Dr. Ziad Munson, an associate professor of sociology at Lehigh University, recently gave a lecture at the Emmaus Library about how the collective American preoccupation with al-Qaida has taken our focus away from the most likely – and most preventable – terrorism of the future.

"The bulk of research on terrorism over the past decade has focused on either individual level factors or larger structure factors responsible for generating and sustaining political violence," Munson said.

While terrorists are sadists and mass killers, Munson said terrorism at its most basic is predominantly political. According to Munson, 99 percent of groups who turn to terrorism do so only after they have failed in other political strategies.

"I am interested in the organizational correlates of political violence and terrorism," Munson said. "In order to investigate terrorism at this level, I have constructed a database that traces the birth and development of the world's most active terrorist organizations over the last 20 years."

Munson said he was surprised when his data showed terrorism is seldom accompanied by radical ideology. Common ideologies found in his research revolve around nationalism, equality and anticolonialism.

He told the audience 80 percent of political groups with these ideologies have views of the world as it is, versus how it should be.

"Only one of the top 12 terror groups in the world target the USA," Munson said.

Munson said there are many commonalities of groups who turn to terror tactics outside the U.S.

State terror, repression and the lack of personal independence seems to be a necessary precursor to terror tactics. He said terrorism is much more likely to arise when groups lack other political options including democratic freedoms, including freedom of the press and the right to assemble to express a political voice. Munson cited the recent uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria as examples.

According to Munson, al-Qaida is such an enigma because it is not a regular "organization." He said al-Qaida has no command structure, no organization chart and has never had structure to give orders, which is a hallmark of most other terror organizations.

"There is really no way to know who counts as al-Qaida," Munson said.

Instead, to many Americans, al-Qaida has become a synonym for terror. His research among his students shows how asking what the word "terrorism" means brings up many descriptive words, but chief among them was al-Qaida.

The confusion about the source of violence which led to the deaths of our American ambassador and three colleagues in Benghazi, Libya, seems to reinforce Munson's assertions.

By studying more about the nature of terror groups and their objectives, Munson said it may be possible to intervene and change the direction of these groups before they start to take human lives in order to achieve their objectives.

To read more about Munson's research, visit his website at ziadmunson.blogspot.com.