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After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda (or al-Qa'ida, pronounced al-KYE-da) surpassed the IRA and the PLO as the world's most infamous terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda—"the base" in Arabic—is the network of extremists organized by Osama bin Laden.

The Mujahideen

Al-Qaeda has its origins in the uprising against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Thousands of volunteers from around the Middle East came to Afghanistan as mujahideen, warriors fighting to defend fellow Muslims. In the mid-1980s, Osama bin Laden became the prime financier for an organization that recruited Muslims from mosques around the world. These "Afghan Arab" mujahideen, which numbered in the thousands, were crucial in defeating Soviet forces.

After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, bin Laden returned to his native Saudi Arabia. He founded an organization to help veterans of the Afghan war, many of whom went on to fight elsewhere (including Bosnia) and comprise the basis of al-Qaeda.

Bin Laden also studied with radical Islamic thinkers and may have already been organizing al-Qaeda when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bin Laden was outraged when the government allowed U.S. troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. In 1991 he was expelled from Saudi Arabia for anti-government activities.

The Rise of al-Qaeda

After his expulsion from Saudi Arabia, bin Laden established headquarters for al-Qaeda in Khartoum, Sudan. The first actions of al-Qaeda against American interests were attacks on U.S. servicemen in Somalia. A string of terrorist actions suspected to have been orchestrated by al-Qaeda followed (see sidebar), and in August 1996 bin Laden issued a "Declaration of War" against the U.S.

Al-Qaeda also worked to forge alliances with other radical groups. In February 1998, bin Laden announced an alliance of terrorist organizations—the "International Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders"—that included the Egyptian al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Harakat ul-Ansar, and two other groups.

In 1994 Sudan, under pressure from Saudi Arabia and the U.S., expelled bin Laden, who moved his base of operations to Afghanistan. Currently bin Laden is the "guest" of the Taliban, Afghanistan's ruling faction. Al-Qaeda set up terrorist training camps in the war-torn nation, as it had in Sudan.

Related Links

International Terrorist Organizations

State-Sponsored Terrorism

Recent Terrorist Attacks

U.S. State Department:
Global trends in terrorism, 2000

Leadership and Structure

Although al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden have become virtually synonymous, bin Laden does not run the organization single-handedly. Two of his top advisors are Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and Muhammed Atef. Al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's theological leader and bin Laden's probable successor. Al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian surgeon from an upper-class family. He joined the country's Islamist movement in the late 1970s. He served three years in prison on charges connected to the assassination of Anwar Sadat, during which time he was tortured. After his release he went to Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden and became his personal physician and advisor. He was likely instrumental in bin Laden's political evolution.

Al-Zawahiri is suspected of helping organize the 1997 massacre of 67 foreign tourists in the Egyptian town of Luxor and was indicted in connection with the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In 1998, he was one of five Islamic leaders to sign on to bin Laden's declaration calling for attacks against U.S. citizens. He is wanted by the FBI and has been sentenced to death by Egypt in absentia.

Muhammed Atef is al-Qaeda's military commander. Atef joined al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan in the 1980s. His primary responsibility in al-Qaeda is recruitment and training. He is also suspected of having planned the embassy bombings. Atef's daughter is married to one of bin Laden's sons. Other key members of al-Qaeda include Mustafa Hamza, Rifie Ahmed Taha, and Mohammed Islambouli, the brother of Khaled Islambouli, Sadat's assassin. Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in a Minnesota prison in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is revered as a spiritual leader. Both bin Laden and al-Zawahari have vowed revenge against the U.S. if Rahman, a diabetic, dies in prison.

The al-Qaeda leadership oversees a loosely tied network of local cells that operate with their blessing and support, but cannot be easily traced directly back. Each cell operates independently with its members not knowing the identity of other cells. If one group is arrested they will not be able to betray others.

Ideology and Goals

The principal aims of al-Qaeda are to drive Americans and American influence out of all Muslim nations, especially Saudi Arabia; destroy Israel; and topple pro-Western dictatorships around the Middle East. Furthermore, it is bin Laden's goal to unite all Muslims and establish, by force, an Islamic nation adhering to the rule of the first Caliphs.

According to bin Laden's 1998 fatwa (religious decree), it is the duty of Muslims around the world to wage holy war on the U.S., American citizens, and Jews. Muslims who do not heed this call are declared apostates (people who have forsaken their faith).

Al-Qaeda's ideology, often referred to as "jihadism," is marked by a willingness to kill "apostate" Muslims and an emphasis on jihad. Although it is clearly at odds with nearly all Islamic religious thought, it has its roots in the work of two modern Sunni Islamic thinkers: Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Sayyid Qutb.

Al-Wahhab was an 18th-century reformer who claimed that Islam had been corrupted a generation or so after the death of Mohammed. He denounced any theology or customs developed after that as non-Islamic, including more than 1,000 years of religious scholarship. He and his supporters took over what is now Saudi Arabia, where Wahhabism remains the dominant school of religious thought.

Sayyid Qutb, a radical Egyptian scholar of the mid-20th century, declared Western civilization the enemy of Islam, denounced leaders of Muslim nations for not following Islam closely enough, and taught that jihad should be undertaken not just to defend Islam, but to purify it.

The future of terrorism?

Al-Qaeda may very well be the future of terrorism—global, decentralized, and ruthless. It supports terrorist organizations from such diverse countries as the Philippines, Algeria, and Eritrea, and backs fighters in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Kashmir. Unlike many terrorist organizations, it does not depend on the sponsorship of a political state, nor is its purpose circumscribed by a particular conflict. Its infrastructure is small, decentralized, and mobile, and it can recruit members from thousands of "Arab Afghan" veterans and radicals around the world.

Most troubling, if the campaign of terror planned in 1993 and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the WTC and Pentagon were orchestrated by al-Qaeda, it indicates that the group has not only the patience and resources for meticulous, long-term planning but a willingness to undertake terrorist actions of a scale hitherto unknown.