Who Is a Terrorist?

TW: Terrorist is one of those universally reviled words. But what is a terrorist? Media outlets are regularly deluged with complaints about who they do or do not describe as terrorists. Fox News does not as they are more than willing to call just about any violent anti-American a terrorist, but others try to use a little more finesse.

Since 9/11, terrorist has taken on a particularly evil set of connotations. But one person's terrorist can be another's revolutionary or rebel. Alternatively there would seem to be profound differences between say Osama bin Laden, a Tamil Tiger in Sri Lanka, and an Israeli colonist in the West Bank who commits acts of violence against innocent Palestinians. I would be in favor of a more judicious use of the term in general.

From Economist:
"...The Times does not call Hamas a terrorist organisation, because the group is also a political party running a chunk of a proto-state, and is a charity with hospitals and other arms that simply cannot be called terrorist. But readers sympathetic to Israel, and those merely interested in plain language, wonder how a group that sponsored so many suicide bombings in civilian locales (pizzerias, discos) could not be "terrorist".

The UN, in a mixed bag of reforms in 2005, failed to adopt a definition of "terrorism". A shame, because the proposed one was pretty good:

[Any act] intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act

This failed to be adopted because the Organisation of the Islamic Conference wanted to except those resisting "foreign occupation". That is to say, if Israel's army occupies the West Bank, Israeli civilian pizza-eaters and disco-dancers cannot, by definition be victims of terrorism via a suicide bombing. Quite right that others did not agree...

Despite the tussles, the proposed UN definition is the simplest and best I can think of. Terrorists are those who intentionally kill or maim civilians to sow fear for political ends. In journalism, it then might require a few extra words to make distinctions, as with Hamas and Hizbullah's charity activity. "A group that commits terrorist acts" is wordier than "a terrorist group", and we like economy at The Economist. But it's worth getting right..."

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/12/who_are_you_calling_a_terroris.cfm