I have written a bunch of books relating to incidents of religion-related terrorism around the world, but the one word I have seldom used is “terrorist.” The reason for that is that it is not an analytic term.

Terrorism is a subjective one.  It describes persons whose presence or actions have aroused states of terror among those directly or indirectly affected by them.

This means that the definition of a terrorist is given by those who perceived themselves to be terrified. In my interviews with scores of people who were part of activists deemed by observers to be terrorism—vicious acts of terrorism at that—none of them regarded themselves as terrorists.

“We are soldiers undertaking defensive acts,” one of those jihadi extremists involved in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center told me when I talked with him in prison. He was not a terrorist. Those who shuddered at his attack on the World Trade Center, though, saw it differently. Perception makes all the difference.

When members of the Trump administration immediately labeled as “domestic terrorists” the victims of ICE attacks in Minneapolis that murdered unarmed protesters in cold blood, it gave me pause. Who were they terrorizing? Who was terrorized?

The videos of the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti do not show anyone terrorized by their actions. Good’s last words were “that’s fine, Dude, I’m not mad at you.” Pretti’s last words as he shielded a woman shoved to the ground by ICE agents were “Are you okay?”

As the cell phone cameras panned out from the immediate murder sites, though, we could see dozens of bystanders stunned—terrified—by what they had seen. Were they witnessing the actions of domestic terrorists?