To Jeremy Mattil: Check your definitions

Submitted by Bader S (Saudi Arabia), Mar 5, 2006 at 03:19

Definition of terrorism

Terrorism is defined by the US Department of Defense as "the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives."
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/alqaeda/glossary.html

FBI definition: Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as "...the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives." (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)
(http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terror2000_2001.htm)


Now keeping these definitions in mind, the first example I gave in my earlier post contained the following ingredients:
1) Unlawful use of force and violence
2) the violence was used against individuals and property
3) the violence was used to intimidate the Muslim community within society
4) the violence was used to achieve religious objectives.

The given example constitutes, therefore, an act of terrorism by HINDU nationalists.

Do I need to give you an analysis of the second example?

As to Mahatma Ghandi's assassin:

"On January 30, 1948, on his way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot dead in Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram Godse. Godse was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Ghandi#Assassination)

Note the words RADICAL and EXTREMISTS that were used in one sentence.

It seems clear that the use of violence against Ghandi was meant to intimidate other elected leaders. The aims of these HINDU radicals and extremists was purely political. The assassination, according to the definitions above can be seen as an act of terrorism perpetrated by one HINDU individual.

Now I don't know where you get your information from, or whether you check the accuracy of the information that you are being fed, but I would recommend that you do a little research before you spread your disinformation and misinformation around this forum. This way the standard of the discussions and debates currently taking place here can be maintained at a reasonably good level.

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