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The article presents information about the effect of public opinion on world politics. The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in the U.S., with its tribute of human lives, has catalyzed the attention of the public opinion. The article also discusses the various motivations that led to the above-mentioned terrorist attack.

The article analyzes the discourse of legitimization of war in Afghanistan by British Prime Minister Tony Blair with special reference to the interpretation of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in the U.S. This attack has been interpreted as a military attack and as a crime against humanity. The discourse of Tony Blair is analyzed on similar lines of interpretation. The analysis reveals the presence of two different discourse registries, namely penal and international relations.

The article debates over the conflicts between Islam and modernity with reference to the case of Tariq Ramadan, a teacher of philosophy and Islam. Both Islam and modernity are the results of a long and complex social process, in which these two intersect often in conflicting terms. After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the conviction that Islam is a monolithic that follows religious and political fundamentalism. Many studies of the social sciences demonstrate the existence of a plurality and modernity of Islam and uncover the identity of the Muslims as the resultant of multiple hybridizations. Ramadan has been a victim of this conflicting situation and being a Muslim intellectual, he has been involved in various international debates.

Presents a general framework on abuse against human rights in the U.S. before and after September 11, 2001. Citation of various incidences of human rights violations in the U.S. since February 2004 till date; Consequences bore by the citizens of the U.S. as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when the human rights of many innocents citizens were violated as part of investigations; Public opinion regarding the atrocities committed on the prisoners in the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 event.

The terrorist event is not only a military action but also a communicative action, as Lenin theorised in the epoch of the so-called «agit-prop» (social agitation and political propaganda). In the contemporary epoch, dominated by the media character of the public sphere, that means a change in the relationship between terrorist action and information. At the time of the Moro case, Marshall McLuhan recommended press silence so as to deprive the Red Brigade of their main objective: visibility. Palestinian terrorism raised the aim of its own propagandist strategy in 1972, when the media event of the year (the Munich Olympics) became the site of an action live on world television. With the kamikaze action against the World Trade Center in New York, this dialectical between terrorism and the public media sphere reaches its theoretical apex: the twenty minutes distance between the first and the second impacts against the Twin Towers was calculated for the time required so that the second event could be transmitted in live world television without censorship. The struggle for visibility in the global arena paradoxically makes the non coincidence between media system and modemitv visible. Understanding the «dialogic» character of the terrorist action means understanding that the answer can not be only a military reaction, but must look for new communicative forms of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the effects of the terroristic attacks of September 11th 2001 on social movements, in particular on peace activism. It presents the results of an empirical research carried out through structured questionnaires, administered to participants at the peace march (Perugia-Assisi) that took place on October 2001, that are compared with those collected among activists of the protest against the G8 in July 2001 in Genoa. September 11th had considerable effects on the conditions of movement's development, focusing attention on the issue of peace, emphasizing the need for nonviolent strategies, stressing the urgency of a «politics from below». If the opposition to the war and terrorism became a common discoursive frame, there is still a tension an interpretation of the war as a consequence of imperialistic relations and a more nuanced cultural and ethical interpretation. In the field of the action repertoires, both the experiences in Genoa and the need to also symbolically differentiating the movement strategies from both «militaristic» and terrorist behaviors pushed towards a more decisive choice for non-violent tactics, without however excluding direct action as unconventional, disruptive forms of protest, such as occupations, go-ins end, more in general, acts of civil disobedience. With respect to the organizational structure, the local social forum represents experiments in deliberative democracy and the search for local solution to global problems. Efforts towards permanent coordination and intervention in national politics produced, however, tensions and competition within the movement. The attitudes of the peace activists confirm a criticism towards representative forms of democracy and a criticism of the «institutional Left»), already emerged in Genoa -- a criticism reflected in the mistrust of the center-left parties towards the aims and the forms of the mobilization against neoliberal globalization. The article concludes with a reflection upon the emerging characters of the movement for globalization from below, and therefore the need to adapt some concepts and hypotheses coming from the sociology of social movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three points are addressed in this paper. First, it is claimed that the events of 11 September 2001 mark a significant change in the historical context of Post-Cold-War developments. These changes are summed up as a) the rise of non governmental and non insurrectional organizations such as Al Qaeda as war actors; b) an accentuation of the trend toward the expressivization of war; c) an imperialization of US foreign policy. Second, the possible contribution of sociological analysis to the understanding of terrorism is discussed. Third, some scenarios concerning the future long term impact of the threat of terrorism on complex societies are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]