Terrorist act

Terrorism is a term used in its broadest sense to describe the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious or ideological aim. It is used in this regard primarily to refer to violence against civilians or non-combatants. Although the term has been in use since the 18th century, its popularity increased when journalists and politicians publicly introduced and started using the term "Islamic terrorists" following the September 11 attacks. Rather than being used to describe a type of activity, the term has often been used politically as a term of abuse or denunciation, both by non-state groups and by governments against each other. There is no universally agreed upon definition of the term, and many definitions exist.

Broad categories of political organisations have been claimed to have been involved in terrorism in order to further their objectives, including right-wing and left-wing political organisations, nationalist groups, religious groups, revolutionaries and ruling governments. The symbolism of terrorism has been said to exploit human fear to help them achieve these goals. Terrorism-related legislation has been adopted in various Western states such as the UK, Canada and the US since the September 11 attacks, regarding "terrorism" as a crime, however there is no universal agreement as to whether or not terrorism can be regarded as a war crime.

According to the Global Terrorism Database by the University of Maryland, College Park, more than 61,000 incidents of non-state terrorism, resulting in at least 140,000 deaths, have been recorded from 2000 to 2014.

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