Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/1940 in terrorism

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Delete all articles. (aeropagitica) (talk) 14:53, 12 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

1940 in terrorism

There is no concensus (on Wikipedia or worldwide) on what exactly constitutes terrorism, therefore the inclusion or non-inclusion of people and events on these pages are biased and a violation of WP:NPOV. Delete this year and all other years listed at Timeline of terrorism, and that page itself .-- Fang Aili ^talk 23:11, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Articles included in this nomintation for deletion--

Delete, mainly because I think this application of the term "terrorism" to this period in time is anachronistic, to a lesser extent like trying to apply "genocide" or "pedophilia" to ancient history. I'll watch this discussion to see if anyone can establish otherwise... Note to nominator: this AFD won't be effective for any articles on which a deletion notice is not given that links to this discussion. Postdlf 23:19, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
- Also, make sure you list at the top of this discussion all articles that you've linked here for deletion. My vote for now only applies to 1940 in terrorism; I will consider other articles as this listing is expanded and modify my vote as appropriate. Postdlf 23:23, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  - All the relevant years are clearly listed at Timeline of terrorism and are now tagged with AfD notices.--Fang Aili ^talk 23:25, 7 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    - OK, Delete all except 1988, for which I currently have no opinion. Postdlf 01:23, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Per nom, and agree with their points. Better or worse, one nations' view of what is a terrorist act differs from anothers--ditto for people themselves. Not encyclopediac; leave individually notable incidents and people in their own articles. rootology (T) 00:01, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Delete, per Rootology. These articles can and will be a POV magnet. --NeoChaosX (talk | contribs) 00:31, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - While Terrorism is in itself a debatable term, the general objection seems to lies in the timelines definition of terrorism or lack thereof. I should point out similar objections made to other timelines I've created, such as the Timeline of organized crime and the Timeline of piracy (as well as the List of war criminals).

This specific timeline is meant to include those internationally recognized as politically motivated as defined by international agencies such as the United Nations [1] and Interpol [2].

As for concerns of POV, there are does exist at least some Wikipedia standard regarding the definition of terrorist acts, such as List of terrorist organisations or List of terrorist incidents (of which many incidents in the timeline are mentioned). These same points were also brought up when both articles were nominated for deletion (see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of terrorist incidents and Talk:List of Militant Organizations/delete). I've presently been compiling this list from no less then four separate encyclopedias on terrorism, should these be disregarded ? Whereas the timeline is neither dominated by Islamic-only incidents or mentions of the Bush Administration (neither of which has even been mentioned as yet), I see no POV nor any bias present, only the concern the article has the potential to become one.

In my own opinion, the fact is there are terrorist organizations, those of which are recognized by international agencies. Some are politically motivated, others are for religious reasons and so on. The timeline is nothing more then simply a listing of those events (or at the very least a more detailed version of List of terrorist incidents), when and where took place. MadMax 01:51, 8 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In addition among the chronologies I had been compiling included the following sources:

Crenshaw, Martha and John Pimlott, ed. Encyclopedia of World Terrorism. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, 1997. ISBN 1-56324-806-9
Kushner, Harvey. Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2003 ISBN 0-7619-2408-6
Henderson, Harry. Terrorism. New York: Facts On File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4259-4
Mickolus, Edward F. and Susan L. Simmons. Terrorism, 1996-2001: a chronology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-31785-2
Sawinski, Diane and Matthew May. Terrorism: Biographies. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group Inc., 2003. ISBN 0-7876-6567-3

I've also included secondary information from Robert Jay Nash's Enyclopedia of World Crime series. In the event the timeline should be deleted, would I be allowed to keep them on my user page ? MadMax 15:58, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's laudable that you're trying to compile lists from reputable sources. However it's likely that there would, sooner or later, be debate about what constitutes a "reputable" source. I have similar concerns about List of terrorist incidents, but that page does not list individuals, just the incidents. Labeling someone a terrorist (as the "XXXX in terrorism" pages do) is dangerous, especially if the person is still alive, and leaves Wikipedia vulnerable to libel lawsuits. I also agree with Postdlf that "terrorism" is anacronistic when applied to years previous to the 1970s or so. --Fang Aili ^talk 16:32, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

While that may be valid concerning certain individuals, those such as listed in Diane Sawinski and Matthew May's Terrorism: Biographies are officially listed as wanted criminals regarding terrorist acts in at least one country (Wikipedia's article on the Baader-Meinhof Gang has an extensive list of the very members listed in the years from 1934-1947 timeline. It should also be noted that members of recognized terrorist organizations as the forementioned are the only individuals listed in the timeline at this point. Nevertheless, all the entries (with the exception of those in the early 1940s) contain specific incidents. To delete the entire timeline based on the lack of entries seems as bit hasty given the fact they could either be reworded (i.e. wanted in Germany for bank robbery or member of the XXXX organization) or taken out entirely. As for the anacronistic reasoning, I would certainly agree when comparing to the Boston Tea Party or the Liberal Revolutions of the mid to late-1800's. However, appling the same to the 20th century is highly debatable in my opinion, nevermind comparing the last 30 years. MadMax 19:20, 9 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also it should be noted that 1988 in terrorism is completed (and is what I think a standard page should somewhat resemble), whereas the earlier entries from 1934-1949 were in the process of being completed at the time of nomination. I would therefore assume, if taking the timeline as a whole, that the main focus would be on 1988 in terrorism rather then 1940 in terrorism ? MadMax 01:17, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Delete but save the information somewhere. While it is put under a bad title (terrorism), it's still information that could be put into other articles. —this is messedrocker (talk) 21:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.