Al-Qaeda and Its Involvement
These images dealing with al-Qaeda specifically represent the start of the War on Terror. They show the attack on the twin towers and people that were part of this group. However, now these images represent much more than just al-Qaeda, they are common symbols of all the 'war on terror's'.
...“dispersed” al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists have set up shop in many grimmer countries, where they call for recruits from the West.... “following a number of cases where we think people might be inclined to acts of terrorism.”....citizens have recently been implicated in deadly terrorist attacks against civilians overseas, spawning global concerns about whether federal security agencies know enough about extremists from this country......Yet this “core” al-Qaeda has now been reduced to a shadow of its former self. And the affiliates are picking up the slack, getting past their regional grievances to communicate with each other and plot unpredictable carnage." |
"But in some ways, what's happening in Mali reminds experts of events in another little-known, faraway land in the latter half of the 1990s: Afghanistan. Back then, a fledgling al-Qaeda, though already a known threat, was using remote terrain to train a generation of elite terrorist fighters. The threat of those fighters was that once trained, they were disappearing to await plans and opportunities to strike at the hated West."
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Both quotes discuss al-Qaeda's rivalry against the west. This is a bit ironic considering they are trying to recruit domestic terrorists from the West. The quotes express al-Qaeda's growth and threats, as can also be seen in the political cartoons below.
Both of the political cartoons above express al-Qaeda in the common ways that al-Qaeda is usually depicted, whether the medium is written or visual. These cartoons depict the conventional wisdom that al-Qaeda is a growing organization, and they also use al-Qaeda as a symbol for terrorism as a whole. They depict the typical image of a terrorist, with a long beard and a turban, which only reinforces the public's opinion of who terrorists are. This image is used even though domestic Western terrorists do exist, as shown in the article about Domestic Terrorism in Canada which is linked above.
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By telling a story about a local family, this video states the current situation of Mali. After France intervened in Mali, the troops of al-Qaeda began to leave and the local peoples lives went back to normal. However, they are still facing a threat as al-Qaeda spreads and gets bigger. This video shows how the term al-Qaeda has become more of a symbol of terrorism rather than representing the organization itself.
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Although all of these sources show al-Qaeda through different forms of media, whether it be video, art, or a news article, they all express the same central ideas about terrorism and al-Qaeda's involvement. Terrorism as a whole is not only caused by al-Qaeda, but people and organizations all over the world. However, al-Qaeda has grown to become a sort of symbol of terrorism and an organization that is growing. Writers and artists use these aspects of al-Qaeda and the typical image of a al-Qaeda terrorist as discussed above when discussing terrorism in general. It is used because Westerners can relate to terrorism better when al-Qaeda is used by the author or artist.