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Who Is Al-Shabaab?

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Who Is Al-Shabaab?
Who is Al-Shabaab?

Darryl Everett

Excelsior College

Who is Al-Shabaab? The creation of life, the desire to remain plentiful and enjoying the fruits of the Fertile Crescent has caused wars due to rightful inheritance. This may sound like gibberish, but the Fertile Crescent area is also known as the cradle of civilization and has a history of being the birthplace of man; as well as, it is the home to many religions. Many of these habitants of this region have been involved in crusades or religious wars due to disagreement and rights of land to which each feel they are entitled to. This area has a great amount of people that practice the Islamic religion, but there are a few that are more extreme and violent in their fight for cause the Jihad. The word Jihad or striving in the way of God is looked at as a duty and one of the main seekers of this group is the Al- Qaeda. This group has spread its ideas and views far across the globe and when speaking of Somalia, Africa, the group Al- Shabaab stands out. Who is Al- Shabaab? In 1988, Usama Bin Ladin headed a group of Arabs that fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. The goal of this group, which is now known as Al-Qa’ida, is to unite the Muslim world and over throw the Western world with the United States being a main target. This group’s ideology of jihad has the belief that it is a religious duty to kill anyone involved or is in adherence with the United States (Blin, 2007). On September 11, 2001, Al-Qa’ida committed a major act of terrorism by hijacking airline planes and crashing them into the twin towers in New York City. The ideas and beliefs of the Al- Qa’ida have stretched the world internationally. Their activities have been labeled extreme; as well as, other groups have viewed and deemed their ideas admirable. The United States, and other world powers, has titled Al- Qa’ida and its followers as being a terrorist group. Terrorist by definition are



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