The bin Laden Tapes

Author(s):  
Andrew Hill

This chapter looks back to the time before Osama bin Laden's death and then reflects on the period after his death. In particular, it examines bin Laden's video and audio appearances after the September 11 attacks in order to scrutinize both the means by which these appearances have allowed bin Laden to continue to intervene in the War on Terror, and the terms in which they have shaped perceptions in the West of the nature of the enemy faced in this conflict. Although bin Laden functioned “as a metonym for al Qaeda and the enemy more broadly in the War on Terror,” his death did not eliminate the threats posed by al Qaeda. Indeed, the West can be said to have “exorcised” Osama bin Laden by shifting the narrative from that of hunting for the world's leading terrorist to that of “Obama got Osama.”

The Drone Age ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 55-95
Author(s):  
Michael J. Boyle

Chapter 3 argues that drones undermine the legal and ethical prohibitions on assassination and extrajudicial violence outside of wartime. It traces the emergence of the practice of targeted killing from its origin to its embrace by the United States after the September 11 attacks. It shows how the United States adopted the use of drones alongside the practice of targeted killing to control risks as it fought a new war against al Qaeda, but found itself gradually drifting into more conflict zones and fighting new enemies. While the United States used drones to protect its pilots from physical risk, it altered the nature of the risks they faced and created new ones for the population who live under the drones. Drones also subtly changed how the United States wages its wars, making it more willing to countenance killing people outside of active battlefields. It concludes by discussing how more countries are now experimenting with targeting killings.


2005 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wesley

Since the September 11 attacks, a new security agenda has swept aside much of the old sensitivity and apathy about intervening in “failing” states. The war on terror has redefined “governance” from concentrating on issues of economic viability and popular rights to a focus on the capacity of states to generate sufficient “order” to deter or capture the agents of the new transnational security threats: terrorists, smugglers, money launderers, the carriers of zoonotic disease. As part of this process, the governance standards of other states became part of Western states' own security agendas, generating new, self-interested incentives for aid and intervention. In this article, I explore the possibilities for developing a realist-informed normative framework for humanitarian intervention in the context of the post–September 11international concern with transnational threats.


Jurnal Fiqh ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-286
Author(s):  
Muhamad Sayuti Mansor ◽  
Mohamad Azwan Kamarudin

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Islam has fell victim to the allegation that relates it to terrorism. This is due to the rise of terrorist movements such as al-Qaeda and ISIS that claim to be representing Islam and pursuing the holy war (jihād) to establish an Islamic caliphate (al-khilāfah al-Islāmiyyah). These terrorist movements also used the same terms and concepts that can be found in the traditional Muslim scholarship, such as the abode of Islam and the abode of war (dār al-Islām wa dār alḥarb), loyalty and disavowal (al-walā’ wa al-barā’), and excommunicating Muslims (takfīr). Thus, this study seeks to analyse these two concepts of jihād and terrorism (irhāb) to locate both their similarities and differences. Comparison is made from several aspects such as etymology and history and lastly its application in our contemporary reality in relation to other relevant terms and concepts as mentioned above. This study finds that there are substantial differences between jihād and irhāb, and it is the failure to grasp the ever evolving and developing nature of Islamic law (fiqh) and the contemporary reality that led to this confusion.


2021 ◽  
Vol VI (III) ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
Fazal Rabbi ◽  
Muhammad Shakeel Ahmad ◽  
Munib Ahmed

The US-led war on terror against Osama bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network has brought gigantic socio-political and economic impacts on the overall population of Pashtuns of FATA and KP. The US drone strikes largely targeted the Pashtuns population in the tribal belt of Pakistan while the Pakistani security forces particularly conducted various operations in the Pashtuns areas, being a partner/ally of the get praise. In the war, thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women of the Pashtuns population, have been killed, injured and millions remained displaced. Infrastructure, including roads, public and private buildings, bridges, educational institutions, tourism, etc, in the Pashtuns' land, has been destroyed. This paper is an attempt to analyze the so-called war on terror and how it turned against the Pashtuns of FATA and KP. The suffering of the Pashtuns population as targeted by the US drone strikes, Pakistan security forces, and terrorists attacks have been examined in this paper.


Author(s):  
Christopher A. Bail

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of a small fundamentalist church in Florida, announced plans to burn two hundred Qur'ans on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Though he ended up canceling the stunt in the face of widespread public backlash, his threat sparked violent protests across the Muslim world that left at least twenty people dead. This book demonstrates how the beliefs of fanatics like Jones are inspired by a rapidly expanding network of anti-Muslim organizations that exert profound influence on American understanding of Islam. The book traces how the anti-Muslim narrative of the political fringe has captivated large segments of the American media, government, and general public, validating the views of extremists who argue that the United States is at war with Islam and marginalizing mainstream Muslim-Americans who are uniquely positioned to discredit such claims. Drawing on cultural sociology, social network theory, and social psychology, the book shows how anti-Muslim organizations gained visibility in the public sphere, commandeered a sense of legitimacy, and redefined the contours of contemporary debate, shifting it ever outward toward the fringe. The book illustrates the author's pioneering theoretical argument through a big-data analysis of more than one hundred organizations struggling to shape public discourse about Islam, tracing their impact on hundreds of thousands of newspaper articles, television transcripts, legislative debates, and social media messages produced since the September 11 attacks. The book also features in-depth interviews with the leaders of these organizations, providing a rare look at how anti-Muslim organizations entered the American mainstream.


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