Jihadist terrorism and what led to 11-S
On September 11, 2001, the most brutal attack that has lived so far the world occurred in the United States. That same day in the morning the 11, 175, 77 and 93 of American Airlines were kidnapped by jihadist terrorists to carry out the most fatal terrorist attack in history. The first two flights collided with the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York around nine in the morning until they finally collapsed around an hour later, killing more than three thousand people and hurting more than six thousand. The planes impacted and despair and terror flooded the Americans, who saw their country collapse along with the towers. The third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Half an hour after the attack against the towers, and the fourth plane failed to reach its destination, the White House, and fell into an open field in Pennsylvania. These attacks on the United States were a direct offensive against their civilization, their military power and their political power.
What are the reasons for these attacks? What events do they lead to the bloodiest massacre in the history of terrorism? How does Qaeda get to that precise moment?
It is important to start talking about two men: Aymán al Zawahirí, current leader of the terrorist organization, and Osama Bin Laden, founder, leader of the organization until 2011 and without which the 2001 attacks could not have been carried out.
Zawahirí was born in 1951 in Cairo, Egypt and was a renowned surgeon among his family of medical professionals. At first he had a "standard" vision of Islam, but after the six -day war radicalized his ideas and joined the Muslim brother, a radical Islamist group, at 14 years. In the years in which he was at the University, he radicalized his vision of Islam towards a Salafista ideology, and after finishing his studies he entered the Islamic jihad whose main objective was to establish an Islamic State in Egypt and, later throughout the West. This organization was responsible for the murder of Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt and Zawahirí was arrested, together with more members, as retaliation against the act committed. He spent three years in jail in which innumerable humiliations against him and his companions were carried out, which led to a total radicalization of Islam in the person of Al Zawahirí.
Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957 in Riad, Saudi Arabia, son of one of the richest businessmen throughout the country, Mohammad Bin Laden. Since childhood he was raised within an extreme right ideology and the people he met during his life helped to strengthen a radical position with respect to Islam. Bin Laden coincided with many people, but to whom we should highlight is Abdullah Azzam that alleged the following: “Only jihad and rifle;No negotiations, conferences or dialogues ". For Bin Laden and the many other young people who listened to him embodied a character rooted in the Islamic tradition while offering a modern vision of this. Azzam preached both defensive and offensive jihad and encouraged to help the very Afghan very old people who were fighting the Soviet invasion. He was also who put Bin Laden in his recruitment network and with whom he raised funds and organized the Afghan jihad. Both fought with the Afghan in the war against the Soviets and claimed the importance of their organization in the victory.
This war was a turning point in the ideology of Bin Laden, which after surviving such a struggle preached that "no one can be injured if it is not by the will of God". Thus, he became the main financier of Yihad and faithfully pledged to change the situation of the current jihad. As he had inherited a fortune after the death of his father, he was able to offer plane tickets for recruits and their families, in addition to accommodation and maintenance expenses. The organization preached Afghan jihad against the Soviets as an individual and collective duty, what they called the Fard Ayn, the individual religious obligation, and the Fard Kifaya, the collective religious obligation. It was death and not victory in Afghanistan that attracted young Muslims. But, the efforts of Bin Laden of recruitment were a failure, not many people went to the call of this organization despite the aid and facilities offered. Therefore, Azzam left the United States to continue recruitment and hopes to find more allies, ironically, in the territory of the enemy.
Zawahirí arrives in Peshawar as a red crescent doctor in 1986 and is formed as an ally of Bin Laden in his fight in Afghanistan. The two men used each other, Bin Laden offered financing for the organization of Zawahirí and this offered medical help to Osama, which suffered many diseases that were also worsened by their participation in the war.
After the Afghanistan war, Azzam mentioned the need to create a solid base (Qaeda) for its movement with what in August 1988 produced a meeting of some of the main men who preached jihad and created the terrorist cell that is alreadyWorld and feared worldwide: al Qaeda. They intended to create an Islamic State by imposing Sharía or Islamic Law, first in Afghanistan, return to the international domain of Islam, reconquer every territory that at the time had been Muslim and fight against anyone who did not share their ideals: the non -believers and the MuslimsNon -radical. The core of the organization was based on the cult of death. In the Quran, in principle it is established that it is not allowed to kill, although Muhammad establishes three exceptions: as punishment for committing a murder, due to marriage infidelity or for departing from Islam. But, the leaders expanded these cases A, for example, everyone who was vote, because democracy went against Islam. Another aspect that the leaders manipulated was the punishment that the prophet established against suicide. The jihadists made suicide as a heroic act that would help Muslims reach paradise. In addition, with the creation of Al Qaeda and the leadership of Bin Laden, chaos and barbarism increased exponentially;Banks were stolen to finance the cause because the richness of the leader would not last forever and the murders became common. Al Qaeda was born from the idea that faith is stronger than weapons or nations and that the ticket to access the sacred area is the will to be a martyr.
Al Qaeda’s duty was to raise awareness of the Islamic nation of the threat of the West, secular and modernized and, for this, the organization would drag the United States to a war against Islam that could neither control or win. The order to kill every American or ally at the time and in any possible country was established as an obligation of every Muslim. This vision was based on two fetia: the attack against US troops is authorized and the murder of innocent is encouraged. They developed complex and symbolic attacks destined for the killing and humiliation of the enemy. There was no "neutral", in the war that was fought there were two sides: the faithful believers who are on the side of the terrorists and the apostates, not believers, who deserve to die. In the confrontation they were looking for with the apostate regimes there are no debates or dialogues, or diplomacy, only knows of chaos and bullets. But, despite everything, terrorists were never considered, but revolutionaries who were forced to act in the name of what they considered justice.
The objectives of the organization were quite utopian, they intended to establish the government of God on earth, reach martyrdom by the cause of God and the purification of the ranks of Islam of the depravity elements. On the other hand, the objectives or whites that the organization established were the heretics, the shiíes, the United States and Israel.
The majority of those who came to receive training from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan were middle or high -class men, who belonged to united families, had university studies, spoke up to five or six languages and did not necessarily suffer from mental disorders, but the most interesting thing is thatMany of them were not religious when they joined this organization. Within this general description of jihadist’s profile, each story was different from the previous one and had different "talents" that were useful for the organization, such as falsification, fraud or drug trafficking.
In 1996 the Government of Sudan throws Bin Laden and strips him of all his possessions. A few months later he launches the "war letter against Americans who occupy the land of the two holy places" for which he took the role of an indomitable man who rebelled against superpower, the secular, modern, scientific and technological power of states of statesJoined.
In 1998 there was the first documented attack of the organization against US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and would mark the seal of their next attacks: suicidal, multiple and simultaneous attacks. The attacks were a success for Al Qaeda who got an amazing, shocking and surprising statement, and suicide would serve to justify operations that had the main objective of killing the greatest number of people. They did not try to preserve the lives of innocents because this concept does not fit in their ideology. No one who is against their principles will ever be innocent. After this attack the United States responded with missiles and bombings where they believed that the organization’s leaders were, but it turned out to be a failed and precipitous operation. Faced with these attacks on Zawahirí, he responded by saying that they had survived attacks and war had only begun, "now they have to wait for the answer". The only thing that these attacks had achieved had been to enlive.
And, worst of all, after the attacks on the embassy, the attempt of attack at the Los Angeles airport, the communications, the information that US intelligence possessed, still did not consider Al Qaeda as a threat. The United States error was underestimating jihadist terrorism and not brake before they were hands.
Bin Laden’s hatred to the United States began in 1982 when he allowed and helped the Israeli invaded Lebanon. He remembered the massacre and blood, women and children dead everywhere, houses and buildings destroyed and declared: “While looking at those towers demolished in Lebanon, it came to the head that we had to punish the oppressor in the same way and thatWe had to destroy towers in the United States so that they try what we tried ”. So, when he meets Jaled Sheij Muhammad who presents the idea of his nephew Ramzi Yusef, who had put a bomb in the parking of the World Trade Center in 1993, to collapse the twin towers of the establishment, he did not think twice.
But, before September 11, there was another attack that was nothing more than a notice to the United States that Al Qaeda was tired of words, communications, statements and the time had come to go to action. In October 2000 there was a suicide attack against the USS Cole, an American ship anchored in the port of Yemen, in which 19 people died and 39 were injured 39. And yet.
After the 1993 attack against the World Trade Center, the only thing that the United States had were twenty -five imprisonment, but no idea what Al Qaeda was organizing, although most of the pilots were forming within their borders. Thousands of people were about to die and people were not going to understand why American intelligence was not effective and did not use each and every one of the resources at their disposal to face one of the biggest problems he has facedUSA.
Then, New York wakes up on September 11 like any other day, and people are going to work thinking that it would be another Tuesday and without knowing that they had risen on the day the world would completely change. A plane clashes against the north tower and, although fear is there, it is thought that it could have been a mistake. The informatives are interrupted, all televisions in the world broadcast the images of the collision and nobody knows what is really happening. But then the second plane clashes, and the hearts begin to accelerate, the United States, the world superpower, had just been attacked and was suffering thousands of deaths of its citizens. The images of the burning towers, the smoke seen from kilometers, the videos of the people who had lost hope and fell from the high floors, all this contributes to the terror that the global population suffered. Later, he clashes the third plane against the Pentagon and the world throws his hands to his head. The towers collapse, the fourth plane falls in the open field and conspiracy theories begin. What was happening? Who was doing this? And, above all, why?
What was happening is that Al Qaeda had directed three attacks against the first world power, but had managed to advise a blow to all humanity. On September 11, it achieves its effect thanks to the spectacularity of the event, the horror scenes recorded in universal memory. The images that are disseminated by all television channels from all countries of the world spread the expansive wave and multiply the impact of the attack. The United States was convicted of guaranteeing Israeli supremacy and had not exercised the impartiality that was expected of the first world power. These attacks were the statement that terrorism was strong, they could deal with the United States. Al Qaeda proved to be a flexible organization with the ability to adapt and evolve. The United States could have all the missiles they wanted, but they had faith.
A few hours later people begin to speak publicly and to be fully aware of what had just suffered the United States. George w. Bush, president at the time of attacks, states that these have been a consequence of the hatred they have against what they see in their country: a democratically elected government and the numerous freedoms that citizens exercise. A very motivational and exciting speech, but did not reflect reality. What had to be done was to accept that it had not been a cowardly attack against civilization, freedom or humanity, but an attack against the United States that has occurred as a result of its policy, its interests and their alliances. The United States was strong, they did not stop repeating in all communications and informative, and it was not hesitated about it, but at that time it was about showing much more than that. It was about helping, reaffirming that it was a strong, democratic nation and with full freedoms, not to bombard right and sinister and declare war on terrorism. The United States gave the jihadists the answer they expected and all they achieved was to ratify their idea about the country they hated so much and gave them more reasons to encourage that same hatred that led them to destroy the twin towers. After all, and this we all know, do not fear death, it is more, for them it is welcome and a couple of bombings were not going to solve anything.
A time later, Al-Jazeera, a Qatar television network, exposes a video of Bin Laden in which he does not claim responsibility for the September 11 attacks, but he did praise those who carried it out. Thank God for destroying one of the great American buildings and founding the terror from north to south and from east to west throughout the United States. Finally, this country had seen the fear and terror that the Arab community suffered. It also refers to suicidal terrorists and ensures that their souls will be blessed and rewarded with paradise. It encourages all Muslim to take arms and continue fighting against the United States. And finally, it refers to Bush and its "war on terrorism" which is no more than a "war against Islam".
Finally, pointing out the only thing that has been clear after these attacks is that we are not sure anywhere in the world and anyone who underestimates the capacities of these organizations will be mired in the same consequences that New York and Washington D.C., That they will not be easy to forget, because every September 11, social networks are filled with emotional images that remember the terrifying fact that the United States and the entire world lived.
Bibliography
- Brockers, m. (2011). 11-S. Editions b.
- Echo, u., Garzón, b., González, f., Goytisolo, j., Kepell, g., Carré, j. L., . . . Llosa, m. V. (2002). The world after September 11, 2001. Barcelona: Peninsula Editions.
- Wright, l. (2015). The elevated tower: al-Qaeda and the origins of 11-S. POCKET-SIZE.
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