Al Qaeda was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden to consolidate the international network he established during the Afghan war. Its goals were the advancement of Islamic revolutions throughout the Muslim world and repelling foreign intervention in the Middle East.
Bin Laden, son of a billionaire Saudi businessman, became involved in the fight against the Soviet Union’s invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which lasted from 1979 to 1988 and ended with a Soviet defeat at the hands of international militias of Muslim fighters backed by the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and with Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Abdullah Azzam.
Bin Laden ran one of seven main militias involved in the fighting. They established military training bases in Afghanistan and founded Maktab Al Khidamat, or Services Office, a support network that provided recruits and money through worldwide centers, including in the U.S.
Bin Laden and Azzam had different visions for what to do with the network
they had established. Bin Laden decided to found Al Qaeda, based on personal affiliations created during the fighting in Afghanistan as well as on his own international network, reputation and access to large sums of money. The following year his associate Azzam was assassinated.
After the war ended, the Afghan-Arabs, as the mostly non-Afghan volunteers who fought the Soviets came to be known, either returned to their countries of origin or joined conflicts in Somalia, the Balkans and Chechnya. This benefited Al Qaeda’s global reach and later helped cultivate the second and third generations of Al Qaeda terrorists.
The origins of Al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. The United States viewed the Soviet support of the Afghan Marxists against the Afghan "mujahedeen"( holy warriors) as a sign of Soviet aggression and expansionist policy. The CIA launched Operation Cyclone, channeling funds through Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence agency to the "mujahedeen".
A large number of Arab "mujahedeen" had joined the jihad against the Afghan Marxists. This was facilitated by organisations such as the Maktab-al-Khidamat, who were funded by wealthy Saudis and who were then approached by Osama Bin Laden, offering his services. Al-Qaeda evolved from the Maktab-al-Khidamat organisation.
The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, however Mohammed Najibullah’s communist Afghan government remained in power for a further three years before being overrun by "mujahedeen". Mujahedeen leaders struggled to agree on a method of administration. Alliances were in constant flux and fighting for territory left the country devastated.
Some mujahedeen decided to extend their struggle to other parts of the world, a number of organisations were created to deal with these aspirations. One of these organisations was Al-Qaeda which was formed by Osama Bin Laden.
After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the Saudis allowed the US to use bases in Saudi Arabia against Saddam Hussein in the first gulf war.The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 threatened Saudi Arabia, as some of its most valuable oil-fields were dangerously close to Iraqi forces.
In addition, there were fears that Saddam Hussein’s call to pan Arab/Islamism might rally internal dissent. Bin Laden offered the services of his mujahedeen to King Fahd to protect Saudi Arabia. However, King Fahd chose instead the offer of US support and allowed them to deploy forces on Saudi territory.
The deployment angered Bin Laden, as he believed the presence of foreign troops near the sacred sites of Mecca and Medina profaned sacred soil. Following the first Gulf War, Al Qaeda shifted its focus to fighting the growing U.S. presence in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam’s most sacred shrines.
Al Qaeda vociferously opposed the stationing of U.S. troops on what it considered the holiest of Islamic lands and waged an extended campaign of terrorism against the Saudi rulers, whom Bin Laden deemed to be false Muslims. The ultimate goal of this campaign was to depose the Saudi royal family and install an Islamic regime on the Arabian peninsula.
Osama was denounced by the Saudi government. The Saudi regime subsequently deported Bin Laden in 1992 and revoked his citizenship in 1994 and he was forced to go into exile in Sudan.
From 1992 to 1994, Al-Qaeda were based in Sudan, arriving at the invitation of the Islamist theoretician Hassan al Turabi following an Islamist coup. Bin Laden assisted the Sudanese government, purchased and created various business enterprises and established Al-Qaeda training camps.
After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, a new force began to emerge named the Taliban. The Taliban was constituted of children of the war, many who were orphans and many who had been educated in the rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools called madrassas. The infighting and lawlessness that dogged Afghanistan gave the well disciplined and well organized Taliban the opportunity to gradually expand their control, eventually capturing the capital, Kabul, in September 1996.
By then, Osama had taken his followers(AL Quaeda) to Sudan. Eventually. the Sudanese authorities forced Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to leave Sudan, some say under pressure from the United States; whereupon, the Taliban invited them back into Afghanistan and In 1996, Al-Qaeda announced a jihad to expel foreign troops from what they felt were Islamic lands. Bin Laden issued a fatwa, which amounted to a public declaration of war on the US and any of its allies.
Today, we have a larger problem with Pakistan which is offering refuge for Al Qaeda within its borders. The history of Al Qaeda, however brief, is one of a terrorist organization on the move and looking for a target. In this case that target would be the "infidels" occupying Arab lands.
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