Modern Islamist Movements: History, Religion, and Politics (29 page)

development of al-Qaida. The event that precipitated the first Gulf War was the entrance of large numbers of Iraqi soldiers into Kuwait on August 2, 1990. By August 7, King Fahd had decided that because the presence of Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait posed a threat to Saudi security and specifically to the Saudi oil fields, which were just a few miles south of Kuwait, he would formally request military assistance from the United States to defend Saudi Arabia from a potential Iraqi attack. He would also allow the American military to use Saudi Arabia as a base of operations for a military action that would eventually oust the Iraqi military from Kuwait.101

In spite of the astronomical sums of money that the Saudi government had spent on defense – which amounted to roughly $200 billion in the 1980s – the Saudi military was unprepared to defend the country against the possibility of an Iraqi attack on its territory from Iraq or Kuwait.102 In the view of King Fahd and others, this apparent weakness in the Saudi military made the presence of American and other soldiers in the Saudi kingdom necessary.103 The largest share of the coalition military force, which was comprised of soldiers from almost 30 countries, was American. At the most intense period of the Gulf War, there were roughly 750,000 foreign soldiers in Saudi Arabia, with all of the equipment that they needed to operate.104 The coalition’s air war against Iraq began on January 17, 1991 and its ground war began on February 24, 1991. Major hostilities in the ground war ended four days later on February 28.105

Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, and Usama bin Laden

Usama bin Laden was born and lived much of his life in Saudi Arabia. In addition to other intellectual currents within Islam, various aspects of Wahhabism and the Saudi state’s Wahhabi interpretation of Islam influenced Bin Laden’s thought. Indeed, there are several similarities between Bin Laden’s conception of the ideal Islamic state, on the one hand, and laws and policies of Saudi Arabia, on the other. Aspects of the current Saudi state with which Bin Laden and members of al-Qaida agree include: (a) prohibi- tions on alcohol, gambling, and the possession and/or exhibition of any forms of Western cultural production including movies, television shows, magazines, games, etc.; (b) modest dress and separation of women and men who are not related to each other; and (c) prohibitions on sex outside of heterosexual marriage.

At the same time, Usama bin Laden and al-Qaida have represented a form of revolutionary anti-Saudi Wahhabism that opposes the Saudi state on several crucial issues. First, Bin Laden and al-Qaida have stood against Saudi Arabia’s alliances with various Western countries, including the United States. Most significantly, Bin Laden and members of al-Qaida have stood

against the Saudi government allying itself with the very Western countries that through billions of dollars per year in aid to the Israeli government enable that government to oppress Palestinians. Second, Bin Laden and the members of al-Qaida objected to the stationing of hundreds of thousands of American troops in Saudi Arabia during and after the first Gulf War and the continuing presence of American soldiers in that country after the war, because, like many other Muslims, they have maintained that non-Muslim soldiers should not be responsible for defending the country that contains Islam’s holiest cities, Mecca and Medina. In fact, Bin Laden and the members of al-Qaida viewed the Western soldiers in Saudi Arabia as an occupying force. Third, Bin Laden and the members of al-Qaida have stated that what they perceive to be the lavish and extravagant lifestyles of the members of the Saudi royal family violate deeply-valued Islamic principles pertaining to modesty and simplicity. In a similar vein, Bin Laden and the members of al-Qaida have maintained that the Saudi government has not adequately addressed the gap between the rich and poor within the kingdom and that the wealth in Saudi Arabia has not been distributed fairly. Thus, while Bin Laden and the members of al-Qaida may have agreed with certain aspects of the Saudi government’s policies, there are other areas where they have vociferously disagreed. These areas of disagreement have comprised some of the reasons for Bin Laden’s and al-Qaida’s desires for revolutionary action against the Saudi government and other opponents of al-Qaida.106

With the history of Saudi Arabia and of the Wahhabi movement in that country as a backdrop, examining aspects of Usama bin Laden’s life can provide helpful insights about some of his motives, in general, and his objectives in establishing and leading al-Qaida, in particular. Usama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957 into a family with ancestral roots in northwest Yemen.107 The deep Islamic piety of Usama’s father, Muhammad bin Laden, had a profound influence on Usama’s own Islamic faith and practice. Muhammad bin Laden was steeped in the Wahhabi tradition and made sure that all his children, including Usama bin Laden, received an education within that tradition.108 In addition to the strict religious and moral training that Bin Laden received during his childhood, he was an employee of his father’s construction company when he was on vacation from school, working on a variety of projects where he acquired a range of skills related to the construction industry.109 Usama bin Laden received his primary, secondary, and university education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and may have also received training in various aspects of Islam in Mecca and Medina.110 Sources provide differing dates regarding the date of Bin Laden’s graduation from university as well as his major field of study.

Bin Laden himself stated that he graduated in 1981 from Jeddah’s King Abdul Aziz University with a degree in economics.111 Other sources state that he studied engineering or public administration, or that he never

graduated from college.112 In any event, two of Bin Laden’s influential teachers at King Abdul Aziz University were Muhammad Qutb and Abdullah Azzam, who strongly advocated internationalizing physical jihad so that the targets of Muslims’ militant acts would include Western targets, not just the Soviets in Afghanistan or anti-Islamist governments in the majority-Muslim world; this aligned with Bin Laden’s hope, and that of other Islamists, for the establishment of a global Islamic state.113

It seems that Muhammad Qutb’s ideas closely reflected those of his brother, Sayyid Qutb. Among other ideas from Sayyid Qutb that seem to have influenced Bin Laden, the concept of jahili societies and the obligation that Sayyid Qutb believed that Muslims have to engage in physical jihad against them seem to have had a profound impact on Bin Laden’s thought and action. Indeed, both while Bin Laden was growing up and during his time at the university, he regularly met well-known Islamists. Especially in Bin Laden’s early years, his father and elder brothers arranged social gatherings where Bin Laden met such people. Bin Laden’s father also financed evening meetings, where Islamists led discussions on topics related to Islam.114

Usama bin Laden in Afghanistan and Pakistan

A few weeks after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on December 25, 1979, Usama bin Laden went to Pakistan to meet with the Afghan leaders Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdul Rasool Sayyaf, whom he had met previously at gatherings during a hajj in Saudi Arabia.115 These contacts helped Bin Laden position himself in such a way that enabled him to assist the mujahideen, the anti-Soviet militants who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. During most of the mujahideen’s war against the Soviets, Bin Laden recruited militants by the thousands and organized their transporta- tion into Afghanistan, established mujahideen training camps, and supervised the building of fortifications and tunnels at the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. These structures allowed members of the mujahideen to escape from Afghanistan, find protection in Pakistan, and then re-enter Afghanistan.116 Bin Laden used his own money to fund these and related projects.117

Around 1985, Bin Laden founded al-Qaida (which means “the base” in Arabic) which was comprised largely of Egyptian militants and had the goals of supporting the mujahideen in their war against the Soviets and recruiting Islamic militants from various parts of the majority-Muslim world to join the mujahideen in their struggle. The number of Arabs who were recruited to fight in Afghanistan may have been in the low tens of thousands.118 Bin Laden engaged in this international recruitment process partly as a result of the influence of Abdullah Azzam, who spent a substantial

portion of the 1980s in Afghanistan. Azzam believed that the recruitment of Muslims from many countries could help build an Islamist force which, after the war in Afghanistan, could engage in worldwide physical jihad with the purpose of establishing a global Islamic state.119 At the same time, during the war in Afghanistan, the United States supported the work of al-Qaida and the mujahideen, because of the United States’ commitment to ousting the Soviets from Afghanistan.120

On a number of occasions, Bin Laden himself operated heavy machinery which played a role in the building of tunnels and fortresses, and he personally engaged in several battles against Soviet soldiers.121 Hamza Mohammed, a Palestinian volunteer in Afghanistan who was one of Bin Laden’s deputies there, described his view of Bin Laden’s first-hand involvement in the war against the Soviets:

[Bin Laden] was a hero to us because he was always on the front line, always moving ahead of everybody else. He not only gave his money, but he also gave himself. He came down from his palace to live with the Afghan peasants and the Arab fighters. He cooked with them, ate with them, dug trenches with them. That was Bin Laden’s way.122

Reports of Bin Laden risking his life for the Islamist cause as well as his financial contributions to al-Qaida and the mujahideen were circulated widely in Islamist circles and reinforced his image, in the minds of his supporters, as a heroic, sincere, and pious Muslim who was wholly committed to ousting foreigners from Muslim lands and spreading Islam. Bin Laden’s rejection of the extravagant and comfortable lifestyle that he could have had, if he had used his reported $300 million for his personal benefit, continually reinforced the conception of Bin Laden – in the eyes of his supporters – as an altruistic, self-giving man who had committed his entire life to God and to Islam.123 As Bin Laden continued his resistance against the Soviets, his antipathy for the Saudi regime rose, reaching a particularly intense level when the Saudi government refused Bin Laden’s request to provide his own soldiers to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq’s aggression in Kuwait during 1990 and 1991.

Eventually, with substantial military, financial, and political support from the United States, the mujahideen was victorious in its war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Soviet government began the withdrawal of its soldiers from Afghanistan during May 1988 and concluded this process in February 1989.124 During and after the Soviet withdrawal, Bin Laden expressed his belief that the mujahideen’s victory was a direct result of God’s intervention. Bin Laden believed that much as God had repeatedly favored Muhammad’s armies in their victories against unjust aggressors who wanted to destroy Islam in the seventh century, God showed favor to the Muslim

armies in Afghanistan and enabled them to defeat the atheistic Soviet aggressors who sought to destroy Islam in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bin Laden gave virtually no attention to the fact that the United States aided the mujahideen in their victory and he placed great emphasis on the role that he and other Muslims had played in the defeat of the Soviets. Bin Laden believed that the Muslim victory in Afghanistan was one major step toward a worldwide Islamic victory, which would be comprised of an eventual defeat of the non-Muslim regimes throughout the world and the establishment of a global Islamic state.125 Bin Laden stated that the victory in Afghanistan was a powerful catalyst for al-Qaida in its effort to implement future military operations against anti-Islamic interests in that organization’s continued endeavor to defeat their enemies and to spread Islam throughout the world, much as the victories of Muhammad’s army in the seventh century provided the catalyst for spreading Islam through substantial portions of the world for many years after Muhammad’s death.126

Usama bin Laden in Sudan

At least two factors influenced Bin Laden’s decision to move from Afghanistan to Sudan. First, Bin Laden was deeply frustrated that the Saudi government rejected his offer to provide Islamist soldiers from Afghanistan and other parts of the world in the Saudi government’s effort to eject the Iraqi military from Kuwait in 1990 and 1991.127 Even more insulting to Bin Laden was the fact that the Saudi government turned to the United States and other countries, whose governments were, in Bin Laden’s view, enemies of Islam, to defend Saudi Arabia which contained Islam’s holiest sites.128 Second, while Bin Laden took great pride in the mujahideen’s victory against the Soviets, he was saddened and aggravated by the in-fighting among various groups in Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal.129 Thus, Bin Laden went to Khartoum, Sudan in 1991 where he aligned himself with the Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi (b. 1932) and where he attempted to establish a stable base of operations for creating a “truly Islamic state” in Sudan. Bin Laden also wanted to use his time in Sudan to make efforts to expunge the United States’ military, political, economic, and religious influence from the majority-Muslim world.130

Bin Laden found Sudan to be a country which would enable him to engage in his business enterprises in such a way that they would prosper, while enabling him to contribute significant assets from those projects to al-Qaida for the purpose of attacking Western and other non-Muslim interests with the goal of undercutting those interests and expanding Islam’s reach.131 Bin Laden developed a symbiotic relationship with Hassan al-Turabi, who was the leader of Sudan’s National Islamic Front (NIF), was