: Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist? I am writing a side story called, The Afterglow of Jovian, which mainly takes place sometime during the final stages of the

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One of my favorite books is Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, about a brave group of freedom fighters on the moon. If you read it closely enough, however, you realize that the protagonists are all terrorists from the point of view of the people on Earth. They aren't looking for peace, they're looking for victory, and they're willing to use any tactics necessary to secure it. (Interestingly enough, it also functions in some ways as a space-aged retelling of the American Revolution. So there's a lot of truth to @MonicaCellio 's observation that "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.")

There's also a wonderful short story in graphic novel form by Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan, about a young woman who narrowly escapes a store bombing, and ends up caring for a victim of the bombing in the final minutes of his life. It's only later that she realizes the "victim" was actually the bomber himself. It's a wonderful reversal, because you're forced to reevaluate the sympathies and affections you've built up for the victim, your sense of his injured fragile humanity, in light of his true identity.

So there is definitely room to do this story and do it well. But I think you need some caution. I'm assuming you don't want to lionize or excuse away the horrors and moral crimes of terrorism. In that respect, I think your described strategy is a good and a powerful one --to have the protagonist's eyes gradually opened to the unjustifiable ugliness of what his side is willing to do to win.

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Can you? Yes. As @Cloudchaser points out, it is being done, increasingly more commonly.

Do I wish such stories did not exist? YES.

Terrorist attacks are very much a part of my life. There's a failed attempt every week where I live, on average once a month they do not fail. When I was a child, it was far worse. My mum wouldn't allow me and my brother to take the same bus, because she was terrified of losing both of us.

So what is it you're doing when you make your protagonist a terrorist? You're making the reader sympathise with him. Even if particular actions of your protagonist are despicable, they are suddenly understandable, forgivable. From there, it's one step to "sometimes acceptable". Well, NO! Terrorism is not forgivable. There is NOTHING understandable about blowing up a bus full of schoolchildren.

I should draw your attention to the distinction between terrorism and guerilla. While sometimes the distinctions are blurred, guerilla is strictly against soldiers. Terror is against civilians. And political assassination isn't terrorism either. Terrorism is against your average Joe, and average Joe's baby daughter - the targets that would instil most terror.

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One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. In other words, your main character probably doesn't see himself as a terrorist, so a first-person or close third-person story focusing on that character can present something more nuanced than "terrorist, ick". I've read stories where I know the main character is reprehensible in some way -- terrorist, serial killer, torturer -- but the story is still interesting. Not all fiction requires that the reader see himself in the main character.

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