Is Islam Influential in the Al Qaeda Network"?

Is Islam Influential in the Al Qaeda Network"?

Table of Contents

Is Islam Influential in the Al Qaeda Network"?3

Introduction3

Establishment And Organization3

The Beginnings Of Al Qaeda6

Jihad Against America12

Investigating Al Qaeda15

Ideology And Activities21

Works Cited24

Bibliography26

Is Islam Influential in the Al Qaeda Network"?

Introduction

Global, revolutionary Islamist organization dedicated to establishing true Islamic governments and societies in Muslim nations and combating Western influence on the Muslim world. Al-Qaeda has gradually evolved into a multinational organization. Many of its leaders were originally part of the Afghan Service Bureau, which was created to repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

Once the Soviets retreated from Afghanistan, the leadership of al-Qaeda sought an ideologically worthwhile mission for the former jihadis, or holy warriors. The organization turned to other projects, sending reinforcements to other conflicts in which Muslims were resisting oppression, such as those in Chechnya and Kashmir. Gradually, the focus shifted to resisting the oppression of Muslims worldwide. Those to be resisted were wealthy Western capitalist nations, including the United States; Israel; and corrupt, secular Muslim regimes, such as those in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Establishment And Organization

Al-Qaeda was established in 1988. Dubbed a terrorist group by most of the international community, al-Qaeda has become a highly secretive organization. It is unique among Islamist groups in that it outwardly rejects peaceable solutions to conflict. The organization asserts that action and sometimes violence are necessary to establish Islamic governments that operate independently of infidels and Western hegemony. It is unique among terrorist groups for its global reach in both its operations and membership.

The organization is well run and organized, and there are many reasons for its success, most notably its structure, mobility, membership, and capacity. Structurally, it is neither one group nor a coalition of groups; it is a modern, multifaceted organization that operates on its own and through or with other groups to achieve its ends. Al-Qaeda has infiltrated Islamic nongovernmental organizations, some of which now act as fronts and serve as recruiting centers for the organization.

In the past, al-Qaeda has received tacit or overt governmental support from the Sudanese government and from the Taliban government of Afghanistan, among others. The group has also allied itself with Islamic political groups and Islamist organizations around the world, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria, and Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. With such a broad base of support, al-Qaeda has gained access to and, in some cases, control of military, political, terror, and humanitarian structures.

Al-Qaeda has little central command; rather, there is coordination among regional offices, or cells. The horizontal network allows each of these regional cells to plan, raise its own funds, and advance the aims of the organization in a regionally effective way. Although central command structures are limited, al-Qaeda tends to establish them in weak or failing Muslim states, such as Afghanistan and the Sudan. These nations are strong enough to offer the protection of sovereign borders but weak enough so that the organization can ...