By Jason Burke
Page 1 of 4
May/June 2004
The mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more lethal as an ideology than as an organization. ?Al Qaedaism? will continue to attract supporters in the years to come?whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead them or not.
?Al Qaeda Is a Global Terrorist Organization??
No. It is less an organization than an ideology. The Arabic word qaeda can be translated as a ?base of operation? or ?foundation,? or alternatively as a ?precept? or ?method.? Islamic militants always understood the term in the latter sense. In 1987, Abdullah Azzam, the leading ideologue for modern Sunni Muslim radical activists, called for al-qaeda al-sulbah (a vanguard of the strong). He envisaged men who, acting independently, would set an example for the rest of the Islamic world and thus galvanize the umma (global community of believers) against its oppressors. It was the FBI?during its investigation of the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa?which dubbed the loosely linked group of activists that Osama bin Laden and his aides had formed as ?al Qaeda.? This decision was partly due to institutional conservatism and partly because the FBI had to apply conventional antiterrorism laws to an adversary that was in no sense a traditional terrorist or criminal organization.
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