Al Qaeda and the Taliban

The Taliban and Al Qaeda are two terrorist organizations born out of the Islamic roots. Al Qaeda current leader is Osama Bin Laden and The Taliban leader is Mullah Mohammad Omar, Al Qaeda means The base while The Taliban means student or Talib. Al Qaeda is consisted of Sunni Muslims who practice Wahhabism, which is considered the most extreme form of Islam. The beginning of The Talibans consisted of religious students who were very conservative and believed in Sharia (a Islamic law). Both groups have different ideology's, Al Qaeda believes in forming a Islamic state concentrated on Sharia and also get rid of nationalism and Socialism. The Talibans ideology is Only a innovative form of Islam With Pashtun tribal codes. Although many believe that these two groups may love each other, Omar Bin Laden a son of Osama declared in a interview that both extremist groups were Allies of convenience. Omar also declared that both even though both groups are allies when necessary they are happy with organizations and their own people. Omar believes that if their would be no more enemies in the world they would end up fighting each other.

Sources:
http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-taliban-and-al-qaeda/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60P4A320100126

Time square Bombing

On May 1st, 2010 Time square was crowded with tourists and residents of NYC. Although these people were having a good time they didn't think that the Nissan Pathfinder parked awkwardly on Broadway and 45th Street would have a bomb inside, until a T-shirt vendor noticed smoke coming out of the SUV and called for a police officer nearby. The Pathfinder had the wrong license plates and inside they found two five gallon cans of gasoline, three canisters of propane, and consumer grade fire-works. Fortunately according to the deputy commissioner it was in the process of detonating but it malfunctioned. Soon after they learned that the Time Square bomber was Faisal Shahzad, who was inspired by Pakistani Militants. Shahzad when attempting to escape out of NYC in plane was caught, Shahzad who is said acted alone received 5 month bomb training in Pakistan. The big mistery is how was he able to get the money for the act with out a job. Shahzad is being investigated for possible ties to terrorist networks that could had helped him financially to execute this attack.

sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02timessquare.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/07/2010-05-07_times_square_bomb_plotter_faisal_shahzad_was_lone_wolf_with_no_terror_contacts_g.html

                                          FAISAL SHAHZAD TIME SQUARE BOMBER

racism against Middle Eastern people because of terrorism

The largest group of immigrants that are coming to the United States are been discriminated because of Terrorism. This Group of people would be known as middle eastern. Daniel Pipes author of "militant Islam Reaches America" points out that any person that could be afiliated to counter-terrorism in the United States would have to be related to any middle eastern country that is related to militant activity.Arabs stereotype in America by the media has been that they are uncivilized rulers of kingdoms, oil millionares buying up the United States, and white slavers. Palestines have been depicted as terrorists and have suffereed of being called many derogatory names. If we may notice around late 1980's and in the 1990's violence and terrorism in the middle Eastern caused Hollywood to add more violence in the Arab stereo-type. In the movies Arab men were seen as abductors of western women, anti-American, greedy, and Oil rich. Especially after the attacks of Al qaeda against the United States many Americans believe that anybody who looks like they are from a Middle Eastern country are terrorists. Many people have started taking action to make this discrimination against middle eastern people stop.Several organizations such as the Association Of Arab American University Graduates, and scholars have published papers on the topic. Hopefully these things will make a difference for middle Eastern children.

Sources:http://www.danielpipes.org/446/impact-al-qaeda-among-us
http://salempress.com/store/samples/us_immigration_history/us_immigration_history_arab.htm

What Progress have we made in capturing Al qaeda?

Many may wonder if we have made progress capturing Al qaeda, well many have different opinions on that topic. I believe we have, ever since the 9|11 attacks we have made the middle east a safer place to the world by defending it against terror. One determined fighter and allie of the United States against terror was Saudi Arabia, killing or capturing hundreds of Al qaeda Operatives. Another thing that president Bush enforced to countries like Libya, Iran, and Iraq was to end thier support to terror and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction this way Al qaeda would have less support from certain countries. If the countries would not obey they would have to face concerted opposition of the world. Although people like Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon they believe that Al qaeda is still strong. They argued their opinion in the New York Times stating that we are not doing enough to counter them in the propoganda wars. They also believe that since Bin Laden is demonstrating that he is strong he believes he is winning which is part of his job.

source:http://www.ideasinactiontv.com/tcs_daily/2006/01/the-state-of-the-enemy.html
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081205-10.html

How did Alqaeda become internationally known?

Al qaeda started to form around the years of 1979-1989. The first country they became known to was Russia. The reason why is because Russia's invasion in Afghanistan, made Islamist extremist form a "holy war" or jiihads against invading Soviets, which caused Muslims around the world to come to Afghanistan and one of those muslims was a twenty-three year old from Saudi Arabia named Usama Bin Laden. Usama's ambition for This group of muslims, made him form a international network known as "the golden chain". The Golden Chain compromised many financiers from Persian Gulf states and Saudi Arabia. In the early 1990's Usama took fully charge of Al qaeda and moved to Sudan where he began synching up with groups from the middle east to form attacks against the west. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed and Al qaeda took credit for this attack. This event made Al qaeda internationally known and made the world wonder what country would be next.

sources:http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07272007/alqaeda.html
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/february/tradebom_022608

these are the terrorists believed to have participated in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and also the first attack that Al qaeda took credit for and made them internationally known