Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is an Islamic group for global jihad. It has been designated as a terrorist group by most governments.
Members
The following are quotes by some minor al Qaeda members. For quotes of high-ranking members within the group, see the separate articles pertaining to them.- It is enough that the two honorable sheiks, Sheik Osama and Sheik Ayman, remained like a lump in Bush's throat, and he tastes their bitterness morning and night. Secondly, the Jihad will continue until Judgment Day.
Sourced
- Al-Qaeda means Bush and Blair. Who established Al-Qaeda? You are the ones who should be put on trial. You were the mother of Al-Qaeda.
- Terrorism can be commendable and it can be reprehensible. Terrifying an innocent person and terrorizing them is objectionable and unjust, also unjustly terrorizing people is not right. Whereas terrorizing oppressors and criminals and thieves and robbers is necessary for the safety of people and for the protection of their property.... The terrorism we practice is of the most commendable kind for it is directed at tyrants, the traitors who commit acts of treason against their own countries and their faith and their own prophet and their own nation. Terrorizing those and punishing them are necessary measures to straighten things and to make them right.
- Osama Bin Laden, Interview with John Miller of ABC News, May 1998
- To begin to bring troops home before our commanders tell us we are ready...would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda, risking a humanitarian catastrophe, and allowing the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq and gain control of vast oil resources they could use to fund new attacks on America.
- George W. Bush, President's Radio Address, July 14, 2007
- It is wrong to claim, as some do, that the motivation of al-Qaeda and its allies is some desire to seek justice in the middle east [...] Al-Qaeda and its allies have no clear demands for the middle east. The only common thread in their approach is a violent and destructive opposition to democracy in any form. They find democracy in Palestine abhorrent and seek to destroy it. - Charles Clarke, Home Secretary, British Government, November 2005. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2005-10-26a.325.4
- Al-Qaeda's methods, too, are different. It recognises no common bonds with people who have different beliefs and its members are prepared to kill indiscriminately. Indeed, mass murder is their explicit objective—the measure of success in their terms. Their methods of recruitment bear more comparison to self-destructive cults than political movements. However, we must acknowledge that their modern nihilism is innovative, flexible and cunning. Al-Qaeda and the networks that are inspired by it approach the task with all the resources of modern technology and all the focus of modern zealotry. The most important conclusion to draw from this analysis is that there is no particular Government policy decision, or even an overall policy stance, which we could change in order somehow to remove our society from the al-Qaeda firing line. Its nihilism means that our societies would cease to be a target only if we were to renounce all the values of freedom and liberty that we have fought to extend over so many years. - Charles Clarke, Home Secretary, British Government, November 2005. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2005-10-26a.326.3
- It shows how this group with 7th Century ideology is exploiting 21st Century media capabilities.
- Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University commenting on Al-Qaeda's open interview plan, 19 December 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7153099.stm
See also
- Abdullah Azzam
- Osama bin Laden
- Ayman Zawahiri
- Abu Musab Zarqawi
- Omar Bakri
- Hassan Banna
- Fathi Yakan
- Muslim Brotherhood
Video clips
- Al Qaeda video death call May 2007
- Al-Qaeda Presents New Leader in Afghanistan, Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, Who Threatens to Carry out Attacks against Turkey May 2007
- Abu Yahya al Libi; about 1 hour and 30 minutes; Sept. 2007