27 Facts About Al Qaeda

1. Al-Al Qaeda opposes what it regards as man-made laws, and wants to replace them exclusively with a strict form of shariʿa.

2. Al Qaeda was involved in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

3. Doctrinal concept of "Al-Al Qaeda" was first coined by the Palestinian Islamist scholar and Jihadist leader Abdullah Azzam in an April 1988 issue of Al-Jihad magazine to describe a religiously committed vanguard of Muslims who wage armed Jihad globally to liberate oppressed Muslims from foreign invaders, establish sharia across the Islamic World by overthrowing the ruling secular governments; and thus restore the past Islamic prowess.

4. Name 'al-Al Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance.

5. Al Qaeda was the one who most affected our generation.

6. Al-Al Qaeda seems implacably opposed to it, as it holds Shi'ism to be heresy.

7. Notes indicate al-Al Qaeda was a formal group by August 20, 1988.

8. Al Qaeda traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan and became "deeply involved with bin Laden's plans.

9. Al-Al Qaeda sought to open the "offensive phase" of the global Salafi jihad.

10. In 1996, al-Al Qaeda announced its jihad to expel foreign troops and interests from what they considered Islamic lands.

11. Al-Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist Ramzi Yousef operated in the Philippines in the mid-1990s and trained Abu Sayyaf soldiers.

12. In February 2012, al-Shabaab officially joined al-Al Qaeda, declaring loyalty in a video.

13. Percentage of attacks in the First World originating from the Afghanistan–Pakistan border declined starting in 2007, as al-Al Qaeda shifted to Somalia and Yemen.

14. In December 2011, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the US operations against al-Al Qaeda "are now concentrating on key groups in Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

15. In December 1998, the Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center reported to President Bill Clinton that al-Al Qaeda was preparing to launch attacks in the United States, and the group was training personnel to hijack aircraft.

16. On September 11, 2001, al-Al Qaeda attacked the United States, hijacking four airliners within the country and deliberately crashing two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

17. In September 2014, al-Zawahiri announced al-Al Qaeda was establishing a front in India to "wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its Caliphate.

18. On December 29, 1992, al-Al Qaeda launched the 1992 Yemen hotel bombings.

19. Internally, al-Al Qaeda considered the bombing a victory that frightened the Americans away, but in the US, the attack was barely noticed.

20. Attacks were conducted by al-Al Qaeda, acting in accord with the 1998 fatwa issued against the US and its allies by persons under the command of bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and others.

21. US officials believe al-Al Qaeda was helping organize attacks in Kashmir in order to provoke conflict between India and Pakistan.

22. In 2006 al-Al Qaeda claimed they had established a wing in Kashmir.

23. In January 2010, US Defense secretary Robert Gates, while on a visit to Pakistan, said that al-Al Qaeda was seeking to destabilize the region and planning to provoke a nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

24. Al-Al Qaeda turned to the Internet for release of its videos in order to be certain they would be available unedited, rather than risk the possibility of al Jazeera editing out anything critical of the Saudi royal family.

25. In 2007, al-Al Qaeda released Mujahedeen Secrets, encryption software used for online and cellular communications.

26. Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, was inspired by Al-Al Qaeda, calling it "the most successful revolutionary movement in the world.

27. In Saudi Arabia, only ten percent had a favorable view of al-Al Qaeda, according to a December 2017 poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based think tank.