State of Fear

[Angrist]

Originally Posted by Professor S

ANGRIST: Sorry I hijacked this thing. What is the major reason given for terrorism in your country? We hear so much about Islamic extremists and Irish separatists that other motives and examples get lost. I'm curious.

I don't know what reason is given for the terrorism in our country. Perhaps that's because nobody here has tried to blame something/someone for what happened.
In 2002 political party leader Pim Fortuyn was murdered. He was very anti-immigration. He was not killed by a muslim, nor was he killed for being anti-immigration. He was killed by a guy from my study town (Wageningen), because Pim Fortuyn was also pro-fur. The murderer was smart and educated. My town apparently 'harbors' left extremists (we do have a lot of hippies here).
So it was just 1 guy who thought it was better for the country if Pim Fortuyn died.

In 2004 Theo van Gogh was killed by a muslim extremist with both the Dutch and Maroccan nationality. Apparently Van Gogh had insulted the islam, I didn't really follow the news.

In 2009 eight people were killed by a anti royal family guy who drove in on a crowd close to the royal family.

Animal rights organizations also use terrorism from time to time. They torched a butchery, threw in windows of a McDonalds, liberated animals, threatened people, etc.

Other than that, there have been several arrests of muslims, but no actions of terrorism. I guess we're too sober to start blaming everything/everybody.

[Professor S]

While all of those things are awful, I would not consider most of them terrorism, except for the Animal rights examples. Other than that they seem like assassination attempts or just flat out homicide.

[Angrist]

So why do they often use the example of Theo van Gogh?

And whether or not the assassin on Koninginnedag 2009 had terroristic motives, believe me that people were terrorized after the attack. The original post of this thread proves that.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Angrist

So why do they often use the example of Theo van Gogh?

I think the van Gogh example is a poor one for terrorism. If I remember correctly, his death was an "honor killing". Those are very personal and not very political. I don't think the intent of the attack was to change public policy, and to that is integral to true terrorism. I think sometimes the lines tend to blur with

I agree with Typh that terrorism is overused and often in ways that are inapplicable, especially when Muslims are involved, I simply don't agree that the word needs to be retired. We need to call things what they are by the true definition, not by the nationality/ethnicity of the person involved.

[Professor S]

SPAM is terrorism. Case closed.