There is an unfortunate lack of reflection on the part of Americans today when it comes to labeling people as "terrorists" and thus as "inhuman." Indeed, one of the interesting things about today's rhetoric is the way "terrorist" has changed meaning. Back in Bolshevik days, people described themselves frankly as terrorists. It meant that, since they did not have the resources to fight against armies in a conventional way, killing thousands of people on each side, they had to make each killing count for as much as possible. Adding terror to the equation, by killing five people one could have the psychological impact of having killed a whole company of soldiers. The idea was actually to preserve life, among other things. (In a country where the military was overwhelmingly made up of conscripts, the theory was that killing civilians was really not much different than killing soldiers, who were merely conscripted civilians anyway.) For this reason, Ben Gurion and other Jewish leaders DID admit that they had been terrorists; the word had not yet taken its current turn.

Interestingly, depending on your definition, you can argue that everyone from the Minute Men in American History to the Boer Commandos were essentially terrorists. It does not necessarily mean the kinds of depraved acts we are seeing today. Nor is it helpful when the government tries to paint peaceful protestors or those who merely destroy property as "eco-terrorists"; that fits neither the old nor the new definition of terrorism. It's becoming an all-purpose accusation used to strip suspects of their rights and their humanity.

I don't condone what Arafat is saying, by the way...as you can see from the above, I am moderately pro-Zionist. But he did say "terrorize" and not "murder" or even "torture." Remember, all the bible-thumpers out there think we should all be "God-Fearing" people (in other words, "terrorized.") So I think it would be germane to find out what "terrorize" means in a Koranic context, even what the actual Arabic word is, since "terror" has connotations now that it cannot have had when the Koran was written...