Would the 9/11 attacks be considered a form of genecide?

Question

Doing a research project on genecide. I'm trying to find any examples from the last decade. 9/11 came to mind because all they wanted to do was kill Americans. Would that be an example, or am I stretching the definition a tad too far?

I am already researching in depth the Khmer Rouge era in Cambodia. Other members in our group are working on the Holacaust, Rwanda, and Stahlin.

Answer 1

Genecide is defined by the deliberate act of killing a proportion of the a certain group of people.

Bin Laden doesn't specifically want to kill americans. His target is western countries and in particular the financial centres. Many muslims were killed in the World Trade Centre.

Also, his target was to not to kill all Americans. He wants to attack America so that America will no interfere in Muslim countries.

Perhaps he would like to see the destruction of America, but more likely his target is certain western values, including religious freedom, sexual freedom, gender equality, reality tv shows and so on.

I would think it is a very long bow to draw to call killing 3000 business people an act of genecide, compared with real acts of genecide where 100,000s or millions die.

American and Western Sanctions against Iraq with Saddam was in power resulted in the deaths of vast numbers of children because of malnutrition and poor medicine.

If you want to explore the aspect of genecide as part of the current situation, that is interesting. There is a lot of information published on various web sites about what various "terrorist" groups want to achieve. By analysing their statements we can figure if their goal is genecide (US sactions against Iraq did not have a goal of genecide) or something else, such trying keep Western influences out of muslim countries.

Do it, i would be interested in the answer.

Answer 2

No genecide is completely destroying an entire population based on things such as sexuality, religion, or stature in society....like the holocaust yes they killed homosexualls but the majority were jews they were trying to kill off that race. So in 9/11 if it were aimed at all the hispanics for example and there would of been a larger number of people killed like the entire race then yes.

Answer 3

Genocide is generally considered to be a prolonged concentrated effort to exterminate of drive away a particular ethnic group, by another. The 9/11 attacks don't really fit into that definition. If you need modern examples of genocide look at Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.

Answer 4

I suppose you could stretch the definition to include genocide since it means basically to wipe out an entire race or ethnicity. Nazis were involved in genocide. The Rwandan civil war was basically genocide. The 911 attacks WERE directly aimed at Americans. However, it's sort of skating on thin ice for me to call the 911 attacks "genocide" because Americans in general are of many different ethnic and racial backgrounds. But I do see where the intent of the 911 attackers could be construed as "genocide."

Answer 5

No - genocide is the murder or attempted murder of an entire race or nation, from the latin "gens" = nation, clan or tribe.

Dafur would, alas, seem to be your best example in the last 10 years. If you can stretch it out a bit further, Rwanda would be an example and I can recommend the book
"We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families" by Philip Gourevitch.

Answer 6

9/11 was not attempted genocide, it was indiscriminate terrorism. The killings in Rwanda for example are an attempted genocide. Below is the wikpedia definition of Genocide.

Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people as defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Answer 7

Stretching it, because there were more than just Americans in those buildings. 9/11 was more of a warning of a genocide than the actual deed.

Answer 8

No. Genocide is when you attempt to wipe out an entire race. Only about 3,000 people were killed many of whom were from other countries. This is a small number compared to the number of Iraqis killed since the start of the war.

Answer 9

Try Darfur as an example of genocide. Try Rawanda. Try Angola, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. If you want to go in another direction try the use of AIDS as a form of genocide.

Answer 10

The 9/11 attacks killed and maimed people of different nationalities, ethnicities and religions so I don't believe it qualifies as genocide.