ABSTRACT
David C. Rapoport was the first scholar of terrorism to demonstrate the historicity of religious terrorism, whose roots far predate Mohammad and the birth of Islam. Terrorism is after all a court of last resort. It is always an action of those who perceive themselves to be weak against an enemy perceived to be infinitely stronger. Critics argue that terrorism is inherent in the Islamic faith, often pointing to the life of Mohammad and the content of the Qu'ran, which was in part revealed to the Prophet during the internecine war between the Muslims and the pagan Meccans. The Czech communists and the young democracy dreamers wrote their dreams on the Hussites and Taborites, young Westerners and Muslim extremists found a model in Hassan i-Sabah, and the interpretations of Ibn Taymiyyah are as many as there are dreamers in the Islamic world.
