GLOBAL JIHAD

Biography of Osama Bin Laden 1957: Bin Laden was born into a Hadrami family and spent his early education in the “Tagher Model School” before his graduate study in the fields of economics and management at the King Abdul Aziz in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His father Muhammad Awad bin Laden ( ) originated from Hadramawt in south Yemen and moved around 1930 to Jeddah where he worked first as a porter and then as a wealthy businessman and a building contractor for the Saudi Royal family under close ties with Prince Faisal. 1974: Bin Laden married his first wife Najwa and had four wives and 19 children. 1979: he joined the Afghanistan fighters whose Jihad against the Soviet invasion was indeed backed up by the US. 1984: he collaborated with Sheikh Abdullah Azzam (b. 1941, Jordan's Jihadist who moved to Pakistan and joined the Jihad leaders in Afghanistan) to establish the Afghan Service Bureau (Maktab al-Khidmat) in order to recruit the Jihad-Fighters and to raise money for the war. 1988: bin Laden split from the Afghan Service Bureau and break his close ties with Azzam because of their different strategies. A year later, he returned to Saudi and worked in his family business. 1996: he issued a fatwa on “Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places.”

Biography of Zawahiri 1951: Zawahiri was born into an aristocratic family in Maadi, Cairo and received his early education in the Qawmiyya and the Maadi School. 1974: he earned his B.A. in the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University and received his M.A. in While in Pakistan, he earned his PhD in surgery. Zawahiri was deeply influenced by the Martyr Sayyid Qutb. 1981: Zawahiri was arrested on the ground that “he had led a clandestine cell before the age of 16.” However, his involvement in the Jihadist groups led to his arrest following the assassination of Sadat in : Zawahiri traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj and traveled to Peshawar as a surgeon for helping the Afghan Mujahidin. He met with bin Laden : as bin Laden established al-Qaeda, this organization would merge with Zawahiri’s Jihadist groups in Egypt. 1998: Zawahiri appeared with bin Laden to announce their joint fatwa on “World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and crusaders” (Nass Bayan al-Jabhah al- Islamiyah al-Alamiyah li-Jihad al-Yahud wa-al-Salibiyin, al-Quds al-Arabi, 1998).

The Making of a Global Radical Group Afghanistan and the Radicalization of Jihad Disagreement between Azzam and Bin Laden The Militarization of Al- Qaeda under Zawahiri’s Influence Building an Anti-American Coalition: The World’s Islamic Font for the Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders February 23, 1998

Organization of Al-Qaeda Before 9/11: Four Entities: Shura Majlis under which there are military/finance/fatwa/media committees. After 9/11: A loose network recruiting all over the world.

What is Jihad? Who ? Against Whom? How ? INDIVIDUALIZATION OF JIHAD END OF THE GREATER AND LESSER JIHAD END OF THE DEFENSIVE VERSUS AGGRESSIVE JIHAD END OF GOD’S WILL?