Hizbullah and the Deconstruction of Terrorism

Cameron Lee

Mr. Bowman

Eng. 101 Sec 114

25 April 2008

Hizbullah and the Deconstruction of Terrorism

I remember the day somewhat clearly. I was performing my morning ritual of watching ESPN and getting ready for school, an event that my mother always dreaded because I would get lost in a sports highlight and miss the bus. On this day, the sports highlights were interrupted by some sort of news emergency, which was something that I had never seen happen during my morning ritual. The news anchor used language that was new to me. Words like hijack, Middle East, Islam, and terrorism were absent from my vocabulary. September 11, 2001 was my informal introduction to Islam and terrorism, as I am sure was true for many people at my adolescent age of 13. As I grew older, I learned that my initial connections and perceptions of Islam and terrorism going hand in hand were incorrect. Though this learning curve is high in our society, I believe drawing the distinction between Islam and terrorism is important because the effects of failing to separate these two terms are felt throughout the world. If a line is not drawn between Islam and terrorism, human rights go out the window when an Islamic group challenges a dominant group for political, social, cultural, or economic control. Even if the individual does not practice Islam, having the label of “terrorist” is enough to justify using torture to extract useful information from the individual. One such