Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- A note on conventions
- Introduction
- 1 The politics of pan-Islamism
- 2 The classical jihadists
- 3 Recruitment to the early jihad fronts
- 4 Opportunities for global jihad
- 5 Al-Qaida and Saudi Arabia
- 6 Recruitment to al-Qaida
- 7 Post-9/11 Saudi Arabia
- 8 The mujahidin on the Arabian Peninsula
- 9 Recruitment to the QAP
- 10 The failure of the jihad in Arabia
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 – Socio-economic data on Saudi militants
- Appendix 2 – Chronology of Islamist violence in Saudi Arabia, 1979–2009
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES 33
8 - The mujahidin on the Arabian Peninsula
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- A note on conventions
- Introduction
- 1 The politics of pan-Islamism
- 2 The classical jihadists
- 3 Recruitment to the early jihad fronts
- 4 Opportunities for global jihad
- 5 Al-Qaida and Saudi Arabia
- 6 Recruitment to al-Qaida
- 7 Post-9/11 Saudi Arabia
- 8 The mujahidin on the Arabian Peninsula
- 9 Recruitment to the QAP
- 10 The failure of the jihad in Arabia
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 – Socio-economic data on Saudi militants
- Appendix 2 – Chronology of Islamist violence in Saudi Arabia, 1979–2009
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE MIDDLE EAST STUDIES 33
Summary
Today your brothers and sons, the sons of the Two Sanctuaries, have started their jihad in the cause of Allah, to expel the occupying enemy from the Land of the Two Sanctuaries.
Usama bin Ladin, Declaration of War against the Americans, 1996What we are doing today is but an answer to God's call and his Prophet, who say, ‘Expel the infidels from the Arabian Peninsula.’
Muhammad al-Shihri, martyrdom video, 12 May 2003By launching the QAP campaign in May 2003, Bin Ladin returned to the original cause of his global jihad project, namely the eviction of US forces from Saudi Arabia. This meant that the al-Qaida leadership had reversed its 1998 decision to postpone military operations in the kingdom. It also meant that the group was prepared to compromise its most important fundraising and recruitment base. What had caused this change? And how did al-Qaida implement the new strategy?
Returning from Afghanistan
When the planes struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, Usama bin Ladin and his fellow commanders were fully aware that a US military invasion of Afghanistan was imminent. They had therefore taken a number of preparatory steps, ranging from emergency evacuation plans from the training camps to strategic moves such as the assassination, on 9 September, of Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Mas‘ud. As soon as the news of the 9/11 attacks was confirmed, the al-Qaida leadership evacuated the main training camps and started assigning foreign recruits to Arab units at Taliban military fronts.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Jihad in Saudi ArabiaViolence and Pan-Islamism since 1979, pp. 161 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010