Do you believe the ALF is a “terrorist” organization?

Question

Why or why not? If so, do you also think that the people that worked on the Underground Railroad were involved in “terrorist” acts? How about the groups that liberated people from concentration camps during WW2?

Have you ever been to the ALF’s website and looked at their mission statement? Or are you going off reports from the media?

Thanks!

Ok, so for those of you who do not know the A.L.F. (Animal Liberation Front) is a cell based, direct action front. The ALF liberates animals from conditions of exploitation, with or without the use of arson in hopes of creating economic damage that will cause corporations who harm animals to either go out of business, or change their practices. The ALF is specifically against any violence towards humans, or animals. If you need more information please visit their website as they can say it better than I can.

I found most other posts to be either well thought out enough that the author was entitled to that opinion or that the answer was so crappy it was not worth my time. This one I felt I had to respond to.
@ Richard El Nochero
"Any group that uses violence against people, in order to TERRORIZE them into believing the same way that the controllers in the group believe, is by definition terrorist. DUH!!!!!!!!!!"
- First, according to this definition you give you could easily add the U.S. government's military into your list of terrorist group. Spreading Democracy though war? Sounds like terrorism to me. Second, The ALF is a cell based, non hierarchical organization, therefore there is no "way the controllers believe" only the way the members believe.
"While some members of the underground railroad, might have, as individuals, committed acts of violence or used violence as a method of self defense, the underground railroaders in general were not a violent organization and there goal w

Answer 1

Don't be stupid, he's a loveable (slightly annoying) alien from an eighties TV show. God, the questions I get asked..

Answer 2

Any group that uses violence against people, in order to TERRORIZE them into believing the same way that the controllers in the group believe, is by definition terrorist. DUH!!!!!!!!!!
While some members of the underground railroad, might have, as individuals, committed acts of violence or used violence as a method of self defense, the underground railroaders in general were not a violent organization and there goal was simply to free slaves. Not to change the minds of other people through TERRORIZING them.
The exact same thing can also be said of people liberating other people from where they would have been put to death, by controllers who did not like the religious beliefs of the people held in those camps.

Answer 3

Yes they are a terrorist group.

What would you call arson, bombings, some placed in homes, and cars? How many innocent people have they hurt killed?

“If so, do you also think that the people that worked on the Underground Railroad were involved in “terrorist” acts?”

The Underground Railroad help people escaped slavery, I don’t recall seeing where anyone with the Underground Railroad bombing the plantations. A lot of the people who helped with the railroad suffered greatly.

“How about the groups that liberated people from concentration camps during WW2?”

Let’s see the concentration camps were liberated by solders, as part of WWII. So Germany started a war and we along with the allies defeated Germany, which led to the liberation of the camps.

Yes, I’ve been to the ALF site, they talk a good talk but in reality they advocate the commission of violent criminal acts. And they are so proud of them that they hide.

“The ALF is specifically against any violence towards humans, or animals”

That didn’t stop them from planting bombs in cars and homes.

EDIT

to AndyB

GOOD JOB, you said it much better than I did. Thanks

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Yes they have fire bombed research centers and universities because they test on animals. I have an uncle who was a former fbi agent and even he said most of the stuff you hear in the news about them are true. O ya those who worked in the Underground Railroad and resisistance fighters in Europe helped other HUMAN BEINGS not animals. ALF is a terrorist organization why else would they fire bomb places whoever is in the ALF REALLY REALLY need to get a real life.

Answer 6

Under the definition of terrorist, I do think that the ALF does qualify for that title. But, on the other hand, I still support them.

I don't think that they have ever hurt one person doing what they do (correct me if I'm wrong). They're slogan is something like 'Hurt no human, animal, or nonhuman.." or something like that (Although, technically they have hurt buildings, which I think would be classified as 'nonhuman').

I think they are incredibly brave people who go out and do what they believe in. I think they are a lot like the people from the Underground Railroad. There were also a lot of people back then who wanting to see the kids that supported it hung. I don't see this as any different.

As with any great revelation, there will always be opposing forces.

Answer 7

Any one or any group of people who commit crimes in order to advance their beliefs are criminals and terrorists. Burning property, spiking trees, bombings, etc., equate to terrorism. All of them should be put away for life at hard labor, shoveling pig crap on a pig slaughter farm operation.

Answer 8

Yes, yes it is. How can you compare rescuing actual people from senseless torture to a bunch of idiots who burn colleges where important research goes on? That's as bad as PETA's comparing the treatment chickens get to the Holocaust. Who cares about chickens?

ALF is a ridiculous organization that serves no real purpose other than destruction. They're just a bunch of punks who try and cover up their vandalism with a bullshit goal of "liberating" animals. How about liberating something that knows what liberating means?

Look at the info on wikipedia, they hide their violence behind other groups. They're not the saints some people think they are.

Answer 9

Yes.

As for the mission statement, obviously you're referring to the bit that says,

"To take all reasonable precautions not to endanger life of any kind."

Firstly, even if they'd never actually hurt anyone, one does not need to cause harm anyone to be a terrorist. Firebombing cars and buildings and threatening people, as the ALF does (and don't deny that as they've claimed actions of arson, etc), amounts to trying to intimidate people and cause terror for political means. By any definition of the word that is terrorism.
To quote wikipedia "The ALF defines itself as non-violent, defining "violence" as acts of physical aggression directed at human and non-human animals". This is particularly striking as it implies they either do not own a dictionary or think that they can redefine words and no one will notice; either way they're idiots. Violence is described by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'unlawful use of force'. Bombings and arson are still violence, not to mention completely illegal.

The fact that the ALF hasn't killed anyone is immaterial, as they have planted explosives on doorsteps and cars, for instance Fairbanks', which could quite easily have killed people. The FBI said one bomb, which was but on Fairbanks' doorstep but failed to ignite, was powerful enough to have killed the occupants. The ALF supported the campaign against her.
To quote the ALF press office website "On the night of June 30, we paid a visit to Lynn Fairbanks home at 2438 Roscomare Road in Belaire. Since she is rumoured to have a cocktail every evening after a hard days work of breeding monkeys for painful addiction experiments at UCLA we thought we would give her a cocktail of our own a Molotov cocktail. We left it on her doorstep but didn't hang around to see if it went off."

So they threaten people, they plant bombs and start fires, if that doesn't amount to terrorism I don't know what does.

Then there's that their members have been branded terrorists by the UK and US governments and security services, which kind of seals the matter really.

To quote wikipedia "The ALF was named as a terrorist threat by the United States Department of Homeland Security in January 2005.[46] In hearings held on May 18, 2005 before a Senate panel, officials of the FBI and ALF stated that "violent animal rights extremists and eco-terrorists now pose one of the most serious terrorism threats to the nation," adding that "of particular concern are the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF)."

"The Daily Telegraph has called the ALF "the most active terrorist organisation in Britain," [49] a view echoed by Paul Wilkinson of St Andrews University who, in 1998, stated that the ALF and its splinter groups were the "most serious domestic terrorist threat within the United Kingdom," and are "very close" to killing someone. He added: "Keith Mann who was sentenced to 11 years for his extremist violence said in a message to ALF activists that sooner or later someone would die. He didn’t express any remorse about this or any regret. Now that does show to me a level of fanaticism which is very dangerous indeed."

So, there's you, with one point of view, and the US and UK governments, police forces and security services, not to mention the weight of mainstream media and public opinion on the other hand.

And I'll think you'll find the Underground Railroad didn't blow up buildings or try to kill people, and WWII was a war, completely different from terrorism, as almost any person you could ask would agree. Neither of the groups involved were not trying to intimidate people or create a state of fear and submission, as terrorism is defined, and to compare the ALF to these people is ludicrous.

Edit: o_osuperwomano_o, there may well have been people who were more violent in the Underground Railroad. That I think their cause was good doesn't mean I would support their use of violence. There are plenty of causes I believe in, I wouldn't ever support terrorism for any of them in the Democratic country I live in. It defeats the point of democracy, and is pretty much fascism.

Answer 10

I haven't read it but I will take a look.

The real definition of terrorist lies in who attacks whom and why.