Al Qaeda Ideology

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Al Qaeda is a terror group with a deep religious ideology, which it uses to justify their actions. Al Qaeda has a Salafi-Jihadi ideology, a dogma that has found its beginnings with Jamal al Din al Afghani. Four main terms that formulate this ideology are Salifism, Jihad, Hijra, and Jahiliyya. Al Qaeda engages in what is called a lesser jihad, meaning creating a better community, expanding it or defending it through terror attacks or war. Greater Jihad includes betterment of the community and the self. This ideology helped influence the leader of Al Qaeda thus we will take a brief look into his path to Al Qaeda leadership. Osama Bin Laden began attending meetings at the University where Islam extremists went to speak. These speakers caught the attention of Bin Laden so he continued to frequent these meetings more often. The foundation of Al Qaeda ideology and the leadership of Osama Bin Laden led to many terrorist attacks across the world causing many casualties and striking fear into the hearts of many. Key Words: Ideology, Salifism, Salafi-Jihadi, Jamal al Din Afghani, 9/11 Global terrorism Paper: Al Qaeda : The Ideology, the Leader and Terror Attacks Terrorism in our world has existed for many centuries. Terrorism has had different motives behind their acts through out history. The word terrorism is a difficult word to define; I believe it is a word that can be defined subjectively by the individual. According to Jonathan R. White, terrorism is usually defined by its social constructs, meaning, the people that are living in the current political and social realities are the ones that describe what terrorism is and how those actions have affected them at the current time (White 2014). When attempting to define terrorism, there are two factors that are important to do so. The first factor is that someone has been a victim to a terror attack, and the second factor is that the definition of terrorism is described by the ones’ that have been victimized by the terror attack (White 2014). Nowadays, when one thinks of a terrorist group, the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) comes to the mind of many. When I think of the word terrorism I immediately associate it with the terrorist group Al Qaeda, its ideology, its leader Osama Bin Laden, and the September 11, 2001 attack on the world trade center in New York. Although Al Qaeda has been weakened, it still remains a big terror threat to the US. The rise of Al Qaeda is one based of religious ideology that has political ends in its purpose. The origins and ideology behind the terror group Al Qaeda is a …show more content…
As stated above, Salifism Hijra, Jihad, and Jahiliyya are four terms that are crucial to Al Qaeda ideology. Corruption in Islamic society is represented by the term Jahiliyya. This term can also be associated with a state of ignorance that the Arab people lived in before God made revelations to Muhammad (Turner, 2010). The concept of Salifsm can be a counterbalance concept to that of Jahiliyya, which it is associated with an uncorrupted Islam in the time of the prophet. Safilism can be thought of as a counteractive component to relieve the problem of Jahiliyya. Jahiliyya can be thought of as decease, and Salaifism can be thought of the remedy that will cure the decease. Before taking any action to attempt to end Jahliyya, there is a preparation

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