> But I think a general distinction is the targeting of combatants vs civilians
When Afghans took up arms against occupying American soldiers, they were routinely called terrorists in American press and media.
When Muslims fight America or Israel, they are called terrorists. When the situation is reversed, that label isn't applied.
Not only were they called terrorists, they were kidnapped to be tortured in Guantanamo like this kid (he was 15 when his father dragged him to Afghanistan, took part in a skirmish, and might have killed in action a US soldier): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr
Let me guess, the ones you term to be "Islamists" are those who fight America or Israel.
Most of the Afghan fighters who took shots at American soldiers weren't motivated by some sort of boogieman religious extremism. They were simply shooting at armed foreigners who invaded their country. They weren't terrorists by any reasonable definition of the but were called so anyway because they happened to be Muslim and dared to defy America.
and supporting the narrative pushed by the Islamists is harming the Muslims, resulting in Islamophobia. The fact you are mixing the two terms to simply "mark these who attack America" is actually really bad for the normal people affiliated with Islam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Islamism
If you continue to break the site guidelines, we will ban you. We've asked you many times and the frequency with which you're still doing it is suggesting to me that you don't care about this at all. If you want to keep posting here, that's not cool.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40419659 (May 2024)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20136151 (June 2019)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16788926 (April 2018)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15361112 (Sept 2017)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14509767 (June 2017)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12026794 (July 2016)
Right. "The definition of terrorism is controversial and political"
Although I mostly recall the word "insurgent" being used for local fighters in those cases.