All Jihads Are Not Created Equal: What al-Qaeda and the Sadrist Movements Teach Us About Radical Islamist Threats Against the United States

Author: Michelle Alisa Nellett

“This paper illustrates the ideological point of difference through case studies of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda social movement and Moqtada al-Sadr’s Sadrist movement. While both have used the Islamic principle of jihad to mount battles against the United States, al-Qaeda follows an eschatological ideology intended to “achieve a new future world order while willfully wrecking the present,” an ideal of establishing a pan-Islamic caliphate that has sparked deadly attacks by Muslims officially affiliated with--and merely inspired by--the cause. The Sadrist movement and its militia, the Mahdi Army, have followed a nationalist ideology in which insurgency and terrorist tactics are tools to realize national political leadership and freedom from occupation. After positioning both jihads in historical context, this paper examines the roles ideology and political ambitions have played in the evolution of both movements into violent insurgencies.”