Al Qaeda's Goals

Terrorism has been present in the world for many years. For most US citizens it is a horrible occurrence that claims many innocent lives, but for some of the terrorists they see it as necessary means to obtain what they want. These terrorists from Al Qaeda have been using violent means against the US to accomplish their goals of puritanic Islamic reform. This is a problem for the United States because Al Qaeda has sworn to end the US interference with them reaching their goals of Islamic reform, making the United States targeted by terror attacks and other specific violent protests. Al Qaeda’s terror attacks on the US are caused by Al Qaeda’s want to dismantle the interference the United States has with their goals of total puritan Islamic

Many within Al Qaeda believe that “jihad in Palestine and Iraq today is a duty for the people” this means that these muslim terrorist citizens believe that their goals and the goals of Al Qaeda must be carried out by themselves. They believe that they must not rely on others to complete their work, but they must contribute themselves to their cause. These attacks are caused by the terrorists radical beliefs of Islamic reform and their desire to carry out whatever is necessary for that total reform to happen. There is anger and resistance towards the US because the United States is trying to end the growth and existence of Al Qaeda, and because the US occupation of Iraq. The willpower and persistence of Al Qaeda is so strong because “Al Qaeda, have misinterpreted- or at times reinterpreted- jihad as ‘holy war’” (Rohan Gunaratna 110). They see this as just, and that these attacks and suicide missions are the right thing to do to further their religious hold in the Middle East. The United States is a target because Al Qaeda is so passionate that they will do anything to remove opposition and resistance. These Al Qaeda members will do anything for jihad, Gunaratna

Al Qaeda continues to be a threat “by adapting and seamlessly grafting pre-existing models, Al Qaeda has built an Islamist organisation full of vitality” (Gunaratna 227). There are records of many terror attacks claimed to have been caused by Al Qaeda starting from September 11 2001 to 2015. Blanchard in his, Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology, tells of the brutal events of 9/11 taking place after many threats made by Al Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden. After 9/11, the attack was claimed by Bin Laden as Al Qaeda’s doing, and he said that these attacks were out of defensive action against the United States (7). Al Qaeda’s terror attacks have been a huge source of fear within the US and around the world. Riedel says that “suicide operations grew from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006” (27). There was argument that “jihad against U.S. forces was working,” this was argued because their “propaganda efforts” to promote their ideologies resulted in the United States “invasion of Iraq” and the growing Imperialistic motives of the United States