Article: Al Qaeda and Daesh Flashcards
Al Qaeda: Overview
1988-1989: Al Qaeda (founded)= an organisation with global militant Sunni Islamist worldview comprised of Arab volunteers who had fought the Soviet army in Afghanistan in the 1980s
Began to create a network of multinationals, and Islamist extremists.
Ideology: Break from foreign influence and the creation of a new caliphate ruling over muslim world.
→First modern extremist group to attempt this
Early 2000s: loss of key leaders (osama bin laden)
→shift from top down to bottom up operations (‘lone-wolf’ operators)
Still significant: its message (doctrinal) and continued influence over terrorism
Targets fit under the doctrinal description of a non-believer
Wahhabi revival movement in Islam - attacks towards West and Muslim sites in their campaign of jihad to establish a global caliphate under Sharia law
Al Qaeda’s worldview and methods are condemned by the majority of muslims and it has been designated a terrorist organization by the UN, NATO, EU, U.S. and others
YET it has remained popular: methods of recruitment and messaging brought new members and spawned the growth of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)/ Daesh
Al Qaeda is realist: belief that world politics is a field of conflict among actors pursuing power (esp. in its doctrinal worldview)
al-Qaeda - History: Righteous Warriors
1979-1989: Soviet War in Afghanistan:
Soviet Union & Afghan Marxists x Afghan mujahideen & U.S. through CIA program
Mujahid (plural)=refers to querilla type military units of the muslim Afghan warriors in the Afghan-Soviet war
in 1984: To aid in the recruitment and financing of the fighters the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) or ‘Services Office’ established in Pakistan
Creators: bin-Laden a member of the Muslim Brotherhood & Palestinian Islamic scholar Abdullah Yusuf Azzam
By 1986: recruitment offices were operating in Western Europe and North America.
1987: Training camps were established in Afghanistan
By 1990s: Although the MAK with its foreign volunteers ‘Afghan Arabs’ had not held major role in the war, bin-Laden had gained enough experience in recruitment, networked with Afghan Islamist leaders and Arab financiers, becoming a leader of a new organization. MAK→ al-Qaeda
Founding men of Al-Qaeda began as Arab volunteers fighting an anti-Soviet Communism.
Cold War politics→ many groups (under US and Saudi funding) fought the Soviets
August 1988: al-Qaeda a formal group with a list of requirements for membership (E.g. making a pledge to follow one’s superior, an organised Islamic faction, and goal)
After war ended 1989: al-Qaeda moved to Sudan
1990s: and began its operations
by 1996: its headquarters and training camps had moved back to Afghanistan
prior to 1998 (attack upon the USS Cole) it was difficult to label al-Qaeda as terrorist organization because its enigma had been autonomy and international nature, often making contact with other groups only when necessary, defies conventional definition, some terror attacks being planned and financed by al-Qaeda have been called into question or discredited
New conventional explanation: terror cells operating autonomously while being ideologically linked to al-Qaeda conduct acts of terror
Salafi: theological platform of al-Qaeda is broad enough to encompass various schools of thought and political leanings.
al-Qaeda - Ideology and Activities:
Salafism is a movement within Sunni Islam that doctrinally takes a fundamentalist approach to Islam, rejecting religious innovation supporting Islamic law or the implementation of Sharia.
3 groups: ‘avoid politics’, ‘active’, ‘jihadists’
Salafi movement is often referred to as Wahhabi or described as hybrid of it and other post-1960s movements. Because of its literalist or puritanical approach to Islam the minority of Salafi who support offensive jihad in the West as a legitimate expression against those kafir who are enemies of Islam.
Such global practice by al-Qaeda is a disservice to those Sunni Muslims who proclaim to follow the Salafi movement but are within the first two groups. There is a realist legitimacy to offensive (=Salafi) jihadism
