When Terrorism Isn't Terrorism

From the Washington Post:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 6 -- A University of North Carolina graduate from Iran, accused of running down nine people on campus to avenge the treatment of Muslims, said at a hearing Monday that he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah."

Okay, this guy rents an SUV for the express purpose of attacking UNC students to make a statement about the treatment of Muslims. He deliberately drives onto a campus area open only to foot traffic and hits nine of them, and only random chance prevents death or serious injury to anyone. Attacking innocent people to generate fear. This is the very definition of terrorism.

Pretty straight forward case here, it would seem, unless you read this LA Times story:

SUV Attack Prompts Debate Over 'Terrorism' and Islam

So Mann, a member of the College Republicans, attended a rally organized by that group and student members of two others Monday morning at the scene of the SUV incident. He and a few dozen students handed out American flags and made off-the-cuff pleas for UNC students to stand united.

But because they also denounced the act as terrorism, the rally emerged as the latest controversy on this multicultural campus over the way language and image are deployed in conversations about Islam.

Mann's group was met at lunchtime by a boisterous, impromptu group of counter-demonstrators who argued that the rally wasn't helping to heal wounds. Especially insensitive, they said, was the insistence on calling the incident terrorism.

This is what we get for allowing creatures like Ward Churchill and Jay Bennish to educate our youth.

Michelle Malkin asks, "Can we call it terrorism yet?"

Captain Ed says yes:

Terrorism...is the use of violence or the threat of violence against civilian populations in order to advance a political or religious philosophy.

Also posted at The Jawa Report and Vince Aut Morire.