Fear And Trembling By David Rapoport: A Comparative Analysis

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In this brief reflection, I will discuss two main concepts examined in Chapter Two, by David Rapoport in the article Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions. The first concept, martyrdom, will explain how the Assassins and ISIS are similar and the second concept, their main objective of each group, will examine how they differ. Similarity First, Rapoport (1984) describes the Assassins as individuals who deeply believed in martyrdom. The individuals carrying out the martyr acts coined themselves as the fidayeen to release themselves from guilt and sins and a reassurance that they would enter paradise (Rapoport, 1984, p. 59). As a comparison to ISIS, McCants (2015) discusses in Chapter Six, how British jihadists used martyrdom to recruit more individuals to join “the cause” (p. 130). For example, an Egyptian individual who considered himself a “future martyr” uses the following recruitment tactic, “why don’t you emigrate? Why don’t you leave your homes? Why don’t you leave your home as the Prophet left his? (McCants, 2015, p. 130). …show more content…

(2017) in an article discussing “online extremism” analyzed how ISIS successfully used the media to “leverage unaffiliated sympathizers” (p.1). As an illustration, the following media article exhibits the success of the recruitment tactic. According to Sen, (2015, November 26) 23-year-old Arib Fayyaz Majeed, a civil engineer from India, set out for a suicide attack on Iraq and against the Kurdish Army positions in Mosul. Although, Arib had assisted ISIS in Syria by building underground bunkers in Raqqa he failed to execute the martyr mission three times. Arib shared his disappointment in himself with the interrogators (Sen, 205,