Al-Qaeda

Abstract

The outrages carried out in recent years in diverse places of the world bear something that can only be called the “mark of al-Qaeda.” The planes that crashed into the Twin Towers, the bombs that exploded in Madrid, or the attack against American naval ships in Yemen were attributed to an international network led by Osama bin Laden, located somewhere in Afghanistan. Although the existence of this “network” is not clear and its structure remains part of the unknown, it differs from the political parties and movements known until now in two particular ways: It has demonstrated its willingness to attack anywhere in the world, and there do not seem to be too many requirements for joining it. In order to determine if this “network of networks” called al-Qaeda exists, we must first understand the rise and subsequent fall of the earlier Islamic movements that evolved out of the fervor of Iran’s Islamic revolution of 1979. Second, we must realize the significance of adhering to a movement that has no partisan structure or links based on a strict ideological affinity, given that many political parties exclude all who do not agree with their own definite ideological set of rules.1 The Radicalization of Islam For the first time in the twentieth century, the revolution led by Imam Khomeini enabled a mass political movement rising aloft the political banner of Islam to assume political and state power by means of revolution. In ...