It is Time to Stop Defining Senseless Mass Murder as "Terrorism"

I have been watching the horrific events unfold in Mumbai and I am sickened as once again religion becomes the reason for senseless violence.

But I think it is time that we change the way in which these senseless crimes are defined. For decades we have called these attacks, "Terrorist acts". This phrase indicates many things beyond "terror". When we think of terrorist acts we tend to think of groups of radical religious or ideological people who strike out against someone or some thing they hate through violence.

In my mind, calling these acts terrorist acts makes the reason behind them more important than the act itself. It gives credence to the idea that the actions taken can somehow be justified, at least to one set of people. It raises acts of sheer brutality to a political statement.

It is time that the media, and the people who are the victims of these attacks start defining them for what they are: mass murder and mass brutality against innocent people. When you kill innocent people, your reasons no longer matter. You are a murderer, no better than the street corner thug who stabs somebody in a drug deal gone bad, and no more deserving of a label that will get you acclaim among your followers.

I'm sure that Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Sueng Hui Cho, and John Wayne Gacy all had reasons for what they did. But we don't pretend that somehow the reasons are somehow more important than their senseless brutality because they're cloaked in national or religious interests.

The people who masterminded 9/11, the numerous European bombings, and now these senseless attacks in Mumbai are murderers. They are criminals who deserve to be punished as what they are, common thugs and wastes of humanity, not labeled with something that makes them sound as though their cause was noble. These people should not be tried through some sort of special "terrorist" courts or tribunals, but should be punished under the normal laws of the land that show these people to be no better or more worthy of special processes and procedures than your common street criminal.

Every act of violence against an innocent human being is terrorism. Raising one act up over another diminishes the impact that these acts have on innocent lives. Let's call these people murderers and not promote their senseless causes any more.