Category talk:Militants

Non-militants in militant groups?

As I've worded the usage note atm, here are some people who belong to militant groups but might not satisfy the inclusion criterion for this cat. --Pi zero (talk) 00:58, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

• Zabihullah Mujahid
• Ismail Haniyeh

Hmm. Also, you say "military of militants" which is not exactly a phrase that comes up anywhere. Perhaps the distinction is better drawn at combatant and non-combatant militants. I don't really know. There can be military arms of political parties. There can be non-combatant politician-types from militant groups. I suppose ISIS pretended to have a military. Well, I guess this is more to ponder. --SVTCobra 01:28, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

I'm not so sure about non-combatants. In the military of a state, a military spokesperson is still military personnel, I'd think; so, what about a spokesperson for the military branch of a political party? This is why I'm fairly confident we don't want the Hamas politician (Ismail Haniyeh), but I'm not sure about the Afghan Taliban spokesperson (Zabihullah Mujahid). --Pi zero (talk) 02:14, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, Hamas is trying more to become a political party. Their military arm is called w:Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The w:Irish Republican Army had to do the opposite (because of their name, I guess) with w:Sinn Fein.

But Zabiullah Mujahid is likely not a real name. It's "someone" reporters speak with on the phone. There are reports of multiple people using the persona. We can't possibly know if this person is an active participant in combat, a high-ranking non-combatant using a pseudonym, or actually a civilian spokesperson. --SVTCobra 02:32, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

If the persona, for which we do have a category, is a spokesman on the military side of things, it may be fair to categorize them under militants. --Pi zero (talk) 02:47, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Meh. I cat'ing Zabihullah Mujahid as a militant. A lot of what they report is claiming responsibility for attacks. --Pi zero (talk) 12:04, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Swapped the overtly awkward "served the military of a militant group" for "served a militant group in its military capacity". --Pi zero (talk) 14:24, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Plausible additions

People we could have categories for, who would likely qualify here. --Pi zero (talk) 14:37, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

• Dadullah (articles: 1, 2, 3, 4) Done
• Mullah Omar (may appear as "Mohammad Omar", "Mohammed Omar", etc; possible blanket sweep for "Omar")
• Fidel Castro, certainly a militant, but is it too far removed from our coverage because he became the ruler of Cuba? --SVTCobra 21:02, 26 August 2019 (UTC)

Indeed, the doom of a successful militant is to become a politician. (However much one might despise some of these people, does anyone deserve such a fate?) Cf. Yasser Arafat. --Pi zero (talk) 21:17, 26 August 2019 (UTC)