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Paradise in the Shadow of Swords

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Paradise in the Shadow of Swords Paradise in the shadow of swords In defence of Islam? An analysis of al-Qaida statements from 1993 to 2004. Mathias Rongved Master Thesis, Department of Political Science Word count: 32 920 UNIVERSITY OF OSLO October 2008 2 3 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................................................... 3 PREFACE.............................................................................................................................................. 5 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 6 A NOTE ON THE SOURCE MATERIAL .................................................................................................... 6 A NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION............................................................................. 8 A NOTE ON DISTRIBUTION................................................................................................................... 9 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 11 1.1 GLOBAL JIHAD ........................................................................................................................ 12 2. RESEARCH QUESTION AND RESEARCH METHOD ...................................................... 16 2.1 DEFINITIONS ........................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 LEVELS OF ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................. 20 3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 21 3.1 THE ORIGINS OF ISLAM ........................................................................................................... 21 3.2 JIHAD ...................................................................................................................................... 25 3.3 THE RISE OF POLITICAL ISLAM ................................................................................................ 26 3.4 THE EMERGENCE OF AL-QAIDA .............................................................................................. 27 3.4.1 The birth of al-Qaida ..................................................................................................... 29 3.4.2 Does al-Qaida still exist?............................................................................................... 33 4. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND........................................................................................... 35 4.1 THE THEORY OF SECURITIZATION ........................................................................................... 35 4.2 SECURITIZING RELIGION ......................................................................................................... 37 4.2.1 Modes of securitization .................................................................................................. 38 4.3 SECTORS ................................................................................................................................. 40 4.4 AUDIENCE............................................................................................................................... 41 4.5 AUTHORITY ............................................................................................................................ 42 4.6 POOR AND UNEDUCATED?....................................................................................................... 44 4.7 THE UNITS............................................................................................................................... 45 5. ANALYSIS: DEFENCE OF ISLAM?....................................................................................... 48 5.1 WHAT DOES AL-QAIDA WANT?............................................................................................... 48 4 5.2 OPERATIONALIZATION ............................................................................................................50 5.3 THE UTILITY OF THE ANALYSIS ...............................................................................................51 5.4 ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF AL-QAIDA ........................................................................................52 5.4.1 1993 – 9/10: The shape of things to come......................................................................52 5.4.2 9/11 – Iraq invasion: Attack and aftermath ...................................................................65 5.4.3 March 20, 2003 – December 2004: Invasion and insurgency .......................................73 5.5 SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................79 5.5.1 Modes of securitization revisited ...................................................................................82 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................84 6.1 SECURITIZED RELIGION? .........................................................................................................85 6.2 FURTHER RESEARCH ...............................................................................................................87 7. APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................88 7.1 GLOSSARY...............................................................................................................................88 7.2 TABLES OF STATEMENTS .........................................................................................................89 7.2.1 1993 – 9/10.....................................................................................................................89 7.2.2 9/11 – March 19, 2003 ...................................................................................................90 7.2.3 March 20, 2003 – 2004 ..................................................................................................91 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................................................92 INTERVIEWS WITH OSAMA BIN LADEN .............................................................................................92 INTERVIEWS WITH OTHER AL-QAIDA MEMBERS................................................................................93 STATEMENTS BY AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI...........................................................................................93 STATEMENTS BY OSAMA BIN LADEN ................................................................................................94 STATEMENTS BY OTHER ACTORS ......................................................................................................96 BOOKS ..............................................................................................................................................97 ARTICLES, PAPERS, PRESS RELEASES, SURVEYS AND TV PROGRAMS ................................................99 5 Preface All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. (Thomas. E. Lawrence) If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. (Thomas Paine) I owe a debt of gratitude to my thesis advisor, Anders Kjølberg at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. Without his patience and guidance this thesis would not have come to be. Furthermore, even though he was only obligated to advise me during the spring and autumn terms of 2007, Anders did not hesitate in wishing me all the best when I abruptly left Oslo for a six-month internship at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna, which inevitably delayed the completion of this thesis. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided a generous grant for my internship at UNODC for which I am most grateful. Thanks are also due, of course, to my parents for their support during my studies. Needless to say, the author alone bears the responsibility for the contents and conclusions of this thesis and any errors it may contain. Mathias Rongved Oslo, October 2008 6 Chapter overview In Chapter 1 I introduce the subject and put it into a contemporary context, before elaborating on the research question in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 paints, with very broad strokes, a picture of the political Islam’s historical background, the ideology of jihad and the rise of al-Qaida.1 Chapter 4 introduces the theoretical framework of securitization and contains remarks on how the research subject fits with that theory. Chapter 5 contains the main part of the thesis, the analysis, which leads to the conclusion in Chapter 6. Arabic words are explained on their first appearance, as well as in an appendix. A note on the source material The selection of texts has been limited to all known, fairly verifiable and easily obtainable English translations of statements by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al- Zawahiri2 in the period between 1993 and 2004. Two developments that began around 2004 make it sensible to end the selection of texts
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