ABSTRACT
In February 1998, radical Islamist signatories published a page long announcement in an Arabic language newspaper in London. The signatories included Sheikh Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Islamic Group and second in command in Al Qaeda, who would later replace bin Laden as leader upon his death. When viewed within a Muslim context, the 1998 declaration that announced Al Qaeda's declaration of war on Americans is even more radical than it first appears to the non-Muslim world. Viewing Al Qaeda as a radical apocalyptic group clarifies connections to other forms of ideological and religious terrorism, lending clarity to what seems at first to be a bewildering array of terrorist groups. As a dedicated believer in a radical apocalyptic system of thought, Osama bin Laden considered the suffering of oppressed Muslims in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to be evidence that the evil Crusading West rules the world.
