In May 2011, millions of people across the world witnessed the end of the terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda, or to be more accurate, the end of the organization’s leader, Osama Bin Laden, who was killed during a skillful intelligence operation.
Bin Laden’s body was wrapped in sheets and iron chains and buried at sea.
Whatever he had symbolized also ended with his death and Al-Qaeda, which had terrified the world, was also buried with him. All significant figures within the organization were either killed or detained. For example, Anwar Al-Awlaki, an American-Yemeni imam, who was one of the most dangerous senior recruiters for the organization, was killed four months after the operation targeting Bin Laden.
Indeed, most of the organization’s masterminds and senior figures were killed, such as field commander Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, military operations planner Abu Layth Al-Libi, chemical weapons expert Abu Khabab Al-Masri and finance chief Saeed Al-Masri. Even Bin Laden’s driver, guard and son were killed. Many Al-Qaeda operatives were also held at Guantanamo Bay.
What was believed to be a motive behind terrorism — the US military presence in Iraq — was also believed to have come to an end when they withdrew.
I think the problem here is related to diagnosing the initial problem. Terrorism is neither about leaders nor their motives but about an ideology motivated by preachers, media personalities, teachers and strong believers in extremism, who are more dangerous than Bin Laden and Zarqawi. These people are capable of producing alternative leaderships and organizations, under different slogans and in different areas.
They invented Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as an alternative to Bin Laden, and Daesh as an alternative to Al-Qaeda. Syria has become a new battlefield and Bin Laden’s videos were replaced by taking to Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. They have become more dangerous.
The war has gone back to square one, however, terrorists nowadays are distinguished from their predecessors. They have now not only grown in size but also have more experts and are more influential. They brought down a Russian plane using a bomb estimated to contain 1 kilogram of explosives and carried out a series of terrorist attacks in Paris. A terror outfit in Nigeria crossed the borders to Mali and seized a hotel and took hostages. Then Daesh claimed it; executed a Chinese hostage and threatened the United States with imminent operations. All these terrorist acts, which horrified the world, were committed in less than a month.
I think there are a number of mistakes when it comes to understanding this “new” wave of terrorism. The first mistake lies in the belief that a terrorist organization collapses with the murder of its leaders. The second is believing that declared excuses are the motive for terrorism — particularly by linking these excuses to liberation plans of the past; for example, claiming that the US withdrawal from Iraq would bring about an end to terrorism. Historically speaking, Al-Qaeda was born six years before the Iraq invasion and it further expanded after the US withdrawal.
The third mistake is the wrong perception that the solution is to withdraw from crisis-hit areas, like what happened in Vietnam. The US withdrew its troops from Iraq and refused to enter Syria. The fourth mistake is getting involved in the sectarian game by supporting Shiites or Sunnis against one another. The fifth and most important mistake is adopting a lenient approach to extremist ideologies, which is a major problem and the source of the power of terrorism.
After Adolf Hitler committed suicide and following the burning of his body, the war’s winners did not just raise the flag of victory over Berlin but they also banned Nazi ideology. They prohibited teaching it or marketing it and also prevented those who were in any way related to it from practicing any social activities.
Today’s extremist ideology is also fascist, and it resembles Nazism, which is based on the concepts of discrimination and elimination. Like Nazism, the present-day extremist ideology is based on absolute loyalty to an ideology and to hatred and hostility toward others, whether Muslims or not. If you want to eliminate Al-Qaeda, Daesh and Al-Nusra Front, you have to go after the ideology. Without doing so, we can expect the next century to be filled with anarchy and terrorism.
