The first defence of terrorists is that they are in fact freedom fighters. What is the difference, and are they right?
This century has seen many terrorist groups proclaim themselves freedom fighters. Their philosophy is based on political goals closely tied to fundamentalist, separatist or twisted religious ideas.
Freedom fighters fight for political goals, but their action is not narrowly limited to one religious group or nation.
Terrorists carry out actions aimed at creating fear and provoking a reaction. Freedom fighters carry out actions aimed at liberation from fear.
Terrorists attack civilian targets; fighters attack military ones.
Terrorists use children as suicide bombers; fighters try to protect the population.
When al-Qaeda terrorists brought down the towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11, they killed around 3,000 people who were completely unimportant to them – that was not the goal but the means to an end. Their basic idea was to provoke a US reaction and an attack on Iraq or Afghanistan, in which they succeeded. In doing so they created a new wave of religious hatred and a large number of recruits. After the killing of Osama bin Laden, instead of terrorism being broken, a stronger and more powerful ISIS (Daesh) emerged, which managed to create an entire state with international leadership and territory reaching as far as Africa.
There are many differences that can be applied to every situation, and although there is no single definition, it is important to distinguish between a legitimate struggle and terrorism.
Dušan Ivković, CTO member, Niš