Understanding the Concept of Terrorism in the Modern Era Reflected Through Examining the Lives of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri

Author: Heaeum Jaylan Cho

"In launching the war on terrorism with the attack of the Taliban in Afghanistan in March 2002, the rest of the world was inadvertently forced to choose sides in whether they would support this war which was seen as being rooted in the terrorism that the West had defined to justify the war. The view that the Muslim world is divided into two camps consisting of the majority who are moderate and thus peaceful in contrast to the minority of radical and militant jihadists such as Al Qaeda have set an absolutionist view on terrorism. However, the danger in classifying a broad and diverse Muslim world into dichotomous and juxtaposing poles is not only the fact that value judgments are being imposed, but that the grave mistake of basing decisions affecting the lives of many is at stake."