When Were Muslim Terrorists Invented?

[FredPuli43]

I'm sure I didn't notice any Muslim terrorists in the news when I was a boy.

[douglas9401]

1096ish onwards

[jno]

depending when you were a boy, there were probably only Jewish terrorists in those days. It's widely held (though not I suppose by Israelis) that the first "terrorists" in the modern sense were the Jewish activists trying to scare the British away from "their " country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing

It worked, and its success presumably inspired others. It depends how you define terrorism; the Munich Olympics attack might have been terrorism or it might have been guerrilla warfare by the Palestinians who had lost their land to the Israelis.

At any rate, that sort of activity has shaded into the sort of thing al-Qaeda does.

[ichkeria]

I always think of Stalin and Lenin as the first modern day terrorists

[jno]

ichkeria, yes, the first time the idea of "terrorist" was used seems to have been the French Revolution. But like Stalin, that implies a state using terror against its citizens. Now it sort of implies the reverse: individuals, or apparently weaker parties, using it against a state (or entire western civilsation).

[Gangrel]

I think maybe the 12th century Assassins ( Hashishin ) would be possible candidates - they were notorious as suicidal assassins - it's where the word is from