THE GROUP AL QAEDA

The Group Al Qaeda

The Group Al Qaeda

Al-Qaeda, an international terrorist network led by Osama bin Laden, remains “the most serious terrorist threat” to the United States according to the July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). The report assessed that the organization was regrouping and regaining strength in Pakistan's tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan. The group is wanted by the United States for its September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as a host of lesser attacks. To escape the post-9/11 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda's central leadership is believed to have fled eastward into Pakistan, securing a safe haven in loosely governed areas there

Origin of Al Qaeda

Al-Qaeda grew out of the Services Office, a clearinghouse for the international Muslim brigade opposed to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the Services Office—run by bin Laden and the Palestinian religious scholar Abdullah Azzam—recruited, trained, and financed thousands of foreign mujahadeen, or holy warriors, from more than fifty countries. Bin Laden wanted these fighters to continue the "holy war" beyond Afghanistan. He formed al-Qaeda around 1988.

Aim of Al Qaeda

The principal stated aims of al-Qaeda are to drive Americans and American influence out of all Muslim nations, especially Saudi Arabia; destroy Israel; and topple pro-Western dictatorships around the Middle East. Bin Laden has also said that he wishes to unite all Muslims and establish, by force if necessary, an Islamic nation adhering to the rule of the first Caliphs. According to bin Laden's 1998 fatwa (religious decree), it is the duty of Muslims around the world to wage holy war on the U.S., American citizens, and Jews. Muslims who do not heed this call are declared apostates

Al-Wahhab was an 18th-century reformer who claimed that Islam had been corrupted a generation or so after the death of Mohammed. He denounced any theology or customs developed after that as non-Islamic, including more than 1,000 years of religious scholarship. He and his supporters took over what is now Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism remains the dominant school of religious thought.

Ideology of Al Qaeda

The radical Islamist movement in general and al-Qaeda in particular developed during the Islamic revival and Islamist movement of the last three decades of the 20th century along with less extreme movements. To restore Islam, a vanguard movement of righteous Muslims was needed to establish "true Islamic states", implement Sharia and rid the Muslim world of any non-Muslim influences, such as concepts like socialism or nationalism. Enemies of Islam included treacherous Orientalists and world Jewry, who plotted conspiracies and wicked opposed Islam.

Al-Qaeda presents an unprecedented threat to America, its allies, and to global security in general. Although it is the most hunted terrorist group in history, the campaign of holy war unleashed by al-Qaeda is likely to outlive itself and the current generation of Islamists. This is because al-Qaeda's real strength lies not in its global infrastructure and membership per se but in its overarching and highly appealing ...