Taipei Times
Date: Dec 07, 2015
By: Huang Tun-yan  /  Staff reporter

Liberty Times (LT): From the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to the Islamic State [IS] group’s recent attacks

in France, are international terrorist attacks changing into something new? Are new trends emerging?

Wang Yu-wei (汪毓瑋): Yes. 9/11 is the watershed between old and new terrorism.

Older forms of terrorism, such as that of the Irish Republican Army or Spanish ETA [Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, or Basque Country and Freedom, an armed group of the Basque National Liberation Movement], have objectives such as the independence of Northern Ireland or the Basque regions. If they can enter a reasonable and equitable political process with the government, they are willing to negotiate or even make compromises.

However, new terrorist organizations, which include al-Qaeda and the IS, wish to build a Sharia state spanning from the Mediterranean to Southeast Asia, that is distinct from existing Muslim-ruled states, such as Saudi Arabia or Indonesia. In the eyes of IS, Saudi Arabia had already absorbed essential qualities of Western democracy, and is therefore a “secular regime.”     [FULL  STORY]