a mosque at ground zero

[srijantje]

I prefer an early definition of terrorism (whose source and precise wording
I can no longer find) proposed by a UN committee. The elements are simple:

The deliberate use of violence against noncombatants as a means of coercion.

It doesn't distinguish between governments and non-governmental entities, or between wartime and peacetime.

I like it because it reduces the definition to a set of acts and motives,
without emotional color, regardless of who the actor is.

that's pretty clear then