Al-Qaeda
Salafi jihadist organization founded in 1988 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Al-Qaeda[20] (Arabic: القاعدة, al-qāʿidah, "the base") is a global Islamist jihadist multinational organization network that was founded around August 1988 and late 1989.[21]p75[22] It works as a network, as a stateless army,[23] and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad on all fronts. Most of the world thinks it is a terrorist organization.[24][25]
Al-Qaeda | |
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القاعدة | |
Leaders | Osama bin Laden † (1988–2011) Ayman al-Zawahiri † (2011–2022) |
Dates of operation | 1988–present |
Group(s) | Al-Qaeda Central (1988–present) Al-Qaeda in Iraq (2004–2013, became Mujahideen Shura Council in January 2006) |
Active regions | Worldwide Predominantly in the Middle East |
Ideology | Salafist jihadism[4][5] Wahhabism Qutbism[6] Pan-Islamism[7][8] Anti-Communism[9] Anti-Zionism[10][11] Antisemitism[10][11][12][13][14] |
Allies | State allies:
Non-state allies:
|
Opponents | State opponents
Non-State opponents
|
Battles and wars | War on Terror In Afghanistan
In Tajikistan
In Chechnya In Yemen
In the Maghreb
In Iraq
In Pakistan
In Somalia
In Syria
In Egypt
|
Designated as a terrorist group by | Canada China France Iran Japan United Kingdom Russia United States United Arab Emirates |
Members of al-Qaeda have performed many acts of terrorism. Most of these have been done against the United States and Shias. Some of its most well-known attacks have been the September 11 attacks, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the attack on the U.S. Navy ship USS Cole in 2000. al-Qaeda has done suicide attacks and simultaneous (at the same time) bombings of different targets.[26]
Among al-Qaeda's goals is for other countries to stop influencing Muslim countries and for a new Islamic caliphate to be made. There have been reports that al-Qaeda believes that Christian and Jewish Islamophobia is trying to destroy Islam[27] and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is religiously justified in jihad.
There have been guesses that there are 500–1,000 operatives in Afghanistan and around 5,000 worldwide. However, there is no confirmation of this.
The group is diverse in its beliefs even though the group calls itself Salafi, it has many members who are Hanafi, Shafi`i, Maliki, Wahhabi, and Sufi as the former leader of the group Osama bin Laden was accepting of members as long as they were Muslims in his eyes. A few exceptions include followers of Shiism who curse and reject the companions of Muhammad (exceptions were made for those few who did not reject and curse the companions), and followers of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.[28]