Chapter 12: Religious Terrorism and the Soviet

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Chapter 12Religious Terrorism and the
SovietAfghan war
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Afghan War

• Afghan Mujahedeen with Saudi Arabia fought the
  Soviet Union in Afghanistan in 1979.
• The United States in those days were ready to
  support any form of Islam against the Soviet
  Union.
• They worked closely with Pakistani Interservice
  Intelligence Agency (ISI).
• After the Soviets left Afghanistan, Mujahedeen
  groups continued to fight over the control of the
  country.

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Afghan War

• Al Qaeda
• Osama bin Laden created al Qaeda during the last
  stages of the Soviet-Afghan War.
• Group was composed of Islamic students who wanted
  to bring order to Afghanistan through the forced
  imposition of Islamic law.
• It is one manifestation of the Jihadist movement
  that has millions of supporters and sympathizers.

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• Bin Laden
• Son of a wealthy Saudi Arabian construction
  executive who worked with the Saudi Government.
• Tutored by the brother of Sayyid Qutb.
• After the 1990 U.S. invasion of Iraq, bin Laden
  turned against Western nations.
• In 1993 bin Laden was active in Somalia, but was
  forced to flee to Afghanistan.
• After September 11, al Qaeda decentralized and
  spread activities around the world.

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• 9-11 Commission Report
• bin Laden emerged as a symbol of Islamic
  discontent in the 1990s.
• bin Laden formed an alliance with Abdullah Azzam.
• bin Laden established a foundation as a potential
  general headquarters for future Jihad.
• bin Laden developed a relationship with Ayman al
  Zawahiri.
• Umbrella organization similar to EIJ
• bin Laden and Zawahiri began planning model for
  al Qaeda.

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• Osama bin Laden became incensed when U.S. troops
  were stationed in Saudi Arabia after Desert
  Storm.
• Began training and financing terrorist groups.
• Called for overthrow of unsympathetic Muslim
  governments.
• Saudi cracked down on bin Laden because of his
  protests against Desert Storm.
• Bomb in Yemen hotel seen as the opening shot in
  bin Ladens war against the U.S.
• 9-11 Commission believes bin Laden was/ remains
  funded by wealthy sympathizers.

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• Bin Ladens philosophy
• Contends after Abdullah Azzam that Islam is
  corrupted and needs purification.
• Blame is placed on heretical Islamic leaders
• Believes much of the corruption is due to values
  and economic power of the West
• Especially the U.S.
• Called to destroy the evil influence

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• Ayman al Zawahiri
• Son of a prominent Egyptian family who became
  active in the Muslim Brotherhood and later in
  Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
• Creator of Egyptian Islamic Jihad.
• bin Laden joined Zawahiri
• In 1996 they declared war on the United States.
• In 1998 they declared the formation of the World
  Islamic Front against Jews and Crusaders.
• Ayman al Zawahiris philosophy
• Jihadists should focus on the near enemy
  (Corrupt governments in Muslim societies) before
  turning against far enemy (Israel, the U.S.A).

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Bin Laden, Zawahiri and al Qaeda

• Al Qaedas Political Theology
• Radical Islamic schools madrassas glamorize
  violence.
• Al Qaeda emphasizes its mission as a vanguard of
  popular uprising.
• Many terrorist organizations uses al Qaeda in
  their names but tended to be fully autonomous
  groups with no connection to the al Qaeda
  structure that exists in Pakistan today.
• Martin Hart believes that al Qaeda has lost much
  of its appeal because it has failed to inspire
  religious support beyond the members of its cells.

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Misappropriated Theology

• Myth
• Jihadist theology of violence does not convey the
  meaning of Islam.
• Islam is a religion valuing peace and toleration.
• Violent passages like those in the Koran can be
  found in the writings of all major religions.
• ...kill the disbelievers wherever we find them
  (Koran 2191)
• fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer
  them, and lie in wait for them in every
  stratagem (Koran 95)
• murder them and treat them harshly (Koran
  9123)

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Misappropriated Theology

• The truth
• Muslims quote early, relatively peaceful,
  tolerant verses while obscuring the more violent
  verses that abrogated those early verses.
• Muslims believe that peace comes with the
  completion of global conquest when every person
  on Earth submits to the will of Allah (by force
  if necessary). In that sense, Islam is a religion
  of peace.

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Misappropriated Theology

• Confusion about mainstream Islam complicates
  attempts to understand Jihadists.
• Misunderstandings increase when Jihadists use
  religious rhetoric and language.
• Militant Muslims depart from the path of Islam
  while endorsing violence.
• Jihad is a duty and means for imposing their
  strict form of Islam.
• Muslims are allowed to lie to unbelievers in
  order to defeat them.
• In order to protect Islam.
• In order to gain the trust of non believers in
  order to draw out their vulnerability and defeat
  them.
• By Taqiyya (lie) and Kitman (omission)

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Origins of Jihadist Networks

• Foundation of modern Jihadist power grew from the
  Cold War.
• Western allies channeled support to militant and
  nonviolent purification movements within Islam.
• U.S. formed an alliance with Pakistani
  Interservice Intelligence Agency (ISI).
• Began training and equipping the mujahideen, holy
  warriors.
• Increased activities against the Soviets.

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U.S. and the Mujahideen

• Research points to several important conclusions
• The U.S. helped Saudi Arabia develop a funding
  mechanism and underground arms network to supply
  the mujahideen.
• U.S. agreed to give most of the weapons and
  supplies to the ISI.
• Islamic charities flourished in the U.S.
• Donations supported the mujahideen.
• U.S. abandoned war-torn Afghanistan when the
  Soviets left in 1989.
• Virtually ignored by the U.S., the Jihadist
  movement grew.

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Jihad in Afghanistan

• al Qaeda was one of many paramilitary groups
  fighting in Afghanistan.
• U.S. failed to recognize the problem
• U.S. oil companies sought alliances with hopes of
  building an oil pipeline from Central Asia to the
  Indian Ocean.
• U.S. paid more attention to potential profits
  than to political problems in Afghanistan.
• Essentially ignoring the issues

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War on the U.S.

• Osama bin Laden declared war on the U.S. in 1996.
• Followed this by two religious rulings, fatwas,
  in 1998.
• Fatwas reveal much about the nature of al Qaeda
  and bin Laden.
• bin Laden represents new phase in Middle Eastern
  terrorism.
• bin Laden uses Islam to call for religious
  violence.
• bin Ladens purpose is to kill Fatwas call for
  the killing of any American anywhere in the world.

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America Responds Afghanistan and Iraq

• The Afghanistan Invasion
• After September 11 America enjoyed international
  support because most of the world community felt
  that America was justifiably responding to the
  9/11 attacks.
• The Afghanistan war evolved into a
  counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban.
• The Bush administration began policy of attacks
  against militants in Pakistan.
• Obama's administration continues this policy.
• Counterinsurgency gave way to nation building, a
  task far beyond the original scope of the mission.

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Operation Iraqi Freedom

• Bushs shift in attention from al Qaeda to Iraq
  caused the U.S. to lose the national and
  international support it enjoyed after September
  11.
• Two suppositions by the Bush administration
• Iraq was holding weapons of mass destruction.
• Never found
• Hussein established ties with al Qaeda.
• These actions may have given Jihadists incentive
  to fight.
• U.S. needs to fight terrorism by allying itself
  with the international community.

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Operation Iraqi Freedom

• The Iraqi War
• Quick defeat of Saddam Husain quickly turned to
  campaign of violence against the United States
  and its allies.
• The insurgency in Iraq was not simply terrorism.
• Former Baathists
• Iraqis who sought the rapid departure of the
  United States
• Jihadists who came to Iraq to fight the USA

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Al Qaeda Operational Capabilities

• After 9/11 al Qaeda ability to attack changed.
• Still plotting and conducting attacks in the
  first decade of the 21st century by the end of
  the decade its offensive capabilities were
  changing.
• Segeman
• The greatest threat to the west comes from
  marginalized western Muslim immigrants and
  citizens that feel disenfranchised.
• al Qaeda remains a significant presence, but the
  internet has become the most important source of
  radicalization.

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Al Qaeda Operational Capabilities

• Hoffman
• Intelligence assessments in Europe and the United
  States
• Bergen
• Al Qaeda has suffered the loss of key operatives.
  
• Al Qaeda has declining support among Muslims
  because of its attacks on civilians.
• Von Knop
• Women have become increasingly important in al
  Qaeda, typically recruited in sisterhoods.

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Networks in the Horn of Africa

• Kenya
• The only sub-Saharan with al Qaeda cells, but
  there are many other known jihadist organizations
  in the Horn.
• The Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
• (CJTH-HOA) has been effective in limiting
  jihadist activities, but the area still has an
  unstable political environment and a population
  that supports terrorism against the U.S. and its
  allies.
•  Al Shabab
• Emerged in Somalia in 2006 after the retreat of
  the Islamic Courts Union.
• Some observers emphasize connections with al
  Qaeda, others emphasize its primarily local
  emphasis.
• Nevertheless, Somalis living in the United States
  have been drawn to service in their homeland.

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Pakistan

• Two international issues dominate Pakistan
  nuclear weapons and relations with the United
  States.
•  Pakistan has two groups associated with jihadist
  networks Lashkar-e-Tayibba (L-e-T), which
  operates under a number of names and the
  Pakistani Taliban.

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Other Networks

• Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (based in
  Yemen) is the most active group in the jihadist
  network.
•  Al Qaeda in the Maghreb developed in Algeria
  grew out of jihadist civil war in the 1990s.
•  Bangladesh, whose ports have become centers of
  organized crime, has spawned two internal
  jihadist groups
• ul-Jihadul-Islami
• Harkat ul-Jihad.
• Bangladesh
• Radical religious parties have grown over the
  past decade, fueled by an increase in madrassas
  funded by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States.

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Other Networks

• Thailand is experiencing a rebellion in the
  southern states that are primarily Muslim in the
  otherwise predominantly Buddhist country.
• Indonesia has seen the growth of jihadist groups
  since it gained independence from the Netherlands
  following World War II.
• Laskar Jihad and Jamaat Islamiyya have had
  contacts with Osama bin Laden, but claim to be
  independent.

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Other Networks

• The Philippines has seen the emergence of three
  groups
• Two are concerned with separatist movements in
  the Southern islands of the archipelago
• the Moro National liberation Front
• the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
• The third group, Abu Sayuf, claims to be
  associated with the jihadist movement, but it is
  more closely associated with criminal activity.