Islamic terrorism

=== 1960s–1970s ===
During the era of the anti-colonial struggle in [[North Africa]] and the [[Middle East]], and coinciding with the creation of [[Israel]] in 1948, a series of [[Marxist-Leninist]] and [[anti-imperialist]] movements swept throughout the Arab and Islamic world. These movements were nationalist and revolutionary, but not Islamic. However, their view that terrorism could be effective in reaching their political goals generated the first phase of modern international terrorism. In the late 1960s, Palestinian secular movements such as [[Fatah|Al Fatah]] and the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine]] (PFLP) began to target civilians outside the immediate arena of conflict. Following Israel's [[Six-Day War|victory over Arab forces]] in 1967, Palestinian leaders began to realize that the [[Arab world]] was unable to defeat Israel in the battlefield. At the same time, lessons drawn from the [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|Jewish struggle against the British in Palestine]] and [[revolutionary movement]]s across Latin America, North Africa and Southeast Asia, motivated the Palestinians to turn away from [[guerrilla warfare]] towards urban terrorism. These movements were secular in nature, though their international reach served to spread terrorist tactics worldwide.<ref name=":4" /> Moreover, the [[Arab Cold War]] between mostly US-aligned conservative Islamic monarchies (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan) and Soviet-aligned secular national-revolutionary governments (Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Iraq) inspired a growth of religiously motivated Islamic movements in the Middle East, supported by [[Saudi Arabia]], which came into conflict with the predominant secular ([[Nasserist]] and [[Ba'athist]]) nationalist ideologies at the time.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45072440 | jstor=45072440 | title=Nasser's Pan-Arab Radicalism and the Saudi Drive for Islamic Solidarity : A Response for Security | last1=Baba | first1=Noor Ahmad | journal=India Quarterly | date=17 November 1992 | volume=48 | issue=1/2 | pages=1–22 | doi=10.1177/097492849204800101 | s2cid=157470830 }}</ref>

The book ''The Revolt'' by [[Menachem Begin]], leader of the [[Irgun]] militia and future Israeli Prime Minister, influenced both [[Carlos Marighella]]'s urban guerrilla theory and [[Osama bin Laden]]'s Islamist [[al-Qaeda]] organization.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://warontherocks.com/2021/07/july-22-a-pivotal-day-in-terrorism-history/ | title=July 22: A Pivotal Day in Terrorism History | date=22 July 2021 }}</ref> Israeli journalist [[Ronen Bergman]] in the book ''[[Rise and Kill First]]'' asserted that [[Hezbollah]]'s 1983 campaign of coordinated terrorist attacks against American, French and Israeli military installations in [[Beirut]] drew inspiration from and directly mirrored the [[Haganah]]'s and [[Irgun]]'s 1946 bombing campaign against the British: both succeeded in creating an atmosphere of widespread fear which eventually forced the enemy to withdraw.<ref>https://theswissbay.ch/pdf/Books/Politics/Rise%20and%20Kill%20First%20The%20Secret%20History%20of%20Israel%E2%80%99s%20Targeted%20Assassinations%20by%20Ronen%20Bergman%20%28z-lib.org%29.pdf</ref> Bergman further asserts that the influence of Israeli-sponsored terrorist operations on the emerging Islamists was also of operational nature: the Israeli proxy [[Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners]] had carried out multiple deadly [[car bomb|truck bombings]] in Lebanon long before the emergence of Hezbollah. An Israeli [[Mossad]] agent told Bergman: "I saw from a distance one of the cars blowing up and demolishing an entire street. We were teaching the Lebanese how effective a car bomb could be. Everything that we saw later with Hezbollah sprang from what they saw had happened after these operations."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://medium.com/@djadan/israeli-journalist-ronen-bergman-reveals-his-countrys-terrorist-bombing-campaign-in-lebanon-8a5d9ff7a2f2 | title=Israeli Journalist Ronen Bergman Reveals Israel's Terrorist Bombing Campaign in Lebanon | date=14 August 2019 }}</ref>

The year 1979 is widely considered a turning point in the rise of religiously motivated radicalism in the Muslim world. Several events (the [[Soviet-Afghan War]] and unprecedented support from Saudi Arabia, [[Pakistan]] and the US for anti-Soviet [[Afghan Mujahideen|jihadists]]; the [[Iranian Revolution]] and subsequent [[Iran-Iraq War]] as well as [[Khomeini]]'s active support for [[Hezbollah|Shia groups]] resisting the [[Israeli occupation of Lebanon]]; the [[Grand Mosque seizure]] in Mecca and subsequent [[Wahhabism|Wahhabization]] of the Saudi government; and the [[Egypt–Israel peace treaty]] that was highly unpopular in some sections of the Muslim world) are thought to be crucial for the proliferation of Islamist terrorism in the next decade.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://apnews.com/article/e6a7f7c8963f4cd1b0e27f1e7d484610 | title=AP Analysis: Climactic events in 1979 shaped modern Mideast | website=[[Associated Press News]] | date=19 January 2019 }}</ref>

According to [[Bruce Hoffman]] of [[RAND Corporation|the RAND Corporation]], in 1980, 2 out of 64 terrorist groups were categorized as having religious motivation while in 1995, almost half (26 out of 56) were religiously motivated with the majority having Islam as their guiding force.<ref name="Hoffman-1999-V">{{cite book |last1=Hoffman |first1=Bruce |title=Countering the New Terrorism |date=1999 |publisher=Rand Corporation |page=V |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/www/external/congress/terrorism/phase1/countering.pdf |access-date=12 August 2019 |chapter=Two: Terrorism Trends and Prospects}}</ref><ref name=":4" />