What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Al-Qaeda was responsible for the most horrific and
historically significant terrorist attacks in American history,
yet many Americans (especially those who were too young
to remember the attacks) do not understand what al-Qaeda’s
intention was. This lesson provides general material on
al-Qaeda’s organizational structure, history, and mission.
Overview
Age Group
Grades 9-12, College Level
Colorado Grade Level Expectations/High School Social Studies Standards
History
1. The historical method of inquiry to ask questions, evaluate primary and secondary
sources, critically analyze and interpret data, and develop interpretations defended by
evidence from a variety of primary and secondary sources
2. Analyze the key concepts of continuity and change, cause and effect, complexity, unity
and diversity over time
3. The significance of ideas as powerful forces throughout history
Common Core State Standards (Grades 11-12)
English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness: Speaking and Listening
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1 Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations
with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and
persuasively.
English Language Arts: College and Career Readiness: Reading
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences
from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclus.ions
drawn from the text.
English Language Arts: Reading
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the
text leaves matters uncertain.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the
course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a
complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
Length of Lesson
One 45-minute lesson
1 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Rationale
In this lesson, students will explore the history of al-Qaeda from secondary source
analysis and will answer critical discussion questions, helping them gain a better understanding of al-Qaeda, and the political implications of the September 11th, 2001 attacks.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, students will be better able to:
• Analyze secondary source material describing al-Qaeda, its goals, and its motivation;
• Discuss their understanding and impressions of the text; and
• Listen carefully to their peers while engaging in collaborative conversation about a
sensitive and important topic.
Materials
Worksheet 1: Discussion Questions
Handout 1: What is al-Qaeda?
Handout 2: How has al-Qaeda Evolved since 9/11/01?
Included
Worksheet 1: Discussion Questions
Handout 1: What is al-Qaeda?
Handout 2: How has al-Qaeda Evolved since 9/11/01?
2 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Lesson
1. Warm Up: Give students up to five minutes to work with a partner and write down
everything they know about al-Qaeda.
2. Pass out Handouts 1 and 2. Give students 20 minutes to read and write down at
least three questions about what they read.
3. Split students into small groups. Each group will be responsible for one of the
discussion questions on Worksheet 1.
4. Reconvene the class, asking each group to present their information
(including questions and comments).
5. Have the whole class discuss what they learned from the articles.
6. Ask students to keep a record of what they learned either in a journal
or reflective essay.
3 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Worksheet 1: Pre-Visit
Discussion Questions
1. Describe al-Qaeda’s structure. How does it help the organization survive?
How does it make al-Qaeda difficult to fight?
2. What does the first source mean when it says “depend on the sponsorship of
a political state”? Why is that significant? What does it mean when it says that the
organization “operates as a franchise?”
3. What is al-Qaeda’s goal? What might be their reasons? What is the significance of
the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center? How might this operation
have furthered al-Qaeda’s goals?
4. According to the second source, how has al-Qaeda evolved since 9/11?
Where do they stand today? What is different? What is still the same?
5. Think about other ideological wars you may have learned about in history.
How do they compare to the one al-Qaeda is waging? Think about organizational
structure, resources, goals, and methods of recruitment.
4 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Handout 1: Pre-Visit
What is al-Qaeda?
Excerpt from “Osama bin Laden’s Network of Terror” Pearson Education, Inc.
What is al-Qaeda?
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda (or al-Qa’ida, pronounced
al-KYE-da) surpassed the IRA, Hamas, and Hezbollah as the world›s most infamous terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda—”the base” in Arabic—is the network of extremists
organized by Osama bin Laden The death of bin Laden, who was killed in a joint
operation by U.S. troops and CIA operatives in May 2011, complicated the future of
al-Qaeda. Some speculated that the group will be emboldened and seek retaliation,
while others wondered if it might founder without its supreme leader. In June, U.S.
officials announced that after pouring through the documents and computer files taken
from bin Laden›s compound, they confirmed their assumption that al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan and Pakistan has been seriously weakened as a result of U.S.
counterterrorism operations undertaken in Pakistan.More than a month after bin
Laden’s death al-Qaeda named Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s theological leader,
as its leader.
Bin Laden’s death was followed in June by the demise of another powerful, top-ranking
al-Qaeda leader, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. He was the leader of al-Qaeda in East
Africa and organized the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in August
1998. He was killed during a shootout at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu, Somalia.
Leadership and Structure
Although al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden have become virtually synonymous, bin
Laden did not run the organization single-handedly. His top advisor was al-Zawahiri, bin
Laden’s successor. Al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian surgeon from an upper-class family. He
joined the country’s Islamist movement in the late 1970s. He served three years in prison
on charges connected to the assassination of Anwar Sadat, during which time he was
tortured. After his release he went to Afghanistan, where he met bin Laden and became
his personal physician and advisor. He was likely instrumental in bin Laden’s political
evolution.
Al-Zawahiri is suspected of helping organize the 1997 massacre of 67 foreign tourists
in the Egyptian town of Luxor and was indicted in connection with the bombing of U.S.
embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. In 1998, he was one of five Islamic leaders to sign on
to bin Laden’s declaration calling for attacks against U.S. citizens. He is wanted by the
FBI and has been sentenced to death by Egypt in absentia. In March 2004 the Pakistani
military began an assault on al-Qaeda troops along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
These troops were believed to be defending al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.
Al-Qaeda’s leadership oversees a loosely organized network of cells. It can recruit
members from thousands of “Arab Afghan” veterans and radicals around the world. Its
infrastructure is small, mobile, and decentralized—each cell operates independently with
its members not knowing the identity of other cells. Local operatives rarely know anyone
higher up in the organization’s hierarchy.
5 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Al-Qaeda differs significantly from more traditional terrorist organizations. It does not
depend on the sponsorship of a political state, and, unlike the PLO or the IRA, it is not
defined by a particular conflict. Instead, al-Qaeda operates as a franchise. It provides
financial and logistical support, as well as name recognition, to terrorist groups operating
in such diverse places as the Philippines, Algeria, Eritrea,Afghanistan, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Kashmir. Furthermore, local groups may act in the
name of al-Qaeda in order to bolster their own reputation—even if they are not receiving
support from the organization.
Ideology and Goals
The principal stated aims of al-Qaeda are to drive Americans and American influence out
of all Muslim nations, especially Saudi Arabia; destroy Israel; and topple pro-Western
dictatorships around the Middle East. Bin Laden also said that he wishes to unite all
Muslims and establish, by force if necessary, an Islamic nation adhering to the rule of
the first Caliphs.
According to bin Laden’s 1998 fatwa (religious decree), it is the duty of Muslims around
the world to wage holy war on the U.S., American citizens, and Jews. Muslims who do
not heed this call are declared apostates (people who have forsaken their faith).
Al-Qaeda’s ideology, often referred to as “jihadism,” is marked by a willingness to kill
“apostate” —and Shiite—Muslims and an emphasis on jihad. Although “jihadism” is at
odds with nearly all Islamic religious thought, it has its roots in the work of two modern Sunni Islamic thinkers: Mohammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Sayyid Qutb.
Al-Wahhab was an 18th-century reformer who claimed that Islam had been corrupted
a generation or so after the death of Mohammed. He denounced any theology or
customs developed after that as non-Islamic, including more than 1,000 years of
religious scholarship. He and his supporters took over what is now Saudi Arabia,
where Wahhabism remains the dominant school of religious thought.
Sayyid Qutb, a radical Egyptian scholar of the mid-20th century, declared Western
civilization the enemy of Islam, denounced leaders of Muslim nations for not following
Islam closely enough, and taught that jihad should be undertaken not just to defend
Islam, but to purify it.1
6 of 7
What is al-Qaeda?
9/11: Pre-Visit
Handout 2: Pre-Visit
How has al-Qaeda Evolved since 9/11/01?
Excerpted from “Al Qa’ida” NCTC
Established by Usama Bin Ladin in 1988 with Arabs who fought in Afghanistan against
the Soviet Union, al-Qa‘ida’s declared goal is the establishment of a pan-Islamic
caliphate throughout the Muslim world. Toward this end, al-Qa‘ida seeks to unite
Muslims to fight the West, especially the United States, as a means of overthrowing
Muslim regimes al-Qa‘ida deems “apostate,” expelling Western influence from Muslim
countries, and defeating Israel. Al-Qa‘ida issued a statement in February 1998 under the
banner of “the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders” saying
it was the duty of all Muslims to kill US citizens—civilian and military—and their allies
everywhere. The group merged with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (al-Jihad) in June 2001.
On 11 September 2001, 19 al-Qa‘ida suicide attackers hijacked and crashed four
US commercial jets—two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the
Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and a fourth into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania—
leaving nearly 3,000 people dead. Al-Qa‘ida also directed the 12 October 2000 attack on
the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, which killed 17 US sailors and injured another
39, and conducted the bombings in August 1998 of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya,
and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring more than 5,000.
In 2005, Ayman al-Zawahiri, then Bin Ladin’s deputy and now the leader of al-Qa‘ida,
publicly claimed al-Qa‘ida’s involvement in the 7 July 2005 bus bombings in the United
Kingdom. In 2006, British security services foiled an al-Qa‘ida plot to detonate explosives
on up to 10 transatlantic flights originating from London’s Heathrow airport. Also in
2006, al-Zawahiri announced that the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
had joined al-Qa‘ida, adopting the name al-Qa‘ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb.
In 2009, extremist leaders in Yemen and Saudi Arabia reportedly announced they had
merged to fight under the banner of al-Qa‘ida in the Arabian Peninsula.
On 2 May 2011, US forces raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, resulting in the
death of Bin Ladin. His death, in addition to significant losses to al-Qa‘ida’s command
structure based in the tribal areas of Pakistan since early 2008, has left the group at its
weakest since the fall of the Afghan Taliban in late 2001. In the aftermath of Bin Ladin’s
death, al-Qa‘ida leaders moved quickly to name al-Zawahiri as his successor. Since this
announcement, regional affiliates have publicly sworn allegiance and pledged support to
him. Al-Qa‘ida remains a cohesive organization and al-Qa‘ida core’s leadership continues
to be important to the global movement.
In June 2012, Abu Yahya al-Libi, widely reported to be al-Qa‘ida’s “general manager,”
was killed in Pakistan. Despite this and other leadership losses, al-Qa‘ida remains
committed to conducting attacks in the United States and against American interests
abroad. The group has advanced a number of unsuccessful plots in the past several
years, including against the United States and Europe. This highlights al-Qa‘ida’s ability
to continue some attack preparations while under sustained counterterrorism pressure
and suggests it may be plotting additional attacks against the United States at home
or overseas.2
Laura Hayes, Borgna Brunner, and Beth Rowen, “Osama bin Laden’s Network of Terror,” Information Please®
Database, Pearson Education, Inc., 2007, Accessed March 8, 2014, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/al-qaedaterrorism.html
2
“Al Qa’ida,” NCTC.gov. Accessed March 8, 2014,http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/al_qaida.html
1
7 of 7