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Usually. You'd have to provide examples.
Do religion and ideology always fall into the category of "politics"?
Usually. You'd have to provide examples.
religion, by virtue of it's need to spread the word, is political in that it seeks to sway opinion
Ok.
Two religious sects are fighting. One of them bombs a school of the other. Is that terrorism and is that politically motivated?
Yes and yes. Religion based conflicts virtually always have political undertones.
Virtually always?
Always in real life situation. It's possible not to in theory but I don't know of any such occurrence in real life.
What is your definition of a terrorist?
I'll try and think of some religious conflicts where it was just two groups of people fighting. By nature, fighting usually leads to taking over of land so I guess that's where you're coming from with the political undertones of all religious conflict.
My definition of a terrorist is someone who commits violent acts or threatens violent acts with legitimate chance of such acts being undertaken with the purpose of terrorizing a person or people. I don't think in this day and age one can confine the word "terrorist" only to the political realm.
So a high school bully is a terrorist? And someone who leaves a drunken, threatening voicemail is a terrorist. Basically, a large percentage of violent criminals are terrorists.
That doesn't seem like too wide of a brush to paint with?
Would it help if I used "extremely violent or damaging acts"? I haven't exactly gone through drafts of my own definition of terrorist. I didn't know there was gonna be a quiz.
So you agree with me that your first definition is too broad? That was my original point in this thread. You have to put some sort of restraint on the definition or else almost everyone can be considered a terrorist.
In your original definition, which is apparently the definition used by a group of posters in this thread, a five-year-old who picks on his three-year-old little brother is a terrorist.
Sure it's too broad. But trying to say that all terrorism and all terrorist acts are politically motivated is too restrictive. I think it's reprehensible she wouldn't say bombing abortion clinics was terrorism. It's politically motivated unless you have one of those very real possibilities someone bombs a person who happens to be there/works there.
bombing abortion clinics is politically motivated
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.[1] There is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism.[2][3] Most common definitions of terrorism include only those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants. Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence and war.
Terrorism is also a form of unconventional warfare and psychological warfare. The word is politically and emotionally charged,[4] and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. One 1988 study by the US Army found that over 100 definitions of the word "terrorism" have been used.[5] A person who practices terrorism is a terrorist. The concept of terrorism is itself controversial because it is often used by states to delegitimize political opponents, and thus legitimize the state's own use of terror against those opponents.
Which was my point.
LOL @ this semantics fight
Were you trying to own yourself again?
Huh? I was being sarcastic. Why the would anyone bomb an abortion clinic to kill one person inside? If an abortion clinic gets BOMBED, I would say with 99.9% certainty it was politically motivated.
oh for the love...bombing is BAD....OKAY
Sounds like you need to answer that question upthread as well.
Arguing over the definition of terrorism wasn't the point of this thread.
The point was to point out the absurdity in Palin's claim that Ayer's bombing campaign cons uted terrorism whilst abortion clinic bombings were NOT terrorism.
You think someone would BOMB and abortion clinic to kill one doctor inside? For real?
that happens all the time
We aren't talking about the point of the thread.
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