What is a Terrorist?

[Oneironaut Zero]

Probably going to end up playing a bit of Devil's Advocate, here, so just roll with it... So, I was at work yesterday, and some of the girls were messing with this one guy, saying that he looked "like one of those Arabs," and "watch out, I think he put a bomb under your desk," and whatnot. He was having fun with it, though, and even when he was (jokingly) telling other people what they were saying, he was explaining it somewhat like "They're saying I look like a terrorist!" It was all really funny, but it got me to thinking... Has the war on terror really gotten a large part of the population equating 'Muslim' with 'Terrorist?' I always had the suspicion, but I'm starting to wonder if there is more truth to it than I really paid attention to. And what exactly is a Terrorist? Do you feel that they inherently evil? Aren't there terrorists of all nationalities/ethnicities/religions? What about their actions, from their perspectives? If your home/family/community is being purged/desecrated/oppressed/etc. by a force that was 1000x more powerful than your own, to what extent would you go to make sure your rights were respected, your land was unoccupied by the oppressors, your ideals were not trampled upon, and your people were left to their own ways of life? If you knew that attacking (in this case) the outsiders' military, alone, was futile, and would do nothing but get you killed, what would you do to insure your own freedom? What about when the U.S. or Israel bombs a civilian-heavy place 'to kill the terrorists among them.' Is that justified, or is that - much like the 'terrorists' - doing all that 'must' be done to keep our/their people from these oppressive/terrorist acts? Is there truly much difference? I'm sure you all know what I'm getting at, here. All I ever see/hear is the "evil terrorist" rhetoric flying around (hell, that's all our country has been about, for the past few years), but is all of the hate-speech really substantial, or are we ignoring the evils of our own government, and focusing only on the all-or-nothing retaliation from desperate people? If the latter, are we really throwing the Muslim religion down a spiral into infamy, because we (the majority of the American people) are - more and more - falsely equating it with terrorism? I dunno. Just a few thoughts popping off. What do you all think?