Dear Baya,

     Who are the terrorists? I mean, if a terrorist is someone who makes people feel extreme fear or terror, surely a person or government which unnecessarily whips up extreme fear can just as fairly be called ‘terrorist’, or at least ‘terrorizing’, as those who are opposed to the government and let off bombs?

     Also, it seems to me that terrorism is very much in the eyes of the beholder. When the early Zionists in Israel bombed the British they were called terrorists – until they came to power and became heroes. Likewise with the leaders of the African National Congress, most notably Nelson Mandela. Overnight his release turned him from terrorist to freedom fighter. I’ve heard of numerous examples.

      So I’d like you to explain what terrorism is and why, as far as I know, we are engaged for the first time in history in a ‘war on terrorism’.

     Or is it the first time? Were there such wars in the twentieth century? Are there similarities between this war and the earlier wars of ‘civilized peoples’ against heretics, Jews, witches, communists and others? How do such moral panics, if that is what they are, work?

      Could you also explain the ways in which changing the laws influences what we find and what other effects spreading a terror of terrorism has. Surely there must be various different ways of reacting to those whom we judge to be threatening our way of life?

Lots of love,

P.S. I’m sure you know the wise remark of a former President of the U.S.A., Roosevelt – ‘All we have to fear is fear itself’.