Is Al-Qaeda Really an "Islamic" Terrorist Organization Or Is It Something Else...?

Question

Is Al-Qaeda is an "Islamic" terrorist organizaiton?

I ask this because I have trouble accepting that it is anything more than an extremely sophisticated criminal organization with Islam being a universal link between its members.

Al-Qaeda says that they are soldiers fighting for Islam, the media says they are Muslim fighters going after non-Muslims and the Government says they a Muslims bent on killing non-Muslims. Does giving Al-Qaeda the title of "Terrorist" help anybody? Think about Al-Qaeda claims to be fighting for Muslims who are under siege by non-believers who are hostile to Islam. These "non-believers" label them terrorists and the "non-believers" wage war them.

Al-Qaeda is not fighting for Islam, they are fighting for power plain and simple like most organized crime. And like many criminal organizations they have somewhat benevolent origins.

Maybe we should start adresssing and treating Al-Qaeda as it is, a criminal organization.

My point here is people keep refering to them as "Muslim" "Terrorists". There agenda is hardly religious. They claim they are a religious cause like a lot people but there agenda is more politically minded. Organized crime tends to be very riutalistic and there members usually share something that is very personal like religion.

So why don't we just call them what they are, criminals?

Was the IRA politcally or religious motivated and are the drug cartels in Colombia criminals or terrorists?

Al-Qaeda has its origins in fighting opressive regimes. Today they are still fighting opressive regimes, at least in their eyes. They hate most Governments.

Answer 1

That's a very interesting point, especially considering that our government claims that they get funds from illegal drugs, like heroin.

However, there is a difference I think. Organized crime (like the mafia) typically has an ultimate goal of making money, which they accomplish by working the black market, "protecting" people, and other crimes. Al Qaeda, well, I don't know what their ultimate goal is, but they raise money for the purpose of doing things like turning airplanes into bombs. The money is not their main goal, but the means to an end.

Answer 2

You make a fair point.

I have many Muslim friends. some are as close to me as my own family, some even closer than that. And from all that I have learned about Islam Al-Qaeda is the farthest thing from it.

But the member's are Islamic. And unlike other criminal organizations where the members have a similar ethnic backgrounds but have a goal that is unrelated to that background (like the mafia they are mostly Italian, but the goal is making money) al-qaeda's goal is to spread their twisted version of Islam across the middle east and the world. They shout "Allah-uh-Akbar" as they kill, it's not the media's fault that Islam and Al-Qaeda go hand in hand in today's world.

Muslims need to do more to show the world that these people have nothing to do with their faith, because for most of middle America Al-Qaeda is the first thing they learn about Islam.

Answer 3

Groups like Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Taliban market themselves as Islamic armies. They play upon the combination of the frustration and lack of opportunity in Muslim countries and in many Muslim communities in the West and on the lifelong propaganda that people in those countries and communities receive, which is a steady diet of anti-Christian and anti-Jewish slanted stories. Against that background, some of the most religious young people (mostly young men) feel impelled to take up arms against the "Crusaders" (any Christian) and "Zionists" (any Jew). It is very, very naive to underestimate the problem or to trivialize Al Qaeda as a criminal organization. This is war. It is a war against you, unless you are a very religious Muslim.