Al-Qaeda A Nontraditional Movement

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 ...