Terroism in the Middle East

Terrorism, the systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. A lot of ties to Terrorism spread from the areas of North Africa, south-east Europe, and south-east Asia as seen in figure 1. There are countless cells of Terrorism that have come and gone throughout the world. But the Middle-East has a unique tie to three Major organizations in recent history. Those three organizations are Al-Qaeda, The Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic State of Iraq, more commonly known as ISIS. To understand these three organizations one can learn a lot when taking a look at what their primary goals were and in the case of ISIS are, by Focusing on the leaders of said organizations. Figure 1. Screenshot from the web-based multimedia article highlights the area commonly referred to as the Middle-East as well as different Terrorist Cell Strongholds. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/briefing/2013/09/27/the-unquenchable-fire Copyright Sep 27th 2013 by The Economist Kenneth N Waltz is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California in Berkeley. He was the Author of Man, State, and War. In the class, we read his in-depth breakdown of these levels of analysis. ‘Man’ the idea was stated as the most important because the nature of man is to war.

As we look into the leaders of the Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State we can find some insight into their ideas and reasonings for pushing the agenda of war and terror. Some people see Al-Qaeda both as a very recent enemy, and as a long forgotten foe. Yet both of these are far from true. Al-Qaeda has roots that reach as far back as 1989 and sections of Al-Qaeda still conduct acts of aggression to this date although on a much smaller scale due to the intervention of the United States and its Allies. The Afghan war is considered the starting point of Al-Qaeda to most scholars and historians and is considered to be a truth. Although they did not become to be an acting ‘world power’ or more accurately a “world threat” during the mid 90’s around 1996, sometimes the regime was referred to as the Taliban during this time and forward. Bin Laden was born 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he was the first leader of the Organization called Al-Qaeda, The Britannica had this to say about Bin Laden before he was credited to become the leader of Al-Qaeda ‘In 1989, following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia, where he was initially welcomed as a hero, but he soon came to be regarded by the government as a radical and a potential threat.’ This was around the first time that he was known on the global scale before he was a household name.

Political Scientists of the Post-Modernist realm of thinking would see this difference in views as a social construct. This distinction is an important point in the creation of Al-Qaeda the people around Bin Laden regarded him as a hero. Think about a hero that you have had when you are young and impressionable. They said things that inspired you and brought you to a way of thinking, this very control was in large part of the success of his recruiting for Al-Qaeda his people saw him as a person to look up to, a person to follow. And he took advantage of that to amass a following of very devout people that aligned themselves with his ideas. Bin Laden used Al-Qaeda to push his own worldview that the Muslim culture deserved absolute control over its areas in the world and should not be controlled by western ideals, or other non-muslim forces. To him and his followers, this was a very rational thought process.

He built this idea around the outrage he felt when Russia, a non-Muslim state, invaded Afghanistan while he was studying Business Management. He further developed these ideas after the United States engagements in the Middle East started to introduce more and more western culture to ‘his people’ Bin Laden was the leader of Al-Qaeda during the most deadly terrorist attack on Western Culture was committed by his orders on September 11th 2001. Bin Ladin was killed in a United States Military raid on May 2, 2011 Abbottabad, Pakistan. His death was accredited to the action of Seal Team Six, and the then Current President Barack Obama. After Bin Laden’s Death in 2011 there was very little time before Ayman al-Zawahiri took over Al-Qaeda. Zawahiri was born June 19, 1951 in Maadi, Egypt. Zawahiri has a long standing relationship with terror organizations, as a teenager he began to follow terrorist groups and was even jailed twice during his teen years for conspiracy’s against Egyptian Politicians. Counterextremism.com had the following information in regards to such plots. “Following the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Egypt jointly tried Zawahiri and hundreds of other EIJ members for conspiracy in assassination.

Zawahiri was known during the trial as Defendant 113. The court sentenced Zawahiri to three years in prison for the illegal possession of weapons.” After Zawahiris release in 1985 he travelled to Saudi Arabia. 1987 was the fated year that he met Bin Ladin in Pakistan, he was helping Islamic fighters that were wounded in the Afghan-Russian war. After returning to Egypt he became the leader of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad in 1993. During his reign of the EIJ he was noted to be the catalyst of the 1995 bombing in Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan as well as the failed assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Photo of Bin Laden and Zawahiri together taken from thedailybeast.com. 1998 was when Zawahiri and Bin Laden merged his Egyptian Jihadi’s group with Al-Qaeda. When doing so he became one of Bin Ladens most trusted advisors, and his personal physician. “A month and a half after bin Laden’s death in a U.S. raid on his compound in Pakistan, al-Zawahiri has been appointed the new leader of al Qaeda, according to a statement posted on several jihadist websites.” reported by CNN.com June 11 2011.

He is currently still in control of Al-Qaeda Forces in the Middle-East. Ibrahim al-Badri was raised in a very Religious household, he was educated much the same as Bin Ladin and Zawahiri. Coming from prominent families the three of them. His father worked at a local Mosque, he was very devout in his faith. Unlike the last two persons Zawahiri, and Bin Laden Ibrahim was not as outspoken and extroverted from youth. He was known to be very quite sometimes even been said to be inaudible when speaking. “Now Ibrahim al-Badri is known to the world as Abu Bakr al-Bagh-dadi, the ruler of the Islamic State or ISIS, and he has the power not just admonish but to punish and even execute anyone within his territories whose faith is not absolute. His followers call him ‘Commander of the Believers,’ a title reserved for Caliphs, the supreme spiritual and temporal rulers of the vast Muslim empire of the Middle Ages.” a quote from The Believer by William McCants. This wasn’t an overnight jump. Bagdadi’s family was very diverse in influence that was almost forced because of Saddam Hussein’s death grip on Iraq. Baghdadi’s family was tied not only to the Baathist party, a political party that was in control of Iraq for many years, but there is evidence that Several of Baghdadi’s family members to include his father were considered Salafis. Who are the political or religious sect that follow very extreme puritanical forms of the Sunni Islam that is widely practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Most Salafis teach utmost obedience to all muslim leaders, not just the good ones. But Saddam viewed these followers a danger for they wanted to impost Islamic law. Saddam would put said members in jail for many years. Baghdadi was a scholar and he studied the Quran at the University of Baghdad and graduated in 1996. After graduation he enrolled into Saddam University for Islamic Studies where he furthered his religious studies and got a Masters in Quranic recitation. He Graduated from his Masters program under the Thesis of Commentary of Medieval texts of the Quran, and went further and enrolled in the same university’s Doctoral program. It was at this time that Baghdadi became a part of the Muslim Brotherhood. A Transnational group that wanted to establish Islamic Law in other countries. It was at this time Baghdadi quickly gravitated to those members who embraced Jihadism. This can credit to where he began to work his Doctrine for Muslim Control that he uses in his leadership of the Islamic State today. Baghdadi was arrested in Fallujah in 2004, he was visiting a friend who was on the American Wanted list.

And he remained in custody for ten months. During his stay he hid his Militant attitude well and devoted himself to religious instruction for the other inmates. At this time his innate leadership took over. He worked with both the Americans and the prisoners and was the center of almost everything in the prison and used his intelligence to get what he wanted. ‘New Recruits were prepared so that when they were freed they were ticking time bombs,’ remember another fellow inmate, who was interviewed by a reporter with Al-Monitor. ‘when prisoners came in, his peers would teach them, indoctrinate them, and give them direction so they leave a burning flame. Baghdadi would turn out to be the most explosive of those flames.’ He used that flame to create and control one of the most deadly and radical of all terrorist groups in modern history. In 2010 “Bakr” formerly Baghdadi took over ISI The Islamic State of Iraq. He turned this organization into what Is known today as ISIS. ISIS has been accredited to attacks around the world. “The all-cause mortality rates during the 29 months of exclusive ISIS control and the nine months of the military offensive are shown in person-months in Table 5.” See below from https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.10025 67#sec012.

These number are some of the only concrete number attributed to ISIS as an organization not an attack that was claimed to be carried out by ISIS. These numbers were during the control of Mosul by the Islamic State in a three year span. All of these organizations have had leaders of great intelligence and religious upbringings. These Terror groups believe they are acting under Rational ideas. Although to the outside world we see them as terrorists.

These leaders have turned their followers into killing machines in the name of religion. No single action will ever end these atrocities. But understanding the displacement of anger of the three leaders Against western culture due to outside forces imposing will against “Their” people maybe we can stop the next leader from emerging. Using Military might to enable self rule in these areas. As well as spreading the teachings of other branches of the Muslim religions not allowing the spread of hate speech and teachings of those who require states to evoke Sharia Law, only because its obvious human rights violations. We might be able to have a stable Middle-East controlled by Muslim peacemakers not terrorized by Extremist Terrorist Groups.