Al Qaeda is one of the international terrorist organizations that was established in the year 1980’s by Osama bin Laden in Peshawar, Pakistan. Al Qaeda is an Arabic word meaning “The Base of Operation” or “method.” In the recent years, most experts have come to the agreement that Al Qaeda is one of the most dangerous groups as an ideology than as an organization (Williams, 2002). As a terrorist organization, Al Qaeda has been weakened through massive fragmentation, arrests and even death of its top leaders. As a result of this fragmentation, the structure of this organization was destroyed leading to a lack of a central hub for this militant group. Studies have shown that one thing that has remained constant in this group is its ideology that has continued to fuel intense hatred of the Western, Zionist and even the Semitic cultures and beliefs. Currently, many people might not be directly part of this group’s network or linked directly to Osama bin Laden. Based on their shared beliefs and the views of most of the Western cultures, the militant groups that are associated with Al Qaeda have also been formulated and have continued to carry out the initial objectives that were laid down by bin Laden had in mind during the establishment of the terror organization.
The origins of Al Qaeda can be traced back to the year August of 1988, a time when the group was established at a meeting where three influential people to the growth of this terror group were present (Gunaratna, 2002). First, Ayman al-Zawahiri was one of the closest lieutenants to Osama bin Laden. Studies have shown that he was the brain behind the formation of the organization (Williams, 2002). Ayman al-Zawahiri is considered to be one of the influential lifetime members of the Egyptian Islamist Jihad, until when he opted to move out and merge it into Al Qaeda in the year 1998. Ayman al-Zawahiri was further an active member of Bin Laden’s shura council, that was believed to be comprised of about 20-30 senior members who were serving as primary advisors to Bin Laden. The other main member present during the formulation of the organization was Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, considered as one of the oldest associates of al-Zawahiri (Gunaratna, 2002). Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif was considered as the first member of the of Al Qaeda’s top council and further wrote a book that was later on used extensively as a jihad manual in Al Qaeda training camps throughout Afghanistan. The book was thus a manual used by terror groups in training how to fight a state, individuals or organization that were considered as enemies and later on was used in training jihadis.
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According to Williams (2002), the third most influential member was laden. Osama played the greatest role in this organization by providing the extraordinary amount of funds from his Saudi wealth to support the entire operation. Throughout the 1990s, the financing of Al-Qaeda came from Laden’s personal property. In 2001, other sources of funding comprised of trading of heroine and individual donations from various supporters among them including the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, and even Kuwait. Qatar was also reported to finance al-Qaeda operation.
Al Qaeda runs as a set of connections that comprises of the Islamic terrorist and Salafist jihadists. It became a global radical organization as stated by NATO, EU, US, Russia and even The United Nations Security Council (Gunaratna, 2002). Al-Qaeda got propelled by Salafi's rigid ideologies, more specifically those of the Sayyid Qutb. Arguably, Qutb considered the Western nations and their cultures significant risk to the Muslim community and religion and therefore backed for the creation of Islamic country founded in the Islamic religious laws (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). Additionally, the notion was connected with Osama’s disputation that the West communities have violated the Muslim’s honor, massively humiliated them and further possessed their land. As a result of these ideologies, the Muslims were required to fight against the West in what came to be considered as a Jihad holy war. One of the universal concepts that have been used for long to define the Al-Qaeda’s ideology is “defensive jihad,” implying that it is the duty of all the Muslim to battle the enemies comprising of Western states.
Evidently, the ideologies that define Al-Qaeda helped to drive their objective and goals. The first purpose of the organization was to establish the Islamic regime such as Taliban explicitly founded on the Islamic religious law throughout the Arab states. According to Williams (2002), the second objective was for them to free and repossess all the Islamic land taken by the Wester nations (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). The third objective of Al-Qaeda was to establish what was termed as the “pious caliphate.” The three goals were the propelling forces behind the success and actions of Al-Qaeda. These goals articulated in the Osama’s fatwa which was a religiously authorized declaration of the year 1998. In the fatwa, Laden had claimed that the US through their policies directed into the Muslim land had already declared war on God, the prophet and to the entire community of Muslims.
The other beliefs that were ascribed to the A-Qaeda groups are related to the idea that the Jewish and Christian association was plotting to obliterate the Islamic religion and community (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). Therefore, as Salafist jihadists, they have developed a thinking that by killing non-combatants is religiously sanctioned. This group of terrorist further opposes what can be considered as the human-made laws and at the same time have attempted to reinstate them using sharia regulations that were very strict. Al-Qaeda has further been shown to be one of the terror groups that are effectively prearranged and has a clear division separating their organization group and their action and the leadership. The structural differences clearly make it much useful for Al-Qaeda to operate with no host economy offer the group with military and political support and host their preparation campsite (Gunaratna, 2002). The cell of activists has been established to be semi-independent centers of activities. Every cell comprises of several members willing to sacrifice their life for particular grounds when their leader instructs them. The cells of Al-Qaeda have been scattered extensively in various parts of the world and often make an internet connection with their leaders (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005).
Al-Qaeda uses a specific technique to attack the US including, the suicide attacks in addition to the instantaneous bombing of various targets. As a result of the massive globalization, there has been easy access to different chemicals that have been used in the development of improvised explosive devices by Al-Qaeda increasing the terrorist’s firepower availability (Gunaratna, 2002). The group has mounted numerous attacks on both the military and the civilian’s targets across the world. Since the year 1991, Al-Qaeda has been on record for massive attacks in most parts of the Western communities including, the suicide bombing of US embassy in Kenya, and Tanzania, in 1998. Secondly, they use suicide attacks such as that directed to the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, the attack on September 11, 2001, an attack targeting Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the US in 2001 (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). There were other attacks such as the suicide attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2003. The US, on the other hand, countered the September 11 attack through initiating the concept, war on terror. After the killing of the top officials of Al-Qaeda including bin Laden, they devolved from the top down operation to several small groups spread across the world.
The strategy used by was to provoke the US and other Western nations into invading the Muslim states through directing strong attacks or even attacking the US soil leading to increased civilian casualties. Further, they have been reported to incite the local resistance into occupying forces (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). Additionally, Al-Qaeda further expanded the conflict into the neighboring states and then engages the US together with their allies in a long battle of attrition. They also engaged in activities that were meant to change the organization into ideologies then establish working philosophies that could operate in other states without necessitating a direct authority or even organize them through this franchise incite attacks against the US together with their allies.
The activities ascribed to Al-Qaeda include the members of the group who are believed to engage in an oath of allegiance to their leader who was bin Laden, or organization’s members who have been reported to have undergone an intensive preparation in various states including Iran or even Afghanistan. Evidently, it can be said that the Al-Qaeda ideologues apparently seem to envisage absolute fracture from the Western manipulation throughout the Islamic states (Gunaratna, 2002).
Lastly, the terrorist attack Al-Qaeda often demands meticulous planning and preparation (Mishal & Rosenthal, 2005). During this phase, there is the determination of who, how, when and even where (Gunaratna, 2002). In coming up with a better decision, there is the need for the plotter to carry out a deeper surveillance, assemble the attacking team and further initiate logistic support. Further, the careful note has to be taken while carrying out these acts since the cell is exposed to various vulnerabilities that to some extent might compromise the entire attack operation.
References
Gunaratna, R. (2002). Inside Al Qaeda: global network of terror . Columbia University Press.
Mishal, S., & Rosenthal, M. (2005). Al Qaeda as a dune organization: Toward a typology of Islamic terrorist organizations. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism , 28 (4), 275- 293.
Williams, P. L. (2002). Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror . Alpha Books.
