Al Qaida

Al Qaida is a militant organization founded in 1988 by Osama Bin Laden with the aim of destroying Western hegemony in the Islamic world, overthrowing regimes in Islamic countries that did not adhere to Sharia Law, and uniting the Islamic world by creating a Caliphate. The organization began as an intelligence network to help Muslims fighting against the Soviet Union in the Afghan war, but it continued to exist long after the war ended. In 1991, Osama moved the Al Qaeda’s base of operation to Sudan in a mutual agreement with the Islamic Front, but due to international pressure, Al Qaeda had to relocate to Afghanistan in 1996 where they were more welcomed by the Afghani Taliban. In 1998, the Al Qaeda released an order for all Muslims to carry a mission of murdering Americans where they consequently bombed the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Later on in 2000, the Al Qaeda militants carried out an attack in Yemen that killed 17 Americans and injured 39. In 2001 the Al-Qaida members carried out the September 11 attacks where they hijacked four airplanes flying from Boston and Washington DC, and flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and claimed over 3000 lives (University of Maryland n.p).

Al Qaeda joined forces with other Islamist organizations including the Islamic Jihad of Egypt and the leaders declared war against the US. They established camps throughout the world, training thousands of militants in paramilitary skills and engaging in numerous terror attacks. The US in a counter attack reaction attacked the Al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the Afghanistan and captured several top leaders and killing others. The remainder of the gang members were forced into hiding. The attacks on the terror group led to operational breaches, financial problems and compromised communication. Rather than weakening the group, these moves guaranteed a structural evolution whereby there were increased attacks from local cells and grassroots groups owing to the Al Qaida ideology. Following the evolution, Al Qaeda carried out further attacks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and the United Kingdom, while increasingly using the Internet as a venue for communication and a mouth piece to broadcast messages and propaganda. With all the attacks and terrifying messages, most people were concerned that US strategy to overcome the Al Qaeda militia men was becoming ineffectual and that the group had reached its peak.

Al Qaeda Group Analysis

Common ideologies amongst the Al Qaeda include Salafism, Salafist Jihadism, Qutbism, and Pan-Islamism. Gunaratna (21), states that Al Qaeda has constantly presented a threat to America, its associates and the general global security. The group has trained over 70,000 members in Afghanistan and has continued to conduct attacks at an interval of every three months since the September 11 attacks. The main success of the group lies in its highly appealing and overarching ideology, which inspires and insight the Islam movements and masses worldwide to carry out attacks against the perceived Islam enemies. The group has constantly sought to revitalize the Jihad movements by exploiting the resentment, anger and suffering experienced in the Muslim world and turning it against the United States. The ideology has been of partial success, considering the new recruits and sympathy the Al Qaeda has gathered from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Nevertheless, the ideology has remained intact despite the fact that Bin Laden and his colleagues have been arrested, killed and scattered. Since Bin Laden’s death in May 2nd 2011, individual cells have continued to operate.

Al Qaeda has continued to intertwine its ideology with the famous concept of martyrdom, whereby they believe that Allah rewards those who take risks and sacrifice their lives for a holy and noble cause and they view their struggles to either yield victory or martyrdom. Events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of communism and the Soviet loss in the Afghan war encouraged the formation of other contemporary Islamic groups across the globe. Even though the group has suffered some blows to its organizational infrastructure and control, its strong ideology has incited and inspired formation of new groups bringing them together to serve the one purpose of global Jihad. Consequently, the West has not had complete success in controlling the spread of the ideology throughout the world as Al Qaeda has remained to be a capable terrorist organization (Gunaratna , 21).

Though Al Qaeda is not a legal organization, it has strategies and objectives just like any other enterprise. The objectives include spreading the Islam religion throughout the globe and destroying Israel together with any other country regarded as her affiliate specifically Canada, Australia, United States, Britain and France. The main strategies of carrying out the attacks includes overwhelming their enemy, strangling them financially, triggering wars amongst the enemies themselves and stretching the enemy thin in order to achieve their goal of ruining America and Israel. By overwhelming the enemies the law enforcement groups have often shifted their focus from solving homicides and gang activity to countering terrorism. Similarly, the media outlets are more filled with scenes of terror than anything else. Countering terrorism is very expensive and this often leads to a stretched budget in countries like the USA while dealing with the terrorists. Stretching the enemy thin includes scattering security forces such that they cannot defend the country itself from crime and terror (Gaubatz n.p).

Professor Klareva (1-3) states that throughout its thriving period, Al Qaeda has continued to recruit members throughout different parts of the globe including Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The recruiters exploit factors which attract individuals to terrorism including the social aspects of communal bonding, common historical grievances and political unrest which is common amongst Muslim countries with authoritarian governments. Other members are attracted to terrorism due to personal admiration of Osama Bin Laden, due to his ability to inspire mass action and the unification of the Jihadists through religion. It is estimated that the Jihadist group has a man power of about 70,000 militants.

The Al-Qaida’s tactics of attack are among the most difficult to counter by the armed forces unlucky to encounter them. Some of their tactics include bombings of targeted areas with civilian or enemy settlements, businesses, offices and at times mosques, street gun fights where the risk of civilian deaths is high. Therefore, the enemy who are sworn to uphold human rights will fear the risk of killing civilians. The al-Qaida have also been accused of using children and even sick patients in their attacks, especially when children are used to bomb enemy convoys as suicide bombers. Other tactics include car bombing, roadside bombing, paramilitary operations against civilians and hijackings. The targets are usually against Anglo-Saxon communities who are the majority in the US and who also hold positions of power. They avoid attacks on minority groups to avoid suspicions of hate crimes. The weapons of choice include assault rifles, improvised explosives, suicide vests and machetes.

The recent activities from al-Qaida in 2016 showed that there were plots carry out an attack against the US. Though the group has been recently involved in more local conflicts it has continued to accelerate attacks globally, mainly from safe havens in Afghanistan and Syria. Al Qaeda is believed to be running a drug smuggling enterprise which smuggles narcotics from South America to unstable countries especially in West Africa on board several planes for example Boeing 727 and executive jets. In the recent years, Al Qaeda’s activities have been confined in local countries where the group is based including Syria, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Al Qaeda’s effectiveness

Over the years, the Al Qaeda has proven to be ruthless through the approaches it uses to achieve its objectives of attacking their enemies and eradicating foreign presence in the Islam world. It has taken advantage of the US policy in Syria to bring peace and instead has legitimized itself as a viable political player and an armed force. With a well-trained and armed franchise group in Europe, Al Qaeda has proven to be more harmful than the Islamic state. In the past, the al-Qaida focused solely on conflict but it is revealing a new force where it is forming a strong political movement, through the involvement of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The sub branches which were formed to assure Al Qaeda’s survival have now become crucial, initially formed from weak roots and a non-realistic plan to attack the US; now it has a central leadership with strategic guidelines and social concepts. Al-Qaida is also gaining popularity in areas like Syria for moving resources and fighters to support their allies in operations like holding key terrain, defending Sunnis from hostile parties and maintain shadow governments. The groups lesser violent approach seeks to assist local Sunnis gain relief from their grievances and in return they can build local bases of recruitment and assimilate more fighters.

Conclusion

In order to weaken the Al Qaeda and to render its operations futile, their Jihadi ideology must be studied thoroughly and understood and any strategy to counter the terrorists’ tactics must focus on the ideology. In an effort to minimize the appeal of the Al Qaeda ideology, it is vital for the international community to develop capable strategies to end regional wars through negotiations, for example regional wars like the Palestine, Philippines, Algeria, Iraq, Kashmir and Chechnya, as they have continued to spawn and sustain the ideology. In the past, the international trend of neglecting such wars, and thinking that the parties will fight within themselves and become exhausted, has proven wrong as the warring parties eventually drag other people into the war.

The key lies in countering the extreme ideology that justifies, drives and triggers international terrorism. There has been previous evidence that recruitment is done in Madrassas, hence it is important to counter the growth of extremism through educational centers. Similarly, it is very important for the government of the USA to work with the media institution to ensure that there are alternatives to the false ideas that make the Al Qaeda extremism ideology so appealing. Most importantly, the non-extremist Muslims must put efforts to counter the deviant teachings of Al Qaeda and provide a positive future direction of the Muslim community. Military force together with concerted efforts to present ideological alternative to extremism can be an effective way to defeat the Al Qaeda.

















Works Cited

Gaubatz, Dave. "The Strategies and Objectives of Al Qaeda." American Thinker 9 February 2007. Web. 15 February 2017. .

Gunaratna, Rohan. "The Al Qaedas' Ideology." Hudson Institute (2017): 21. Web. 15 February 2017. .

Klarevas, Professor Louis. "Terrorist Recruitment |Tthe Crucial Case of Al QaedasGlobal Jihad Terror Network." Marta Sparago (2007): 1-57. web. 15 February 2017. .

University of Maryland. AlQa'ida. March 2015. Web. 15 February 2017. .