Al-Qaeda stated some of there reasons for carrying out the September 11th bombings included, a religious war against America. A religious war is a war started over religious differences. For example the idea that America is against the Muslin religion. It could also be referred to as a jihad in this circumstance. As jihad is a Muslim term which has many varied meanings. But in many cases it is used to refer to the Muslim struggle to protect the honour of there religion. For example Bin Laden stated himself that ‘It has become clear that the West in general and America in particular have an unspeakable hatred for Islam’. We also have to remember that this quote may not be true as we can not guarantee it actually came from Bin Laden. This appears to be the view of several members of the Muslim faith. Also certain people in the Muslim faith could have been persuaded that it was there duty to protect there religion. And in return when they reached the holy place they would be rewarded and treated with amazing things.
Bin laden stated he wanted the US forces to withdraw from Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries like, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. Because America is an un-Islamic government and could have a negative influence on the countries such as Saudi Arabia. They also feel that they must fight the United States inside and outside there country. As Bin Laden possibly states in one of his speeches. ‘We Will continue to fight you. We will continue the martyrdom operations inside and outside the United States’.
Within is objectives Bin Laden states that he wants al-Qaeda to help free Jerusalem from Israeli control, the main point of this is that Jerusalem used to be in control of Palestine - but America took the land away and gave it to the Israelis and it is still under there control today.
Also there was something called a caliphate, where there is unity and one overall Islamic state. This meant a lot of areas being covered by religious law. Religious law meant for that area things such as, Women wearing full religious cover up and women not being aloud to drive. These laws are very unfair towards the female sex and men are the superior. The areas that could be targeted included Indonesia, North Africa and even south Spain so really covering a large area.
He also wanted to remove the un-Islamic governments from the middle east, un-Islamic governments are governments like the USA who are backing countries in the middle east. Some of the fears maybe that America could begin to dominate these countries and that un-Islamic influences could change the culture of the middle east.
America had a very strong support for Israel , and when Israel declared it’s independence. It only took America eleven minutes to declare it’s support for Israel. By declaring it’s support it provided it with money and military support. But because of the Israeli independence a war broke out. All this meant that the USA had to back up there position and keep a neutral view and this meant they only provided limited support to Israel. Bin laden shows a good support towards Palestine as it feels America has badly treated and shown bias towards Israel.
Also the Muslim world could feel threatened by the influence that America has on everything. Like the media, America can get unlimited coverage of what’s going on. The films that are around now, are mostly made in America. Movies are based in America. And these films are shown all over the world, it could be feared that these films could influence the way that people in the middle east think. Also American based fast food companies such as McDonalds are now everywhere all over the world. Even in countries that America is at way with.
The first gulf war was conflict that originated from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The USA lead a operation to remove Iraq from Kuwait. This was successful, and Iraq was removed from Kuwait with minimal deaths from the American forces and the allied forces.
The USA had there own opinions on why the bombings took place on the twin towers, the pentagon and the failed attack on the unknown target. They stated that al-Qaeda was just evil, and had an overall ambition to just want to kill people. They were simple reasons that meant America could cover a lot of ground when describing what they thought. Also they make out that al-Qaeda had no genuine reasons for actually attacking America.
