support in terms of warfare and financial assistance to the Israeli side so as to enable them win the war over West Bank. These move by the United States infuriated the Arabs in Palestine as what was initially seen as a war between two neighbors turned out to be an intensive battle (Lewis, 1994).
The hatred which was initially directed towards Israeli by Palestine was converted to war against the United States due to the coalition by the two to outwit Palestine. From the beginning of the war on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israeli has received tremendous support from the United States which is quite diminishing for the Arabs in Palestine who believe that Israeli was established in Arab land hence it should be the one to shift its boundaries (Halliday, 2003).
Consequently, the additional support availed to the Israeli government led to a large number of Palestinians loosing their lives and property in the war. Similarly, certain policies that had been set by the United States in the wake of the war led to a holocaust in which thousands of Palestinian was killed. During these wars, there were also other social evils associated with war such as denying the Arabs in Palestine their human rights. This was aggravated by increased financial support by the United States government in the form of non-military economic aid (Lewis, 1994).
The other reason as to why Arabs have harbored intense hatred against the United States is its biased coverage of the war in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. According to the information documented following the United States media coverage on the war, elevated levels of biasness was seen on the Israeli’s side which was depicted as being the victims rather than the causes of the war. Arabs in Palestine were portrayed as being the offenders who deserved nothing short of being wiped out. This negative coverage of the war caused intense hatred to be directed towards the Americans for their unfair role in covering the event of the Israeli-Palestine was (Lockman, 2004).
The doctrines of Arab often prohibit any form of corruption such that corrupt members of the community are ousted and members of the ethnicity are asked to maintain high degrees of purity. Therefore, corrupt individuals or those who support corruption are frowned upon and considered as the enemy. The United States has over the years supported corrupt regimes in the Middle East countries which is contradictory to the beliefs of the Arabs. This has infuriated the Arabs in Palestine as the corrupt deals amongst United States and the corrupt regimes have denied Palestine’s their quest for peace, as well as, the need to establish corrupt free zones (Esposito, 2003).
The Arabs in Palestine could also be engaging in terrorism against the United States as a way of retaliating due to withholding of financial aid by the United States government to the Palestine government. The fact that Israeli was receiving aid yet its gross domestic product is far much digger than that of Palestine could have triggered a lot of envy form the Arabs. Palestine is not an equally well-off country hence the Arabs could have benefited immensely from the aid but it was never extended to them hence as a way of gaining recognition, war could have been proposed, as well as, hatred. Although this could be a minor cause, foreign aid has been known to increase relations among countries such that lack of the dependency reduces any chance of interactions thus rivalry is established (Trifkovic, 2006).
The Arabs in Iraq have every reason to hate the United States and to engage it in terrorism after the American embargo which resulted in numerous deaths of innocent children. The effects of American policies in the land created intense financial and social problems which deprived the natives of their rights to life. Consequently, most of them succumbed to avoidable circumstances which could have been solved way before trouble struck were it not for the United States policies. These American policies which have been known to maim many directly and indirectly are seen as evidence for suicide bombers who are more than wiling to die in the quest of revenge against United States of America(Lockman, 2004).
Contrast and comparison in the social organizaton of transnational crime among Islam and Arabs
The social organization of Muslims who take part in terrorism and hatred war against the United States is composed of organized groups with specific entities. A major group is the Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden and its activities are mainly suicide or atomic bombings. Most of the mass bombings in major United States property around the world, as well as, inside the country such as the September 9/11 are linked to this Islamic group.
The other organized groups are the Taliban and Mujahideen which are specialized in petrol bombs in major United States interests. These groups often act according to instructions that are relayed by their leaders and strict adherence to the teachings of Islam is maintained (Halliday, 2003).
On the other hand, the Arabs often carry out their counter attacks as a nationality such as the Palestine Arabs or the Iraqi Arabs. This is attributed to the fact that reasons for fighting against the United States often vary from one country to the other. Consequently, there is no specific doctrine in the religious values that is inclined towards fighting other countries whose values are conflicting. Hence participants from various parts of the country are obliged to join hands to reduce influence from an outside power (Trifkovic, 2006).
A common aspect of the Arabs and Islam hatred against the United States is aimed at inflicting pain which is directed towards the military, as well as, the civilians in the United States. Therefore, the nature of attacks is not restricted to the military only as even those who are less concerned with the ill-will are often affected by the war (Cragg, 1991).
Islam on the other hand is a culture that is seen as static hence does not embrace change responsively. Similarly, this deludes Islam and Arabs as being inferior to the western countries including the United States. This is also exhibited by increased branding of the two cultures as being primitive and barbaric terms which are often used to portray the low stature of a culture (Lewis, 1994).
The role of socialization in shaping these cultures
One equivocal social influence on the ill-will against Islam and Arabs is seen in the diverse norms presented by the two religions such that the other cultures in the world do not share the same ideologies. Consequently, this is seen in reluctance of Islam men to allow their women to venture out like their American counterparts. Hence the men are left alone to make key decisions among the Muslims while women are restrained from playing significant roles in society. On the other hand the American women have progressed considerably and most of them are able to help their male counterparts in developing their country. Reduced socialization among the two different groups of women has resulted in lower participation by one group hence the envy portrayed by Muslim men is seen in their increased violent attacks against United States as they are unable to match in terms of gender development (Lockman, 2004).
The United States has always categorized Arabs and Muslims as inferior to other cultures hence rarely engage in any form of social activities which could bring them together. Similarly, the social gap between the two increases considerably and the social relations are minimized. Consequently, the United States have been known to reject any decisions made by the Arabs or Muslims regarding discussion which are beneficial to all. This is coupled with low regard for opinions from these cultures hence the outright negative feelings as the United States does not acknowledge any assistance from these cultures (Esposito, 2003).
A term has been coined to refer to increased fear of Islam termed as Islamophobia justifies the low opinion that is held by the entire world concerning Islam. According to this term, the entire world is focused towards alienating and discriminating against Islam as a culture. Consequently, Islam and Arabs have been excluded from the mainstream society such that any activities regarding the two cultures are handled with extra caution. This exclusion from the main society deludes any good thoughts which could have been harbored by the cultures and in turn the hatred against United States is enhanced (Trifkovic, 2006).
Despite the fact that discrimination and hostility towards a certain culture is depicted as a violation of human rights by human rights groups, hostility towards Muslims and Arabs is seen as a normal activity by the Americans. Consequently, this form of racism has been present in the United States for quite a long period of time such that the two groups harboring hatred towards United States have been exposed to this form of prejudice. Therefore, as a way of making their presence felt amongst their tormentors, the Muslims and Arabs often engage in terrorism attacks against those whom discriminate against them hence resulting to frequent negative interactions (Trifkovic, 2006).
Arabs and Muslims are almost interrelated such that their history is linked at some point thus indicating that they share quite a number of similarities in their cultural and social aspects. This is attributed to the fact that these two cultures have interacted considerably with each other than with other cultures in the world hence their beliefs and norms are almost similar. In this dimension, the similarity in ill-will against the United States unites these two groups such that in some cases Muslims and Arabs are categorized as one. Consequently, these interactions have resulted in increased support of each group by the other when carrying out the terrorist attacks or any other form of counterattack against the United States. This has also led to development of stereotypes which brand Islam and Arabs as being made up of terrorists whose satisfaction is derived from the suffering of others (Halliday, 2003).
After the September 9/11 attacks in the United States, people began to associate terrorism with individuals of Islam or Arab origin. Similarly, those who were dressed as either was subjected to intense scrutinizing or sometimes shot dead due to the mistaken identity that anyone dressed in a Hijab or Turban was a terrorist. Thus society was made to believe that all Muslims and Arabs are terrorists regardless of their involvement in this form of criminal activities (Esposito, 2003).
Despite the spread of Islam in most parts of the world as compared to Arabs the two cultures have been minimally affected by civilization as they have been able to maintain their traditions throughout. These two religions have been able to withstand the test of time hence infiltration by other religions which could otherwise diffuse the original norms and cultural values have been maintained in all the conquered regions (Cragg, 1991).
Conclusion
Islam and Arab are two major cultures in the world which have significantly participated in transnational crimes. Consequently, the two have been harboring constant wrangles with the United States and these have triggered a lot of bad blood between the individuals of the three cultures. Various issues have triggered the ill-will against Islam and the United States, as well as, between Arabs and the United States. On top of these issues is conflicting religious doctrines which call for fighting for equality and reducing the western influence on the followers. Western tradition has been blamed for eroded cultural values among the Arab and Islam faithful which in turns deludes the morals that are indicated in the holy book. Society and religion have been paramount in causing this hatred as various religious, as well as, cultural beliefs portray different notions for different groups.
References
Cragg, K. (1991). The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East. Westminster John Knox Press
Esposito, J. L. (2003). Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Oxford University Press, New York
Lewis, B. (1994). Islam and the West. Oxford University Press
Lockman, Z. (2004). Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge University Press
Halliday, F. (2003). Islam and the Myth of Confrontation: Religion and Politics of the Middle East. I.B. Tauris, New York
Trifkovic, S. (2006). Defeating Jihad. Regina Orthodox Press. New York.
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