Al-Qa’ida, the group responsible for the 9/11 attacks, is a movement dispersed and very broadly based movement that is not narrowly hierarchical, but does have clear aims and intentions. It is not a nihilistic collection of insane extremists, as frequently presented in the media, but a rational movement involving an unusual combination of revolutionary political fervor rooted in a fundamentalist orientation of a major religion – Islam – rather than in a political ideology or nationalist base.

The movement has its theoretical origins in the writings of a number of radical Islamic thinkers, notably the Egyptian Sayidd Qutb.

In more practical terms, al-Qa’ida can be traced back to the success of the Mujahiddin fights in Afghanistan and their opposition to Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Following the eviction of the Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991, substantial US military forces remained in the area, including Saudi Arabia. This revitalized the previous anti-foreign movement of the 1980s that focused on evicting foreign ‘crusader’ forces from Saudi Arabia. Central to this were two men. One was Osama Bin Laden. The other was the Egyptian-born strategist Ayman al-Zawahiri.

During the 1990s, the movement developed a more comprehensive strategy, rooted largely in Qutb’s ideas of a revival of ‘true’ Islam following its corruption by western culture.

By the end of 20th century, Al-Qa’ida had developed a number of short-term aims together with an over-arching long-term vision:

  1. The eviction of US military forces from Saudi Arabia, an aim that the movement claimed to have achieved by 2005 when the last of the major US bases in the Kingdom was evacuated.
  2. The eviction of foreign forces from the Islamic world.
  3. The replacement of the House of Saud by a 'genuine' Islamist regime as the Saudi royal family is seen as corrupt elitist and excessively linked to the US.
  4. The replacement of other corrupt, pro-western regimes across the Middle East, with an initial focus on Egypt and Pakistan but extending to Iraq and Afghanistan.
  5. The elimination of the Zionist state of Israel and support for the Palestinian cause.
  6. The support for other Islamist movements across the world, such as the Chechen rebels.

Beyond these lay the long-term aim of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle East but extending to other parts of the world.

Rogers, Paul. "Terrorism" in Williams, Paul D. Security Studies: an Introduction. pp.228-229.