History: Founded in 1988 by bin Laden and other Arab volunteers who fought against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. Meaning “The Base”, or “The Foundation” in Arabic, Al-Qaeda is a militant Sunni Islamist terrorist group. The organization is responsible for terrorist attacks in numerous countries, most famous being the September 11 attacks. With the loss of key leaders, including the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of US Navy SEAL Team Six in 2011, al-Qaeda’s operations have devolved from highly planned and controlled attacks to actions of smaller groups or lone-wolf operators.

Ideology: Members of al-Qaeda belong to the ideology Salafi jihadism, which believes:

• The Christian-Jewish alliance of Western Civilization is conspiring to destroy Islam

• The killing of non-combatant non-Muslims is religiously sanctioned

• Man-made laws must be replaced with a strict form of Islamist sharia law

• Liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis, and other sects are heretics, and therefore able to be despite prohibitions of killing other Muslims

• “True Islamist states” must be established in the Muslim world, consisting of countries implementing sharia law and removing all non-Muslim influences