What is a terrorist?

Taking issue with the commonsensical understanding of terrorism as an anti-modern formation, the present article proposes to locate terrorism in the broad framework of statism, its collusion with power and the creation of knowledge on which popular consciousness is grounded. This approach helps in demystifying the problem of terrorism and implicates the state in the creation of terrorism discourse. Seen thus, terrorism is less a tangible object or a value-free idea, and more a product of a particular type of analysis - taking place in language, in laws and in state apparatuses. Placing terrorism in the historical context records the shifting definitions of terrorism and unravels its meaning in the domain of power which establishes terrorism not as an actually existing reality, but as a discursive product. This reading leads us to see not only the power of language in making such a discourse, but also the chronic incapacity of modernist vocabulary to address problems peculiar to 'different' cultures. © The Author(s), 2010.