“Muslims, Bin Laden argues, must reverse a series of humiliations that they’ve endured since the Ottoman Empire, the last Muslim great power, was dismantled after World War I. Al-Qaeda’s 1998 declaration of a jihad, or holy war, against ‘Jews and Crusaders’ urges Muslims to attack ‘the Americans and their allies, civilian and military,’ supposedly as a response to U.S. policies that al-Qaeda feels oppress Muslims: the stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia; the backing of U.N. sanctions against Iraq; support for repressive Arab regimes; support for Israel; alleged complicity in Russian attacks on Muslims in Chechnya; and interventions in Bosnia, Somalia, and other Muslim regions that bin Laden sees as attempts to spread America’s empire. These Western policies, according to al-Qaeda, add up to a ‘clear declaration of war on Allah, his messenger, and Muslims.’”
It is important to understand that al-Qaeda’s extremist politicized form of Islam only represents a small segment of the diverse religion of Islam. Due to its radical beliefs, many Muslims consider al-Qaeda’s beliefs as a “distortion of their faith.” Al-Qaeda has history of attacking Muslim governments, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, because they view their nations as godless, and therefore, in direct conflict with their religious beliefs. For this, and many other reasons, many Muslim countries are part of the U.S.-led coalition against al-Qaeda.
Experts believe that religiously motivated terrorists like al-Qaeda are less restrained than other terrorist. The goals of these terrorists appear to be more vague than those of nationalist terrorists. An example of a possible goal of a national terrorist would be the desire for an independent state, which is a much more tangible goal than that of al-Qaeda’s belief in spreading the practices of jihad. These experts believe that religious terrorist often see violence as an ends to itself—“a divinely inspired way of serving a higher cause.” However, al-Qaeda, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, the Palestinian group Hamas, and other religious terrorist organizations believe that mass killings are considered not only acceptable but “holy.”
September 11th was part of an increasingly deadly trend in the evolution of terrorism. Comparing the present to that of the last decade, there are now fewer terrorist attacks, but their intentions are to kill more people. Experts attribute this trend of “fewer attacks, more fatalities” to an increase in religiously motivated terrorism. This type of terrorism lacks some of the restraints than that of earlier versions of terrorism. Experts hypothesize that the popularized hijackings and kidnappings in the 1960s and 1970s have been reduced to simpler, but sometimes more deadly bomb operations, due to the world’s increased awareness and security. Before the 1990s, some terrorist groups operated under the belief that too much violence could backfire. In other words “terrorist groups wanted to find the proverbial sweet spot: they sought to use enough shocking violence to bring attention to a cause they felt had been neglected, but they did not want to use so much violence that their audiences abroad would become permanently alienated.” It was the same mentality among nationalist terrorist groups—such as the Palestine Liberation Organization or the Irish Republican Army (IRA); they did not want to lose the support of their own people due to extreme violence.
The Key leadership of Al-Qaeda are all on the run from the US forces and its allies that are hunting them down. The man in charge is known as Osama bin Laden, which is the top financer for the group. Also the number two man is Ay al-Zawahiri, who is the leader of the Al Jihad in Egypt, is also the number two man of the organization. There is Abu Yahya al-Libi, who is the top Al-Qaeda recruiter. Mustafa Abu al-Yazid is an original member of Al-Qaeda and is the top advisor to bin Laden. Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah is a consultation council member and part of the religious/fatwa committee and is the FBI’s most wanted Terrorist for his involvement of the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Saad bin Laden is the son of bin Laden and is believe to be the successor of his father.
Al-Qaeda is functional world wide with sympathizers all over and terrorist cell in almost every country of the world. They have several partners and supporters. Some of the most known are the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was merged with Al-Qaeda when their leader Ay al-Zawahiri, became the number two man and spokes man for the organization. Lashkar-e-Taiba, is a Pakistani-based Islamic terrorist organization, seeks to drive out Indian security forces from the disputed Jammu and Kashmir regions of
South Asia and establish an Islamic caliphate. Hezbollah is a supporter and it is not yet known if they are actually part of the Al-Qaeda organization. Al-Ittihad is Somalia’s largest militia group and is a member of the organization. Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is affiliated with al-Qaeda and has embraced Osama bin Laden's anti-Western global terrorist ideology.
Al-Qaeda is well known for its Tactics, Techniques and procedures. Tactics are assassination, bombings, hijackings, kidnapping, and Suicide attacks. Their techincues are listed on a CD-Rom and in a Manual. Their Procedures are long thought out planning processes that are used to get the most effect out of an attack.
By far Al-Qaeda today is still a very dangerous group, with its members on the run and their finances frozen, they are still regrouping and gaining support of other terrorist organizations around the world and Al-Qaeda is still capable to carry out attacks on the United States and it’s Allies to reach there ultimate goal and to drive out western influence out of the Middle East.
Works Cited
“Iraq and Straw; Israel and Road Map.” Israel National News. 23 Mar 2003.
< http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=41128>
Jenkens, Brian Michael. “ The future Course of International Terrorism.” World Future Society. 2001. < http://www.wfs.org/jenkins.htm>
Shibley, Telhami. “American Foreign Policy Toward the Muslim World.” Summer-Fall 2001. SAIS Review.
<http://www.brookings.edu/views/interviews/telhami/20010921.htm>
Terrorism: Questions and Actions. May 2003. <http://cfrterrorism.org/groups/alqaeda.html>
Remnick, David. “After Madrid.” The New Yorker. 29 March 2004.
United Nations Home Page. 2000-2004. < http://www.un.org/english/>
