Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia - Essay Example

Consistent with this fact, the term ‘Al Qaeda’ was not Christened by Osama bin Laden; rather, it was the United States intelligence agency CIA that referred to the Islamic activists led by bin Laden in this manner in the mid-1990s. Al Qaeda, translated from Arabic, literally means a “foundation or precept’. The term Jemaah Islamiyah, a terrorist outfit that has its roots in Southeast Asia is translatable into “Islamic community” (Shuja, 2006, p.447). Hence, the employment of terrorism is not an intrinsic aspect of these organizations.

Terrorism is only a tactic that was adopted during the last decade or so, but there is nothing inevitable about it. This fact should be kept in mind by Australian security agencies, while drawing awareness campaigns and security measures, for far too often western intelligence tends to portray these Islamic groups to indulge in terrorist activities for terror’s sake. This is not true. The Jihadists’ objective is to defend their faith and their way of life, which they feel is threatened by the western cultural and military interventions in the Islamic world (and there is sufficient proof to support this assertion).

To understand how Al Qaeda gained support in Southeast Asia, it is important to gain cognisance of its founding principle, i.e. Al Qaeda was founded on universal Islamic precepts of jihad and brotherhood. And the present wave of Islamic revivalism and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Southeast Asia originated during the 1970s.