FREEDOM FIGHTER OR TERRORIST
Everyone seems to be having great difficulty defining the difference between freedom fighters and terrorists.
Perhaps I am being simplistic, but it seems fairly obvious to me
FREEDOM FIGHTERS are surely those people who believe rightly or wrongly that their freedom has been curtailed or limited, and are willing to fight to obtain it. This would include the French Resistance, the followers of Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther KIng, even the Dalai Lama, the Suffragettes, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, etc-- an almost endless list. Such freedom fighters fight their oppressors by word or by action.
TERRORISTS may well be freedom fighters, but not content with fighting their oppressors, they unacceptably cross the line into terrorising the innocent (defenceless) civilian population.
When the IRA targetted the British Establishment, (army, police, etc) they acted as freedom fighters. When they resorted to blowing up women and children, they became terrorists.
Of course, in any conflict or theatre of war, innocent people get killed, but when civilians are DELIBERATELY targetted, or the fighters hide behind the skirts of the civilian population then they are not acting in a human or respectable way. They are cowards, with no respect for themselves or anyone else.
I refuse to take sides in the Israeli-Palestianian conflict, simply because there is right and wrong on both sides, and in any case, playing the blame game gets us nowhere, but it does seem to me that at the moment, Islam is at war with Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism, as well as at war with itself.
