IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rfiaxx/v22y2024i1p108-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Know Your Enemy: Understanding the Worldview and Motives of Osama Bin Laden and the Jihadist Movement He Inspired

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas M. Johnston

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to recall what motivated bin Laden to risk his life, his family, his fortune, and his reputation in confronting the military might of the United States in order to (1) rid the Muslim world of the U.S. presence, (2) overthrow repressive, apostate Muslim regimes not governed by Sharia law, and (3) destroy the state of Israel. The point of understanding bin Laden’s motives is not to excuse any aspect of the barbarous acts he committed, but rather to capture as fully as possible the magnitude of the threat he posed and that which al Qaeda and similar groups, buttressed by his martyrdom, continue to pose.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas M. Johnston, 2024. "Know Your Enemy: Understanding the Worldview and Motives of Osama Bin Laden and the Jihadist Movement He Inspired," The Review of Faith & International Affairs, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(1), pages 108-115, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rfiaxx:v:22:y:2024:i:1:p:108-115
    DOI: 10.1080/15570274.2024.2303279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15570274.2024.2303279
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/15570274.2024.2303279?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rfiaxx:v:22:y:2024:i:1:p:108-115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rfia20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.