This question is justified because there does not seem to be any agreement on how terrorism is to be defined.
Determining whether a certain activity is an act of terrorism is a prerequisite for determining whether or not someone has given material assistance to terrorism and therefore deserves punishment. One of the most basic principles of justice is the principle that the person perpetrating the crime must have intended to do a criminal act if we are to declare him a criminal. It is impossible for a person to intend a criminal act if he has no way of knowing that what he is doing is a crime. There can be no crime without intent.
Let us for now assume that terrorism is whatever the United States declares to be terrorism and that a terrorist organization is any organization that the United States has declared as such. With these assumptions in place, we can consider anyone who gives financial support to one of these organizations to be a material supporter of terrorism – but only if that support was given after the organization was declared a terrorist organization.
As for someone who contributed to one of these organizations before it was declared a terrorist organization, it would be a travesty of justice to prosecute him as a material supporter of terrorism, since he would not have known that he was supporting a terrorist organization.
This is a fact of justice that we are forced to acknowledge not only because the concept of terrorism is ill defined both in general and legal terms, but also because the United States itself links certain people, organizations, and activities with terror on some occasions and does not do so on others.
The organizations of Abdullah Azzam and Osama Bin Laden and their activities in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation of that country were not considered by the United States government to be of a terrorist nature. Those who provided them with support were not considered supporters of terrorism. It did not matter if this support came from US citizens or from others. It did not matter if it took place with or without the US government’s knowledge or approval.
Likewise, those who supported one of the Palestinian resistance organizations in their fight against Israeli occupation before Hamas was declared a terrorist organization cannot with any justice be accused of supporting terror, regardless of whether they had been supporting Hamas or some other resistance group.
We must consider as unjust the accusations being levied against activities that took place before the US government classified certain people and organizations as being linked to terror. We should also mention that the US government’s classification is its own and cannot be attributed to absolute ideas of justice.
An average person is unable to distinguish between the armed resistance movement going on in the southern Sudan and the one taking place in Chechnya. Likewise, it is impossible for him to distinguish between the separatist movement in Sri Lanka and the one in Kashmir (except that there is a UN declaration supporting Kashmiri grievances) or between the one in East Timor and the one in Kosovo.
This brings us to the conclusion that individuals and charities should not be accused of giving material support to terrorism for the contributions that they made to organizations listed by the United States as terrorist organizations before such organizations were so listed.
