International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 39

Know What You Are Fighting
created his own organization in Afghanistan around 1988: he called it El Qaïda (the
foundation).
When Abdallah Azzam died with his two sons in a car bomb explosion
in 1989, the religious authority of the combatants in Afghanistan crumbled and a
Salafist radicalization began. Once united under a common cause, groups animated
by their own ideal, preexisting the war, declared themselves to be the sole possessors
of religious legitimacy. Formed primarily of Algerians and Libyans, the El Hidjra
Oua Takfir (exile and excommunication) group took hold among the Arab “Afghans.”
This provoked an avalanche of fatwas and counter-fatwas aimed at the Pakistani and
Afghan authorities.
Invasions of Muslim Countries and Feelings of Injustice
A confusing geopolitical picture…loss of the ability to distinguish between
friends and enemies…This was the period when El Qaïda collaborated with the
Americans against the Soviets. Some even claimed that this monster came from the
entrails of the American intelligence services. Most of all, these ventures fed a feeling
of injustice in the invaded or dominated countries. From the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq,
and Syria to the unending conflict in Palestine, this feeling of injustice legitimated
violence seen as legitimate defense, as the foreign invasions of Arab-Muslim countries
were seen as part of a single aggression against the Muslim nation.
Extremists used the pretext of these events to assert themselves on the national
and international scene, as so-called defenders of the Oumma. Recruitment campaigns
increased in number, using every means of communication and propaganda. Soon
the violence aimed at the foreign aggressor was turned against the Muslim states
involved. Therein was the trap: the war in Afghanistan received massive support from
Muslim countries. Internal quarrels and wars between these countries ceased for the
duration of the war against the communist enemy.
However, the unanimous condemnation of the Soviet invasion kindled the
emergence of a nebula of combatants from several countries and followings. Long
free of terrorism, Afghanistan became the platform, the condenser of the anti-Soviet
guerilla. It was the starting point for the terrorism committed by these Mujahidin once
they returned home. The Afghan war was an aubaine for these Islamists, who could
finally proclaim a propaganda that was once repressed in their countries of origin.
If reformism represented the ideological matrix of Salafism, the war in
Afghanistan provided hardened combatants. It mobilized the forces and the potential
of organizations seeking to pass into action. This war also allowed each believer to
test his or her faith and sense of sacrifice: the gates of paradise were now open to
future martyrs. In their countries of origin, where the jihad of their dreams was now
legitimized by all, including by those who usually opposed it, the victory in Afghanistan
allowed the Mujahidin to intimidate those they called tyrants and oppressors.
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