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Essay / Revolutionary denotation and connotation - 845
In fact, one may wonder, in certain situations, how can we differentiate between the two when we label a person? It can be very confusing at times because people's opinions and beliefs differ all over the world. For example, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan, consider themselves revolutionaries while the United Nations calls them terrorists. The Taliban strictly follow Sharia law and therefore believe the movement is only a political revolution. However, in doing so, the Taliban and their allies committed massacres against Afghan civilians, denied UN food supplies to more than 100,000 starving civilians, treated women brutally, and were implicated in the group's terrorist Al-Qaeda. For this reason, the United Nations held this movement responsible for 75 percent of Afghan civilian casualties between 2010 and 2012. This confusion in the choice of words to qualify the Taliban is one of the only exceptions. In most cases, there is a correct choice between terrorist and revolutionary when categorizing a person, group or group.