Week 10- Terrorism, Fundamentalism and Crusaders and Conspiracy Theories

The film we watched today was about a man that interviewed different people asking them the same question: what is terrorism?
This film gave us an idea of how differently people define terrorism but also how it is linked with stereotypes. The filmaker travels to the Middle East, to Europe and the United States noting what the common person, intellectuals, and government position holders have to say on the matter. In the film there is a long clip of definitions on terrorism by government officials. Each one has a different definition, some linking it to fear placed on people and others take it to the extent of innocent people being killed. It was specially interesting to see the definitions of nations that we do not focus on in this class. The speaker from Spain goes on about how it places fear in people and how that is the intension. It was also interesting listening to the different definitions by Israel and Palestine since they continously are involved in what each calls "acts of terrorism".
Personally I found it interesting what the common person had to say about terrorism. In some places it was clear that the people, when defining terrorism, insinuated people of the Middle East. One woman stated that she is fearful and does not understand why "they" would do such thing. In the minds of most people, especially in the U.S. due to September 11, the word "they" is linked directly to a group of people. What gets me upset is that most people do not know much of the history nor current events of situations. I think most base it on a news article title or quick news coverage that they encounter and after which they assume they know enough to make a judgement.