The rise of terrorism in the 1990’s can be linked back to a chain of events starting with United States foreign policy during the Cold-War era. When the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, a vacuum of power was left behind. During the Afghan-Soviet war, the United States funded billions of dollars to the Mujahideen to prevent Afghanistan from becoming communist. In the 1990s, members of the Mujahideen formed the Taliban to impose stability and rule of law. Osma Bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda, was once backed by the United States because of his role in supporting the Mujahideen. However, his pan-Islamic ideologically led to his hatred toward the United States. The information that were used in this research paper were collected
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In 1978, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew and executed its president, Muhammad Daoud. The party, led by Nur Muhammad Taraki, began to impose communist based policies. In this point of history, the United States’ interest was in containing the spread of communism. When communist Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to protect the communist based government which was beginning to form, the United States got involved. They achieved this by secretly donating billions to the Mujadideen, Islamic freedom fighters, through the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence. In addition, a jihad was called against the Soviet Union, since they were fighting against an Islamic state. Thousands came from many countries to volunteer as members of the Mujadideen. Their efforts were backed by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and China, in addition to the United States. By 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev decided to withdraw troops due to their high number of causalities and the sky-rocketing cost of the war (history.com, …show more content…
forces. With his new sense of security, Bin Laden was able to focus on growing Al Qaeda. He focused on recruiting people who were mainly poor. He gave them inducements, financed projects and gave them apartments to ensure their loyalty to Al Qaeda. When Al Qaeda became more violent they would seek out people to become suicide bombers. They would look for people who were “drug addicted…with [a] weak personality and those suffering [from] psychological troubles, in addition to complex old men, people suffering [from] depression and youngsters”. Al Qaeda looked to recruit people who where vulnerable in some way and exposed that weakness to “force” their beliefs on, to become apart of something bigger than themselves. One way of exposing this weakness was by justifying jihad by using the Koran. The recruiters of Al Qaeda have an extreme Islamic view, taking every word of the Koran literally, twisting its actual meaning to promote their jihad. (www.jihadwatch.org,
In 1978, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan overthrew and executed its president, Muhammad Daoud. The party, led by Nur Muhammad Taraki, began to impose communist based policies. In this point of history, the United States’ interest was in containing the spread of communism. When communist Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to protect the communist based government which was beginning to form, the United States got involved. They achieved this by secretly donating billions to the Mujadideen, Islamic freedom fighters, through the CIA and Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence. In addition, a jihad was called against the Soviet Union, since they were fighting against an Islamic state. Thousands came from many countries to volunteer as members of the Mujadideen. Their efforts were backed by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and China, in addition to the United States. By 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev decided to withdraw troops due to their high number of causalities and the sky-rocketing cost of the war (history.com, …show more content…
forces. With his new sense of security, Bin Laden was able to focus on growing Al Qaeda. He focused on recruiting people who were mainly poor. He gave them inducements, financed projects and gave them apartments to ensure their loyalty to Al Qaeda. When Al Qaeda became more violent they would seek out people to become suicide bombers. They would look for people who were “drug addicted…with [a] weak personality and those suffering [from] psychological troubles, in addition to complex old men, people suffering [from] depression and youngsters”. Al Qaeda looked to recruit people who where vulnerable in some way and exposed that weakness to “force” their beliefs on, to become apart of something bigger than themselves. One way of exposing this weakness was by justifying jihad by using the Koran. The recruiters of Al Qaeda have an extreme Islamic view, taking every word of the Koran literally, twisting its actual meaning to promote their jihad. (www.jihadwatch.org,