Who's the Terrorist?

When I was speaking at a university last month about Islam, one of the
audience members asked me if I thought Hamas was a terrist organization.

To answer that question we have to define terrorism. According to the
American Heritage Dictionary, terrorism is "The unlawful use or
threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group
against people or property with the intention of intimidating or
coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political
reasons."

That is the exact definition of what the Zionists have been doing
to the Palestinians for 57 years. From Sabra and Shatila to Gaza and
the West Bank, violence, threats, economic strangulation and dehumanizing
oppression have been systematically used against the Palestinian people -
first to outst them and then to break them. And all of this under the
auspices of an illegal occupation.

So it is the Zionist state which the terrorist organization.

Hamas is a group of Palestinians who have been fighting an
oppressive and illegal occupation for years, using whatever methods
are at their disposal. This is not called terrorism. This is called
defending your homeland.

THAT SAID, HOWEVER....I do not agree with this strategy, and I also make a distinction between Jihad, which is the Islamically acceptable practice of
attacking soldiers at checkpoints, etc., (completely legitimate targets
according to anyone's definition of a just war)and things which don't qualify
as jihad, such as the bombing of buses, etc., where the targets are civilian
and not military. Our dear Prophet (sal Allahu Alaihi wa sallam) left us
with strict rules to follow in the conduct of jihad, and not harming
civilians, the elderly and children is one of those non-negotiable
rules. Any operation which kills civilians is a sin, not an act of
jihad. And it doesn't matter how many innocent children the Zionist
miltary kills; they are not our role models. Islam instructs us to be
above such evil, and because our morals and methods of conduct come from
Islam, we should never allow ourselves to be sucked down to their level.