Al-Qaeda: A Terror Organization
Al-Qaeda is one of the world's Islamic activist organizations. Osama Bin Laden founded the international Sunni Muslim organization in 1988 as a terrorist group. The group was solemnly established to prevent the Soviet Union's invasion in Afghanistan with the support of Abdullah Azam and other Muslim volunteers. Since then, the militant group of Salafist Jihadists who are Muslim supremacists has continued to ravage western society through a number of cooperative attacks on innocent people worldwide (Corbin, 2003). This paper will focus on discussing the organization of the terror group, its terrorist endeavors, as well as its primary beliefs and motives.
Beliefs
One of the binding beliefs in Al-Qaeda is that directing towards the Christian-Jewish neighbors. The members of the terrorist group believe that the Christian Jews are formed to conspire and destroy the Islamic religion. With this assumption, they are made to believe that the assassination of a Christian non-combatant is sanctioned by the religion. The Islamic war against innocent people is, thus, carried out with the belief that they are fighting for their holy religion. This belief forms the basis of the Jihad, which is the fight for religion on earth. In addition, the Al-Qaeda group does not recognize the man-made rules and regulations forming the law. Instead, they push for Sharia law as stipulated in the Quran.
Terrorist Activity
Since its formation, Al-Qaeda has performed a series of ruthless attacks on an international scale. Some of the famous attacks include the 9/11 attack in the United States of America (USA) as well as the 1988 US Embassy Bombing in Kenya. Since then, the US, among other countries, has declared the "War on terror," which has seen the killing of the leader Osama Bin Laden. From these series of events, the Al-Qaeda group has evolved in its operation and organization. As we speak, the terror group operates remotely from different corners of the globe, including Europe and America. Organization is no longer administered from the top leaders but is orchestrated by lone-wolf volunteers and franchise group operators. According to Byman (2015), this has made it more difficult to counter attack the group.
Intelligence Agencies on Al-Qaeda
After the raid on Osama's compound that resulted in his death in 2011, a lot of useful information has been captured by intelligence agencies. For instance, official documents retrieved from his house revealed that the organization was under a chain of command of about 170 members embedded in over 35 countries worldwide. Insights on the location of commanders have enabled NATO forces to strike attacks which kill and destroy some of the commanders and their subordinates. Disrupting the structure helps to slow the articulation of new terror attacks on foreign soil while closing in on the extinction of the terrorist group (Bevy, 2006).
Alleged Al-Qaeda Structure
Despite the killing of the leader in 2011 and other senior commanders in the preceding years, the Pakistan-based terror group seems to be carrying out its operations smoothly afterward. This has led to the assumption that unlike other terrorist groups, Al-Qaeda is not solely formed under its top command leadership. However, it is a weakly formed global structure of extremist Muslims living in different parts of the world (Corbin, 2003). Their union and funding are what direct the leadership in Pakistan and Afghanistan and not the other way round. This describes its presence in Somalia, Syria, Spain, Afghanistan, Gaza, Yemen, and Pakistan among other diverse locations.
References:
Bevy, L. J. (2006). Al-Qaeda: An organization to be reckoned with. New York: Novinka Books.
Byman, D. (2015). Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the global jihadist movement: What everyone needs to know.
Corbin, J. (2003). Al-Qaeda: In search of the terror network that threatens the world. New York: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books.
