1. “The Terror of a Terrorist’ is an article trying to convey a message to the readers to understand the
logic through the plot and key concepts connected to the plot. Recently an event that is similar to the
article is a mall shooting in Nairobi Kenya. There are other events that can be used along with the
concepts such as the September 11th
2001 Tragedy, Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting, and other terrorist
attacks.
One of the concepts is Soft Targets; soft targets are used to create targets to civilians and governmental
personnel. An example of a soft target is shown in the article. The two terrorists were attacking the mall
full of civilians. This is considered to be a soft target because they were hurting innocent people who
didn’t create any conflicts with the terrorist group. Soft targets could be used in any attacks such as
shooting and plane hijacking. In the recent event of the Westgate Shopping Mall Shooting in Nairobi,
Kenya the terrorist group Al- Shabaab shot civilians in the mall who were soft targets. The civilians didn’t
hurt the terrorist group but instead they were being attacked. Another example of soft targets are plane
hijacking. During September 11th
2001, the passengers in the plane were regular people who didn’t create
any harm to Al-Queda. Al Queda used the planes full of passengers to crash into the World Trade Center.
Another concept that is used is Religious Terrorism; religious terrorism is committing terror because
of religious faith and glory. An example of religious terrorism that is shown in the article is Marmot
saying that we will kill those who are against Allah. Allah is a god of the Muslim people. Those who are
against or don’t believe in Allah will be shot at. The bomb plot motive was to attack those civilians who
are against Allah. Another example of religious terrorism is the Westgate Shopping Mall Shooting in
Nairobi, Kenya. In this event the terrorists told the people that if you are Muslim you may leave. This

2. indicates that the terrorists were attacking a specific group of people which were non-Muslims. Another
example of religious terrorism is the Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting. During the Wisconsin Sikh
Temple Shooting, the gunman Wade Michael Page shot six people and injured four people at a Sikh
Temple in Wisconsin. Wade thought that the people in the Sikh temple were Muslims; however they were
not Muslims. The religious terrorism in this is Wade was committing terror because of religious faith. In
this example the religious faith was the Sikh religion.
Symbolism is also another concept that is connected to the article; symbolism is defined as “a
righteousness of the terrorist cause and the evil of the opponent they are fighting.” An example of
symbolism used in the article is the goal of the terrorist was to commit a plot to bomb the civilians in the
mall. They were doing the plot for Allah, to praise him and for the Islamic people. In the Westgate Mall
Shooting, symbolism is also shown when the terrorists commit the plot because to protect the Islamic
people from Kenya government.
Political Violence Matrix is another concept that is connected to the article; political violence matrix is
defined as “the relationship between quality of force used by terrorists and the characteristics of intended
target of attack.” An example of political violence matrix is in the article where the terrorists successfully
bombed the mall and had reached their goal which was to attack their target. Marmot went to the target
and bombed them including himself by detonating the bomb. Joss also bombed the mall but under the
control of Sung Kim, the North Korean Leader. Another example of political violence matrix is shown in
the Kenya mall shooting. The terrorists are in connection with the damage that they made which was to
kill non-Muslims They specifically kill those who are non-Muslims, those who are Muslims can leave the

3. mall.
Another concept is State Terrorism, state terrorism is “committed by governments against perceived
enemies.” In the article state terrorism is shown when the plot was under the North Korean leaders and
the terrorists were the followers of the leaders. Sung Kim told the terrorist to bomb the mall and they
bombed the mall. Another example of state terrorism that clearly states it is the shooting at the Kenya
mall. Al-Shabaab created this shooting plot because Kenya had sent their troops to Somalia to stop the
fighting and chaos that was going on. The Somalia government sent Al-Shabaab to attack the Kenyans by
shooting civilians in the Westgate mall.
Another concept is New Terrorism, new terrorism is “threat of weapons of mass destruction”. An
example of new terrorism in the article is the use of bombs in the plot. The terrorists used the bomb that
was placed on their arms to detonate the bomb. Another example of new terrorism is the use of AK 47
and grenades used during the Kenya Mall Shooting. Guns and bombs are not just examples of new
terrorism. Knives can be an example of new terrorism; during the September 11th
2001 airplane hijacking,
the hijackers used box cutters and knives as their weapon to kill pilots, flight attendant and some
passengers. In the past, during World War 2 the Americans did use weapons of mass destruction to blow
up Japan. The Americans created the Atomic Bomb and dropped it over Hiroshima, Japan, that was
considered to be a bomb for the Japanese bombing the US in PearlHarbor, Hawaii.
Relative Deprivation Theory is also another concept that can be related to the article. Relative
deprivation theory is “feeling deprived and frustrated included individuals decisions in collective
actions.” An example in the article that shows relative deprivation theory is when Joss was feeling

4. remorse and had fear to detonate the bomb after he heard the bomb go off at the other side of the mall. He
couldn’t kill the innocent people in the mall especially the woman that went up to him and asked him if he
was alright. She was very polite with him and asked if he needed help. He saw her hugging her daughter
because of the bomb that went off and everyone started to panic. Another example of relative deprivation
theory is the Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting. During the Wisconsin Sikh Temple Shooting, the gunman
Wade went inside the Sikh Temple and started to shoot what he thought to be Muslims. He was wrong
that the people in the Sikh were Muslims as he knew but it was too late; he had shot himself because of
the chaos that he had created. In the Westgate Mall shooting, there was no sign of relative deprivation
theory. The gunman didn’t feel any remorse and just kept on shooting at random civilians including
children. One of the pictures in the new article shows a pregnant mother being one of the people dead in
the mall shooting. Another picture shows a young girl running towards her aid in the mall shooting.
There are many concepts in terrorism that can be used in events such as the mall bombing, Sikh
shooting, September 11th
, 2001 hijacking, and many more terrorist attacks. Many of these concepts such
as soft targets,new terrorism, religious and state terrorism, relative deprivation theory, political violence
matrix and symbolism can be related to the recent and past terrorist events. These terms are important in
everyday life because it can best clarify important events that happened.

5. Citations
Martin, Gus 2013 Understanding Terrorism Sage Publications Inc.
The Guardian, 2013 Terror in Westgate mall: the full story of the attacks that devastated Kenya

6. Dennis Huang
RCRJ 497 Terrorism
Professor David Clark
2/24/2014