James Crossland, author of upcoming book, The Rise of Devils, discusses the spike in Islamophobia in the western world after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many thinks of the events of 9/11 as the origins of terrorism, but where and how did terrorism actually start? Crossland explores the origins of terrorism and other blanket prejudices in response to terrorism in history.
When the September 11th attacks occurred, terrorism became a global talking point, driven by an insatiable news media cycle. To many people, 9/11 and the Islamist attacks that followed in Bali and Moscow (2002), Madrid (2004), (London (2005), Mumbai (2008) and Boston and Nairobi (2013) marked a starting point for modern terrorism. Indeed, some media outlets presented this spate of ideologically motivated attacks on innocent people – and the “War on Terror” gave birth to – as novel. In truth, the origins of this form of global terrorism can be traced back to the 1880s and 1890s. During those decades, anarchist terrorists carried out a series of shootings and bombings across the transatlantic world, eliciting societal panics and anxieties that would not be unfamiliar to someone from the early 2000s. The development of terrorist tactics goes back even farther, arguably to the 1850s, when an Italian nationalist tried to kill Emperor Napoleon III or France with an improvised explosive device, the design of which ensured that bystanders would be harmed.
Then as now, the media played a crucial role in how these acts of terrorism were presented to the public. Hyperbolic reportage of the attempt on Napoleon’s life ensured that his would-be killer became terrorist celebrity, whose acts were emulated by other violent radicals in the decades that followed. Fake news reportage also suggested that anarchist attacks were being co-ordinated by an international conspiracy – the so-called Anarchist International. The fact that many anarchists in the United States and Britain were immigrants from continental Europe added a sheen of xenophobia to this media coverage, in which entire communities were demonised and anarchism itself was presented as a nefarious “foreign” belief system that had extremist violence at its core. Fenian terrorist attacks led to similar demonisations of the Irish in England, whilst in Russia, assassins and bombers pledged to the radical creed of nihilism were invariably presented by the press as Polish Jews, feeding the beast of anti-Semitism.
When reflecting on the origins of terrorism, therefore, both the practice of global political violence and the blanket discrimination that Islamic communities have been subject to in recent decades, is nothing new. Guided by sensationalist media coverage, terrorism, then as now, is a wellspring for prejudice.
The Rise of the Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism by James Crossland is available 31st of January 2023. Pre-order your copy here Manchester University Press – The rise of devils
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