We are as unlikely to delegitimize fundamentalist terrorists by changing our use of language to describe them as they are to define us by their deranged rants. Think about it!

There are countless individuals glad to kill themselves -- and to encourage their children to do the same -- to advance a global religious theocracy. The terrorists and their actions win far more tacit approval than condemnation from their worldwide brethren.

The problem is not how we define their actions in terms of their religion. The problem is their abandonment of reason and rationality in favor of a slavish uncritical approach to the central tenets of their religion.

Mick Mckenna

Raleigh

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