Islam legitimizes terrorism

The following groups have made it clear that they will not make peace with Israel under any circumstances:

Hizballah (Party of God) Radical Shia group that is strongly anti-West, anti-Israel and opposed to the Middle East peace process.

Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) Militant anti­peace process organization bent on Israel's total destruction and the establishment of a Palestinian State in Israel’s place.

Islamic Jihad and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) Preaches holy war, jihad, to establish an Islamic Arab empire, even by overthrowing secular Arab regimes. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is focused on destroying Israel as an initial, essential step toward fulfilling the goals of Islam.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Marxist­Leninist group that advocates Pan­Arab revolution and the establishment of a secular democratic state in Palestine on the ruins of Israel.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) A PFLP splinter group, led by former Syrian army officer Ahmad Jibril, that focuses more on fighting and less on politics.

Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) This group's pro­PLO faction, led by Abu Abbas, is based in Iraq, openly supported Iraq in the Gulf War, and has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks, including the 1985 attack on the Achille Lauro cruise ship in which U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer was murdered.

These two groups have more recently begun to support terrorist attacks against Israel. In the first 18 months of the Al-Aksa Intifada, Tanzim and the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades have taken responsibility for more than 300 terror attacks in which Israeli civilians were killed.

Fatah’s Tanzim In 1995, Yasser Arafat and Fatah leadership created the Tanzim Military wing. Tanzim fighters were active in the “Tunnel Riots” of September 1996 and the Nakba riots of May 2000. Tanzim was at the forefront of violent demonstrations that erupted in late September 2000, when Camp David peace talks with Israel over a final settlement reached a dead end. As these violent demonstrations evolved into series of terrorist attacks, Tanzim fighters carried out ambushes of civilian vehicles and bombings in Israeli cities.

Fatah’s Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades emerged shortly after the outbreak of violence in late September 2000. The infrastructure, funds, leadership, and operatives that comprise the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and facilitate the group’s activity all hail from Yasser Arafat's Fatah. Due to the sharp rise in Al-Aksa terrorist attacks in recent months, the U.S. State Department added Al-Aksa Marytrs Brigades to its FTO list in March 2002

All of the above terrorist organizations believe in the legitimacy of violence, against both military and civilian targets, as a means to achieve their political goals. Their legitimacy of terrorism is based on radical Islamic ideology.

While most of the world, including much of the Muslim world, sees terrorism as an outright evil, a growing number of the world's Muslim population, "militant Muslims", use the Islamic principle of jihad, ("strive, struggle, fight, endeaver"), to legitimize terrorism.