Al Zawahiri is gone, but…

Leaders around the world rejoice at the killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri due to its perceived impact on reducing terrorism and delivering justice due to Al Zawahiri’s key role in masterminding the tragic events of 9/11, amongst countless other terrorist attacks conducted around the world. I disagree this will significantly reduce terrorism as the answer lies not in a military solution but an ideological one. 

Ayman Al Zawahiri was born to an affluent family of medical professionals, and Zawahiri himself was a respected eye surgeon. In his teenage years, he first became introduced to radical Islamism. He joined a radical Islamist community in Egypt responsible for the assassination of the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1981, for which he was imprisoned. Upon his release from prison, he linked up with Osama Bin Laden as his second in command. In addition to masterminding the 9/11 attacks, Al Zawahiri also masterminded the 2000 USS Cole attack and bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which over 200 individuals were killed in 1998.

The cost of terrorism

The impact of terrorism is an amalgam of social and economic consequences. Added to the invaluable loss of life and public safety, terrorism has measurable economic costs: The 9/11 attack caused the US economy’s real GDP to shrink by 0.5% and the unemployment rate to go up by 0.11% – which translates to over half a million individuals now being rendered jobless. The terrorist attacks did not just limit the downturn in economic activity in 2001:  the forecast for the next year (2002) was downgraded to 1.2%, translating to a loss of national income of approximately half a trillion dollars. Moreover, the attack conducted on the US embassy in Kenya resulted in over 32% of US government personnel developing a post-disaster psychiatric disorder. 

Deep rooted ideology is the driver, not one particular leader…

How is it that someone from a moderate background, who is educated enough to use logical reasoning, is directly responsible for the insensitive killing of thousands of innocent civilians worldwide? Moreover, Al Zawahiri actively encouraged Muslims and those within his organization to wage jihad ‘against Jews and Crusaders’ by co-signing a fatwa to that effect. The answer lies in an intangible ideology that he was influenced by courtesy of Egyptian scholar Sayyid Qutb. (And is the reason why his killing, among that of many leaders, will most likely not hamper terrorism)

Sayyid Qutb was an Egyptian poet, critic, and theologian concerned with the societal ills in Egypt, which he attributed to a lack of righteousness. He believed that Egypt was in a state of ‘Jahiliyya’ (pre-Islamic ignorance), and political rulers who did not adhere to the principles of Islam were ‘kafirs’ (non-muslims). Moreover, Qutb proceeded to publish his book known as Milestones which advocated for violent means to overthrow governments and establish an Islamic state which would culminate with a form of ‘hakimiyya’ (Islam’s ideal political economy). He argued that a failure to undertake this jihad would result in the Muslims remaining in a state of ignorance and forever at the mercy of the west. Qutb’s work was so influential that terrorism expert Paul Berman dubbed Qutb “the intellectual hero of every one of the groups that eventually went into Al Qaeda, their Karl Marx (to put it that way).” In addition, Ayman Al Zawahiri described Qutb as the most “prominent theoretician of the fundamentalist movements” in his book Knights under the Prophet Muhammad’s Banner. 

Sayyid Qutb was executed in 1966, but the influence of his ideology remains prominent today, as evidenced by Al Zawahiri being provided a haven to conduct his terrorist activities. In addition, Qutb was cited in the recent Taliban ideology Paper “We cannot cure this situation by leaving our comprehensive religion to a separate sphere of worship only, whilst we derive the law from French legislation or the system of government from Western political theories.”

The need to rethink the war on terror

Considering that previous policies of conventional warfare to eliminate terrorism have not delivered its desired impact, there is a need to reassess the policy response.  Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, argues that ‘defeating this ideology and violence requires a strategy designed for the long term that understands that the violence will never be eliminated unless the ideology behind it is also broken. Tony Blair delivered this statement in 2018, and the urgency to act upon this is now greater than ever. 

Photo by Diego González on Unsplash