Al Qaeda: A Lurking Threat by Sam Singh

     It’s been 15 years since the whole world was shaken—and all of America was in mourning. Three thousand families lost people they loved in the carnage that was the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I was 5 years old when the Twin Towers came crashing down, and all I remember is that no one knew what to do, how to feel, or who to blame. Very soon after we found out that the culprits weren’t faulty flight plans, or sleeping pilots, or whatever else we would have thought possible. It was a form of terrorism that America wasn’t accustomed to yet. 

       We had all hoped that it was just some horrible accident. I remember thinking that no one could have intentionally done it, but I was so terribly wrong. It was a coordinated attack by an Islamic terrorist organization the likes of which the world had never seen. Al Qaeda didn’t hold back after the attack—videos were posted continuously celebrating their “achievement.” Killing Americans simply wasn’t enough—the videos served a purpose. They were meant to kick us when we were already down. The group was led by a man that we all know too well nowadays, Osama bin Laden.

       In the mainstream global news, al Qaeda seems to be a thing of the past. The media likes to focus on easy headlines, and in the world of terrorism, ISIS paves the way in easy headlines. The group has without a doubt become the face of modern Islamic terrorism and is a threat to the world, but it has caused America to turn a blind eye to what is arguably a greater danger.

       America must look to protect our own homeland first and foremost, and this is one of the essential reasons ISIS isn’t our most immediate threat. “ISIS” itself stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, meaning the leaders of the organization want to prioritize establishing the Caliphate in the Middle East before expanding outward into the Western world. The Caliphate, a Muslim territory ruled by a single Islamic leader, is the end goal of almost all Islamic terrorist organizations, but some organizations want to do it sooner rather than later. If reports of the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi are true, however, the organization may have been temporarily weakened. This setback is only made more severe by the progress made by U.S. and Iraqi forces in driving ISIS insurgents out of Iraq, the place ISIS aims to conquer before spreading west.

       ISIS has on numerous occasions threatened to attack America, yet there has been no large-scale coordinated attack on U.S. soil by the organization. ISIS has claimed credit for various smaller-scale attacks carried out by its sympathizers, but in these instances there typically are no signs of actual coordination between the group’s leaders and the perpetrators of the attacks. The point is, ISIS has not prioritized attacking America. The same cannot be said for al Qaeda.

       Ayman al-Zawahiri, the successor to bin Laden, has followed in bin Laden’s footsteps when it comes to practicing patience. Bin Laden wanted al Qaeda to wait to establish the Caliphate, because he knew it to be a task too large to accomplish in a matter of years, even decades. This approach means that al Qaeda isn’t concerned with beating ISIS to the end goal of a Caliphate or even beating them for easy headlines. Al Qaeda has the patience to forego its ambitions in the Middle East (for a time), and in the meantime, it has targeted the United States and our allies on numerous occasions in large-scale, well-organized attacks.

       Also, the war in Afghanistan has only intensified al Qaeda’s hatred for America. Though ISIS has obtained significant amounts of money and resources through its pillaging campaigns, it means nothing without proper structure and leadership. ISIS has become notorious for stealing large sums of money, but also spending it immediately to arm insurgents for small-scale attacks in the Middle East. Al Qaeda, on the other hand, has been operating for a very long time and has learned how to allocate its funds for maximum efficiency.

       The other cause for alarm is that al Qaeda likes to operate incrementally. It takes a lot of time planning a large attack that will have a global impact, and then hatches the plan at the most opportune moment. Although al Qaeda hasn’t lost its funding, structure, or leadership in recent years, it still hasn’t launched another attack on the United States. That’s good news, however, this could allude to another large-scale attack in the works, and potentially one that could again shake the world the same way 9/11 did. While the media is preoccupied with focusing on what ISIS inspired Islamists are doing in the European Union, al Qaeda is likely plotting against the United States once again.