I think we should stop talking about terrorism, and use the simple old word "murder". There are countless ways to argue that a particular act was not "terrorism". But if the act caused, or was intended to cause, the death of human beings, there are only two ways to deny it was murder (or attempted murder, or conspiracy to murder): either to claim that there was no intention to kill (nor even to cause GBH), or that the act was somehow legitimate. And then one can rejoin "Oh, so you think it’s legitimate to kill anyone who travels on the Tube (or is Jewish, or attends a Shiite mosque, or is a woman you consider immodestly dressed, or …)?" - questions that are harder to evade than those usually put to the spokesmen of certain organizations on the Today programme. Let us in future call murder by its name.
Oh, and why did I sign the statement? Because I’m against murder, against those who practise it, against those who encourage it, and against those who condone it. Until recently I couldn't have imagined it would ever become necessary for me to say that in Britain. Unfortunately it is necessary now.' |
