Al Qaeda Narrative

This chapter describes the Al Qaeda narrative as advertised by Osama bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden sought to incite a global Muslim community and rally a vanguard of Muslim youth. He also used the Al Qaeda narrative to establish and develop self-identification and institutionalization among his followers, expressing and shaping his leadership and the organisation. In terms of securitization, the Al Qaeda narrative showed the transformation of early complex and incomplete efforts into more focused exertions that centralized targeting US servicemen and civilians around the world. Over time it comprised a fundamental variation and hence partial transformation of the Salafi-jihadi social order, as it went against the dominant ideological current. Key texts include a 1996 speech and memorandum, the 1998 World Islamic Front declaration, a 1998 interview with Al Jazeera, and a propaganda video on the USS Cole attack in 2000. US missile strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 that followed the Embassy attacks in Africa, and the bombing campaign over Iraq a few months later, led Bin Laden’s message to resonate among wider Arab and Muslim audiences. The US economic sanctions, criminal investigation, and indictment underlined the very status Bin Laden was frantically trying to articulate.