Overview 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. 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
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
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
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
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
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
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 1 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 7 of 7