ABSTRACT
In September 2001 a group of Islamist militants launched a concerted attack on targets in New York and Washington. The perpetrators of these actions were associates of an organization named al-Qa’ida, literally ‘The Base’ or ‘The Foundation’. As was made clear from statements issued before and after September 11, this organization espoused a brand of radical Sunni fundamentalism, loosely known as salafi, or ‘ancestral’. In addition to denouncing the west and the munafiq, ‘hypocrite’, Arab regimes allied to the west, it also espoused, and practised, a form of religious transnationalism [Ruthven, 2002]. Its espousal took the form of calling for the unity of the Muslim community, or umma, in a fight, jihâd, against the west, particularly Americans and Jews, and of declaring its backing for a number of distinct struggles in which Muslims were involved: Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, but also Bosnia, Chechnya, Sinkiang, the Moro islands of Philippines.
