America is the ultimate symbol of freedom, liberty, and opportunity. These pillars are what our nation is built on and allow the American people of all races, colors and creeds to unite under one nation, under God. It is truly demoralizing to realize that there are radical Islamic organizations that strive to destroy these very pillars on which our country was built. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the wake of the Afghan-Soviet War, the face of the radical Islamic wave emerged across the world. This man is Osama bin Laden and his radical organization is known as al-Qaeda. The aim of al-Qaeda is to exterminate all infidels in the West and the Americans are the preferred targets. Between 2004 and 2008, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for 313 attacks, which killed 3,010 people worldwide. What could motivate al-Qaeda to carry out such heinous acts of terror? The problem has its roots in the Muslim faith. Due to the devout practice of the Muslim faith throughout the Middle East and South Asia, these countries are considered theocracies. These theocracies pave the way for al-Qaeda to extend its operations into other countries in the region, recruit young Muslims to fight in the name of Allah, and plan terrorist attacks against the West. Al-Qaeda is established in the anarchic and Muslim-dominated countries of the Middle East and South Asia, thus allowing al-Qaeda's radical practices to expand and thrive in the name of Islam. Although the Afghan-Soviet War was the rise of al-Qaeda Qaeda, events following World War I continue to form the foundation of the motivations behind the organization's terrorist acts. On May 19, 1916, France and Great Britain signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement allowed Britain and France to create colonization of the Middle East, including British rule in Palestine. The reason Palestine is so important to understanding al-Qaeda's motivations is due to the deep Arab roots in the Palestine region. Palestine was considered a holy land for Muslims around the world, and in 1948 Palestine would change forever. After World War II, Jews who called Europe their home were virtually exterminated. Those who survived the Holocaust had no home to return to. This put enormous pressure on Britain, which occupied Palestine, to hand over the land to the Jews so that Jewish refugees could have a home. Britain became immensely tired of dealing with this problem and subsequently handed the matter over to the United Nations. The United Nations decided to divide Palestine and give half of it to Israel so that the Jews could create their own nation. This caused excessive numbers of Palestinians to be removed from their homelands and forced to become refugees in other countries in the newly created Middle East, formed in the decolonization movement (1945-1960). This frustrated many native people of Palestine and these events are now used as al-Qaeda's main motive to attack the United States. As stated by Osama bin Laden himself, “the British handed over Palestine, with your help and support, to the Jews, who occupied it for more than fifty years… The creation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes , and you are the leaders." of its criminals." Osama bin Laden believes that the creation of Israel was a crime, but this is not true. Great Britain controlled thePalestine, thus allowing Britain to be justified in providing Jewish refugees with a new home in Israel. After the decolonization of Asia and Africa by France and Great Britain in 1945-1960, 36 new states in Asia and Africa gained independence from their countries. European colonial rulers. This brought great amounts of instability and vulnerability to these newly formed countries. Due to the devout Muslim population in the South Asian and Middle Eastern regions, most nations in these two regions are ruled by theocracies. “The Quran clearly requires that the Muslim state implement a system of governance based on mutual consultation.” This means that Muslim states must base their laws on respecting the teachings of the Quran, also known as sharia law. Because these Middle Eastern and South Asian nations are theocracies, they are extremely vulnerable to invasion by other countries, and this was evident during the Cold War. During the Cold War between 1947 and 1991, both the United States and the Soviet Union took the decolonization of those states as an opportunity to implement their own ideologies throughout Asia and Africa. The rise of al-Qaeda began due to the greed shown during this time by the United States and the Soviet Union. After the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy in Afghanistan in 1978, Afghanistan sought to establish a communist government. They proceeded to appoint Nur Mohammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin as joint prime ministers of the socialist regime. The Soviet Union then began to support the communist authority in Afghanistan by giving them advice on how to run the country. Prime Ministers Amin and Taraki decided to ignore Soviet advice and proceeded to rule Afghanistan by introducing women's rights and redistributing land as they saw fit. This upset many Muslims because it interfered with inheritance laws established in Sunni Islamic law, and in March 1979 a resistance group began to overthrow the Afghan government. Thus, on the night of December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The goal behind the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to preserve the communist state in Afghanistan. To do this the Soviets had Prime Minister Amin executed. The Soviets then installed their own communist leader in Afghanistan, President Babrak Karmal of Moscow, but this was not the Soviets' only motive behind the invasion. According to Uday Mehra, “the USSR invaded foreign nations…. with the aim of countering their Western enemies”. This means that the USSR, slightly motivated by the Cold War, invaded Afghanistan in a desire to get a reaction from the United States. This turned out to be true because the United States was very quick to support Afghan rebel groups. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, “multilateral assistance to Afghanistan amounted to $3 million in 1979, no aid in 1980, $222,000 in 1981.” These generous donations were given to the Afghan rebel group known as the Mujahideen. Donations were provided to the group so they could fight the Soviets for the United States. The war was not between the Soviets and the mujahideen, but rather a war between capitalism and socialism. The consequences of the Afghan-Soviet War proved devastating for all parties involved in the war, with the exception of the Islamic radicals. The actions taken by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Afghan-Soviet War backfired horribly on behalf of both sides for various reasons. The wars resulted in approximately 15,000 casualties for the Soviets and contributed to the sudden demise of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991. As for the United States, it developedthe radical Islamic wave that made America and its allies targets for future terrorist attacks. .The rise of al-Qaeda began in Afghanistan, in that same decade-long war in which the Soviets were defeated. This war is the crucial moment for which terrorism expanded internationally. The invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 allowed young Muslim extremists around the world to rally in unison to fight in what is called a “holy war,” also called jihad. Volunteers and donors have flocked from various parts of the Islamic world in an attempt to defend the Muslim community in Afghanistan. One of these financiers was Osama bin Laden. At the time, bin Laden was inspired by the mujahideen's efforts, but was not entirely satisfied with their goal of simply fighting the Soviets. Bin Laden wanted to expand internationally and in 1988 decided to create his own radical group known as al-Qaeda. Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan on 15 February 1989; Osama bin Laden focused his ambitions on the idea of ​​exterminating all non-Islamic governments. Working to start al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden established a financial support network system known as the “Golden Chain.” This financial network provided the funding needed for al-Qaeda to spread to other countries and recruit young Muslim rebels to take part in the jihad. Bin Laden explains why he targets young people: "So as his mind grows in maturity, his ability to give weakens... We find that the only age group capable of giving and waging jihad is between fifteen and twenty-five years old". This basically means that he wants to brainwash young people before they can understand how morally wrong it is to kill innocent people in acts of terror. The idea behind Bin Laden targeting youth is very similar to what Hitler did in creating the Hitler Youth movement. Both Bin Laden and Hitler understood that to keep alive their aspirations of achieving world domination, they would have to brainwash young people with propaganda. This allows bin Laden to spend less time recruiting, thus giving him more time to spend planning future terrorist attacks. Propaganda and theology play a very vital role in al-Qaeda's daily actions. The man in charge of all this is Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al Zawahiri. Zawahiri is a fifty-five year old Egyptian pediatrician engaged in radical activities since the age of fourteen, he is the main ideologist and theoretician of al-Qaeda. Zawahiri is a very experienced man and for this reason his role is to reiterate to the Muslim population that it is justifiable for al-Qaeda to carry out acts of terror and martyrdom. The way Zawahiri justifies al-Qaeda's actions is through verses from the Quran. This is very effective because these Muslim countries are theocracies, and this is how these methods manage to work. An example of this comes from a verse of the Qur'an used by Zawahiri: "Allah has taken from the believers their lives and worldly possessions, and in return He has promised them Paradise: they will fight in the name of Allah, and they will kill and be killed" (9: 111). This verse means that if an individual chooses to believe in Allah, he will be granted paradise in the afterlife if he turns away from evil. This is not how Zawahiri interprets the verse. Zawahiri twists the meaning of this verse to make it seem justifiable for young Muslims to commit acts of martyrdom. These young men believe that they will die with honor if they perform acts of martyrdom because of the interpretations of the Quran given to them by Zawahiri. This is why young Muslims are the ideal group to recruit,.