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Whatsapp Artist's rendition of the arrest of the French anarchist Ravachol in 1891 for Le Petit Journal. He was eventually guillotined

Islamic extremism and the rise of Islamic State may seem like disturbingly modern phenomena, but according to historian John Merriman, today’s terrorists have a lot in common with the anarchists and nihilists of the 19th century. Matt O’Neil reports.

What can history’s earliest terrorist movements teach us about the psychology of modern day groups such as ISIS?

Historian John Merriman believes there are some ‘interesting comparisons’ between the make up and tactics of today’s jihadists groups and the anarchist and nihilist rebel movements who fought against the centralisation of state power in the United States and Europe in 19th and early 20th century.

To me what is really happening in the Middle East and North Africa is more like the Reformation and the Thirty Years War that Christendom went through.

‘Anarchists believed that dynamite would level the playing field, and for terrorists now, it’s roadside bombs that level the playing field,’ he told Saturday Extra.

‘Both anarchists and terrorists now believe that they can bring down the superstructure, of capitalist states in the case of the anarchists, or the United States and their allies in the case of terrorists now.’

Professor Merriman has authored a number of books on violent anti-establishment movements, including The Dynamite Club, which focuses on French anarchist Emile Henry, who bombed the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station in Paris in 1894.

‘Emile Henry… he’d killed before, but he was the first to just go out say, “I’m going to kill you… because you are Bourgeois,”’ he said.

Read more: How real are claims of an Islamic caliphate?

Professor Merriman told Geraldine Doogue that today’s jihadists come from similar backgrounds to 19th century anarchists. Those European anarchists, like notorious French terrorist Ravachol, were often unsuccessful young men.

'A lot of them were people who had nothing,’ said Professor Merriman.

‘Ravachol who was guillotined … he was a down and out son of a Dutch mule hand who had abandoned his family. [Auguste] Vaillant, who threw a little pack bomb into the Chamber of Deputies, he couldn’t make ends, he couldn’t feed his family.’

‘The anarchist attacks came during what we used to call the long depression … but it was an economic downturn, and now in the Middle East you find the same thing.’

Retired Australian Major General Michael Smith agreed ‘some comparisons’ can be made between anarchist groups and modern jihadist terrorists.

IS in perspective Listen to this episode of Saturday Extra to find out more.

However, he pointed out that while anarchists wanted to destroy the state, today ISIS is trying to create a new one.

‘Their ends are a caliphate state,’ Smith said.

‘To me what is really happening in the Middle East and North Africa is more like the Reformation and the Thirty Years War that Christendom went through.’

‘That’s why we have to be very careful in sending big coalitions with a military flavour into a Muslim area, where the Muslims are not really in the lead’.

With a focus on international politics and business, Saturday Extra talks to expert commentators about the things that matter to Australians.



