sure anon. first of all, they’re probably associating the word “terrorist” with the modern association of “someone who blows up a building” which isn’t what the word means. it’s a person or a group of people who uses fear to control others or to instigate a resolve, and they usually have financial moral support from sympathetic outlets. anders’s intention was not to instill fear, it was to give the mages a fighting chance. plus anders was not backed by any sympathetic outlets—after all, the mage underground had collapsed by act 3.
i think the term is more applicable to the chantry/templars because a) they threaten exalted marches on non-andrastian faiths for the smallest infractions, b) they’re a militarized religion with thedas’s largest standing army, c) the rite of annulment literally gives them the right to commit unquestioned genocide on a group of people for whatever reason they see fit, and d) the chantry’s existence is literally founded on an act of terrorism.
now as for a term that more accurately fits anders, i’d say “insurrectionist” works, since he’s a person acting in revolt against a system in power. now let’s look at anders’s reasons for doing what he did first, as well as several examples of templar crimes in kirkwall —i’m gonna quote one of my own posts because i’m incredibly lazy:
anders peacefully protested for years and was completely ignored.
like not only was he single handedly helping the sick refugees and the poor in darktown and lowtown (bc the chantry was too busy partying it up with the nobles in hightown to give a shit), but he was also helping mages escape the kirkwall circle and personally led mages to freedom.
grand cleric elthina did absolutely nothing to stop the templars from abusing the mages and took a “””neutral””” stance even though it was her fucking job to mediate.
divine justinia sent leliana to investigate kirkwall to see if an exalted march was necessary, and yet elthina still did nothing.
tranquility was such a normal thing that npc mages will casually discuss “three starkhaven mages were just made tranquil” one day just because.
ser alrik was tranquilizing mages and raping them because he was in a position that he could and he would not face punishment for it.
maddox was a young mage who was made tranquil for sending love letters out to his lover.
a tranquil mage selling wares tells you not to steal anything or “she’ll be beaten”
cullen “mages aren’t people” rutherford.
meredith had already sent for the rite of annulment and was waiting to commit genocide on the entire kirkwall circle and considering how she was at orsino’s throat before anders blew up the chantry she would have done it anyway.
oh and let’s just throw in the fact that meredith and the templars went after every mage after the fact.
now before anyone says “kirkwall is the exception/kirkwall was the worst circle” here are some examples in the series that show this isn’t the case:
anders was kept in solitary confinement for a year and in world of thedas volume 2, it was considered a “light punishment”
cole was left to starve to death in the orlesian circle, forgotten about, and his records wiped so they wouldn’t have to deal with the mess.
duncan sees templars harassing young mage children in the circle in the calling (i believe it was this book, but correct me if i’m wrong).
enchanter irving tries to entice young mages with blood magic to see if any of them will fall prey to it.
the harrowing is literally a test that no mage is told about or allowed to prepare for to see if they fall prey to a demon—so they can be killed on the basis for a crime they might commit.
mages are stripped from their families and have essentially no personal freedoms
anders tells you the most common death for a mage is suicide, and that mages are often beaten and raped by the templars.
the rivain circle was annulled because their mages had too much freedom.
tranquil mages are literally free slave labor sources because they can create runes.
the templars use tranquility as a means to punish mages for the smallest infraction.
mages are told that their existence is a sin in the eyes of the maker, and the chantry constantly pushes the idea that they’re dangerous so any punishment they face is seen as justified by the andrastian population—despite the fact that rivaini seers and chasind mages constantly interact with spirits as part of their cultures with almost no trouble of abominations—yet the only abominations we ever really hear about or see in game are a result of fear and oppression and used as a means to strike back.
so if we’re looking at this singular situation, the templars are definitely the ones in the wrong here, and i’d say the chantry and the templars were more of the terrorist than anders ever was. anyway i hope this was helpful !