IV.

Al-Qaeda’s Origins

Al-Qaeda’s origins can be traced to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Bin Laden, the son of one of the wealthiest men in Saudi Arabia, was among the many thousands of devout Muslims drawn to Afghanistan to help repel the Soviet invasion. He established himself as a patron of jihad (holy war) and together with Sheik Abdullah Azzam founded the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK or “Offices of Services”) in 1984. The MAK functioned as a recruiting office and coordination center for the international Muslim brigade that fought in Afghanistan.

Over the course of the decade-long conflict, the MAK reportedly trained, equipped, and financed somewhere between 10,000 and 50,000 mujahideen (holy warriors) hailing from more than 50 countries. Although the MAK had branches around the world, including in Europe and even the United States, Saudi nationals made up nearly half its recruits. Other prominent members included Algerians, Egyptians, and people from other Muslim countries such as Yemen, Pakistan, and Sudan. Saudis made up the bulk of the recruits in part because of bin Laden. The prominence of his family's name and reputation in the kingdom gave him a stature that carried great influence. Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islam also motivated many young men in that country to answer the call to defend Afghanistan and the Muslim world from “infidel” influences.

Toward the end of the anti-Soviet struggle, bin Laden and Azzam quarreled. The dispute arose over whether MAK should focus on Afghanistan, as Azzam wanted, or global jihad, as bin Laden argued for. In this respect, bin Laden was greatly influenced by radical Islamic theologians such as Sayyid Qutb, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Maulana Sayed Abdul A’la Maudoodi, an Indian-born journalist and intellectual who moved to Pakistan in 1947. They taught that jihad was a personal, individual responsibility and that it was therefore required of all Muslims to establish true Islamic rule in their own countries—through violence, if necessary. Western concepts of secularism (separation of government and religion) and democracy were deemed wrong, and the United States and the West were branded as enemies of Islam.

Although the broad outlines of al-Qaeda began to take shape during 1987 and 1988, it was only after Azzam was assassinated in 1989 that al-Qaeda formally split from MAK to become a jihadist movement in its own right. That same year, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan. The mujahideen’s success in repelling one of the world’s two superpowers from a Muslim land had a significant impact on bin Laden. To his mind, the Soviet Union’s defeat set in motion the chain of events that resulted in the collapse of the USSR and the demise of Communism. Bin Laden, accordingly, concluded that confronting the United States would produce a similar result: causing U.S. withdrawal from the Arab and Muslim world and in turn toppling the corrupt, pro-Western regimes in those countries.