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Al Qaeda
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Terrorism is defined as “…simply the contemporary name given to, and the modern permutation of, warfare deliberately waged against civilians with the purpose of destroying their will to support either leaders or policies that the agents of such violence find objectionable”(Carr 6). One of the biggest known Terrorist groups today is Al Qaeda, founded by Osama Bin Laden. This global terrorist group has been terrorizing various parts of the world since 1988, their first headquartered base in Afghanistan. There hate for the US is justified by Osama’s words of their religious jihad. “…Al Qaeda believes themselves to be defenders of the ‘nation’ or ‘kingdom’ of Islam generally, and they certainly consider that kingdom to be at war with the United States.”(Carr 228). They believe that god wants everyone who does not follow their religious theories to die. By killing them, they are guaranteed into heaven. Osama lost his father when he was 13. He married at the age of 17 to a Syrian girl who was a relative. He grew up as religiously committed boy and the early marriage was another factor of protecting him from corruption. Osama completed his education at the university in Jeddah. He had a degree in public administration 1981 from King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah. (Jacquard) In addition to the general Islamic commitment he started forming an Islamic responsibility at early age. His father used to host hundreds of pilgrims during Hajj season from all over the world. Some of those were senior Islamic scholars or leaders of Muslim movements. ( Williams) This habit went on even after his father's death through his elder brothers. He used to make good contacts and relations through those gatherings. At secondary school and university he adopted the main trend of many educated Muslims at that time, Muslim Brotherhood. There was a collection of Muslim scholars in Jeddah and Mecca at that period. There was nothing extraordinary in his personality and that trend was rather very non-confrontational. He had two distinguished teachers in Islamic studies, which was a compulsory subject in the university. First was Abdullah Azzam who became later as one of the big names in Afghanistan and the second was Mohammed Quttub, a famous Islamic writer and philosopher. (Williams) In 1982 he decided to go inside Afghanistan. He brought with him plenty of the construction machinery and put them at the disposal of the mujahedeen.(Jacqard11-20). Mujahedeen is Muslim guerrilla warriors engaged in a jihad. He started spending more and more time in Afghanistan occasionally joining actual battles but not in an organized manner. His presence was encouraging to more Saudis to come but the numbers were still small at that period. In 1986 Osama decided to have his own camps inside Afghanistan and within two years he built more than six camps. Some were mobilized more than once. He decided to have his own front and to run his own battles with his own command. Among the Arab fighters he had, there were senior Arab ex-military men from Syria and Egypt with good military experience. The story of the guesthouse and the camps was very attractive for more Arab mujahedeen to come and there was a significant surge in their numbers at that period.
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