[Happy2BMe]

In the Muslim world, one kind of terrorism, assassination, has existed since shortly after the death of the prophet Muhammad. Of his early successors, three were killed with daggers.

The very word “assassin” comes from a group founded by Hasan Ibn al-Sabbah, whose devotees, starting in the eleventh century, spread terror throughout the Muslim world until they were virtually exterminated two centuries later.

They killed rival Sunni Muslims, probably in large numbers. Perhaps one-third of all Muslim caliphs have been killed.

[Happy2BMe]

WHERE DID THE WORD 'ASSASSIN' COME FROM? - ping.

(Long, but good article on historical world view of unavoidable link between Islam and terrorism.)

[RepublicanReptile]

Ping to you, bump for me to have a more in depth read later.

[floridarolf]

The word "hashish" stems from "assassin".

[Publius6961]

Perhaps one-third of all Muslim caliphs have been killed.

Significant, since, at least symbolically, the Caliph is Mahomet's successor.

Imagine the rhetorical and political hay that would be harvested by the mindless practicioners of that murdering useless religion if a third of all the Catholic Popes had been assasinated.

Peripherally, 99% of non-scholar islam apologists are unaware of this simple fact and, consciously prefer to remain in that state of ignorance.

[fso301]

and in the past many important instances of suicide attacks, such as the Kamikaze aircraft sent by the Japanese against American warships, had no religious impulse.

No need to waste my time finishing the article after reading that.

[jolie560]

..."...As Blaise Pascal put it, “men never do evil so openly and contentedly as when they do it from religious conviction.”...

Even non-religious groups are scrutinized in this article.

[ml/nj]

This is very nice.

But anyone who seeks to discuss the origin of some English word and doesn't consult or deal with what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say concerning that word is not to be taken seriously.

In the present case the OED says that assassin literally means hashish eater, and that the word comes from the Islamic Swine who were sent high on hashish to do their killing.

ML/NJ

[Don Corleone]

But religiously oriented violence has by no means been confined to Islam. In the United States, abortion clinics have been bombed and their doctors shot because, to the perpetrators, the Christian Bible commands it. Jim Jones killed or required the suicide of his own followers at his camp in Guyana, and David Koresh did nothing to prevent the mass death of his followers at Waco

This is pure Barbra Striesand..

[justa-hairyape]

Until the nineteenth century, religion was usually the only acceptable justification of terror.

There are numerous examples through out history where religion had nothing at all to do with committing acts of terror. The Vikings for example raped and pillaged because they apparently liked to rape and pillage. Greed, self satisfaction and self preservation has probably been more often utilized justifications for terror then religion. At the very heart of the act of terror, there is a human who may or may not feel the need to justify it somehow. I would agree that in modern times more humans have felt the need to justify their terrorizing acts. Blaming the terror on a religion or the state however, should in no way justify the terror.

[lainde]

bttt

[nosofar]

Of course, most religious people have nothing to do with terror, and in the past many important instances of suicide attacks, such as the Kamikaze aircraft sent by the Japanese against American warships, had no religious impulse.

The issue of Kamikaze aircraft in wartime had nothing to do with terrorism. I question the author's definition of terrorism if he thinks it does.