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Definitions:  
A few terms that are important to the study of violence in Islam are: terrorism, religious 
terrorism and Islamic terrorism. A discussion of these terms will permit a comprehensive analysis 
on the way in which the use of violence sanctioned by the Quran and its interpretations amounts 
to Islamic terrorism.
 
I. Terrorism:
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Biggo, Nancy C. The Rationality of the use of Terrorism by Secular and Religious Groups, 
www.dissertations.com
: 2002.

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Terrorism is a non-political act of aggression in which the extent of violence used is 
“outside the realm of normative behavior
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”. Terrorists use or threaten to use this violence against 
combatants and non-combatants to achieve political, social, economical or religious change 
within a given community. These reforms appeal to the terrorists and do not represent popular 
opinion of the society from which terrorism arises and “terrorists are no respecters of borders
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”. 
Thus Omar Abdullah, the President of the National Conference Party in Kashmir says that “there 
are no well defined or internationally accepted criteria to designate …an organization as ‘terrorist’. 
However the [UN] Security Council has, on occasion, adopted resolutions putting in place specific 
sanctions and measures against individual countries or…certain terrorist organizations
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”.
According to Kofi Annan the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) the manifestations of 
terrorism are limitless. The “only common denominator among different variants of terrorism is the 
calculated use of deadly violence against civilians
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”. Terrorists are those who violate the “right to 
life, liberty and security
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” vested in each civilian by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights - Resolution: 217 A (III). Thus the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) of the United 
Kingdom defines terrorism as a movement in which terrorists “directly challenge the authority of 
democratically elected governments to manage their country’s affairs peacefully, according to the 
rule of law and internationally accepted fundamentals of human rights
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”, to satisfy their own liking. 
A few examples of terrorists groups are the: Aum Shinrikyo (Japan), Basque Fatherland and 
Liberty (Spain), Kach and Kahane Chai (Israel), Sendero Luminoso (Peru), True IRA (Ireland), 
Ellalan Force (Sri Lanka), Armed Islamic Group (Algeria), Al-Jihad (Egypt) and Dal Khalsa 
(India)
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.