Jihad: What America Created Essay

Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by the most wanted terrorist in America, Osama Bin Laden, to bring together Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Invasion. Al Qaeda works with allied Islamic extremist groups to take over regimes it deems "non-Islamic" and remove Westerners from Muslin countries. The organization first began with three members and now there are approximately 200 to 1,000 current members. Al-Qaeda began to construct and offer training camps and guesthouses to its recruits; while they also attempted to pull in U.S. citizens for financial, communication, and operation reasons for the benefit of Al-Qaeda and its other affiliations. By 1990 Al-Qaeda was providing military and intelligence training in various areas including Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Sudan.

Reagan helped create the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden by secretly training and funding Islamist mujahidin fighters in Afghanistan, and also armed the fighters with weapons and top-secret intelligence from Pakistani services. The mujahidin fighters were originally trained to fight against the Soviet Union, led by their commander Osama Bin Laden, in a proxy war. Reagan wanted to continue the proxy war but the Soviet Union

To begin, Mujahidin was a rebel group during the 1980s that Ronald Reagan had funded. During the war the United States gave financial as well as military assistance to Mujahidin (Davis Moorhead). A reason why the U.S. helped Mujahidin was because of the relationship that they had with Great Britain. The Soviets had supported the Afghanistan government and Britain was also supporting the Mujahidin (Davis Moorhead). The main reason why the U.S. got involved was to support Mujahidin with military support. Mujahidin had then lead to the well know terrorist group

After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Islamic fighters rushed to Afghanistan to support their brothers and fight against the communists. Most Arab nations and the U.S. facilitated the

Living in America, we are given the freedom to practice the faith of our choice, but at the same time it does not give us the right to violate our laws or to organize, finance or develop a group whose motives are to attack and destroy the country they claim to be a citizen of, while practicing that faith or religion. We are now in the midst of a movement where homegrown American jihad will be the destruction of the United States.

Bin Laden openly perpetuates conflict between Islam and the West. “This battle is not between al-Qaeda and the U.S.,” the al-Qaeda leader said in October 2001, yet “this is a battle of Muslims against the global crusaders.” From Bin Laden’s perspective, this “clash of civilizations” between Americans and the West has been under way for centuries and it is just the most recent incarnation of the Christian Crusaders. In October 2001, the Arabic satellite news channel aired an interview in which Bin Laden expressed his views on Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” thesis. The following is a summary of bin Laden’s points in this interview:

Instead, from its onset, Islam spread as a conquering power and remained that way for some time. Explaining it this way, the reader gets a sense of the psychology behind Islam and why, besides being a religious task, spreading Islam is such a goal. By showing the issues Islam faces today in the context of past Islamic traditions, Lewis paints a much clearer picture of the skewed view today’s radicals have and the way they use history to manipulate. He examines influential Muslim voices like Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden, who have used history to give Islam victim status or to claim the continuance of a predecessor’s mission to not only justify terrorist activities, but also to recruit followers. He tells the history of Bin Laden’s statement referring to the “humiliation and disgrace” Islam supposedly has suffered. What Bin Laden was referring to was the defeat of the Ottoman sultanate in 1918 and the imperial presence of Westerners on sacred Muslim lands. Lewis explains the offense many Muslims take to the desecration of their holy lands by foreigners. He describes how the discovery and exploitation of oil in the Holy Land of the Hijaz has exacerbated the growing resentment many Muslims

lower self – the battle to purify one’s heart, do good, deflect evil and make oneself a better person. The “Lesser Jihad” is an external struggle. Jihad represent a moral principle to struggle against any obstacle that stands in the way of the good. Bearing, delivering and raising a child, for example, is an example of external jihad, because of the many obstacles that must be overcome to deliver and raise the child successfully. Jihad may also involve fighting against oppressors and aggressors who commit injustice. It is not “holy war” in the way a crusade would be considered a holy war, and while Islam allows and even encourages convert, it forbids forced conversion. In Islamic tradition, the form of jihad that involves fighting requires

The European colonialism, and the British, greatly helped the rise of Islam. The European colonialism gave them the strength to rise against their oppressors. The Wahhabi movement was started as a result of the European colonialism. The British helped groups of Islam by giving them weapons as well as the financial support that they needed as well as aiding them in setting up a central form of government. Muhammad Iqbal called for a bold reinterpretation of Islam that would take the best of Western ideas, but recast them according to Islamic principles and values. He wanted to reconstruct the religious thought in Islam so that it would be more significant in the modern world. On the other hand, Osama bin Laden pushed his ideas on the people of Islam and used great force. He created a group called Al Qaeda, whose purpose was to drive the U.S. out of Arabia, overthrow the Saudi government, liberate Islam’s holy sites, and support revolutionary groups around the world. Osama bin Laden was among the founders who issued a fatwa that states that it is the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens and their allies.

Jihad – a dispute or war between followers of Islam faith and those who do not follow the Islam faith; a struggle within a Muslim between good and evil (Dictionary)

It was once a word unfamiliar to American ears. But in recent years it has become all too familiar. The actions of Muslim militants and terrorists have seared the word into American consciousness.

In a religious sense, as described by the Quran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, jihad has many meanings. It can refer to internal as well as external efforts to be a

The concept of Jihad was not widely known in the western world before the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Since then, the word has been woven into what our media and government feed us along with notions of Terrorism, Suicide Bombings, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, and now, Jihad. Our society hears exhortations resounding from the Middle East calling the people to rise up in Jihad and beat back the imperialist Americans. Yet, if we try to peel back all of these complex layers of information we can we attempt to find out what Jihad really means. Webster’s Dictionary defines Jihad as “a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty or a crusade for a principle or belief” (1). Often, media depicts

There are many interpretations of the word Jihad, but the most common literal translation from Arabic to English is "struggle." Many interpret the idea of a Jihad as a holy war. While holy war may be part of the struggle of Muslims, it is not the entirety of Jihad. In its primary sense, Jihad is an internal struggle to rid oneself of debased actions or inclinations and devote

453). A prime example of an Islamic Fundamentalist movement is al-Qaeda which was a new militant Islamic group when it emerged in 1988. It followed on from the spread of strong religious beliefs and codes that was common in Africa and the Middle- East (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson, 2007, p. 150). Al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, its goal when established was to spread the word of God and to make his religion to most triumphant religion of all. A main characteristic of Islamic Fundamentalism is to create a theocracy which is a regime based on religious principles (Garner, Ferdinand and Lawson, 2007, p. 150). Al-Qaeda is most known for its attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon in the USA in 2001, whom they openly claimed responsibility for and motivated the USA's war on terror (Goodwin, 2007, p. 432).