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STUDY GUIDE
FOR
THE AGE OF SACRED TERROR
By answering the following questions you will prepare yourself to write the research
paper which will be based, in part, your thorough understanding of this material. Note:
this is a Word document. To type in the response you will have to delete the lines.
PREFACE
1. Origin of the NSC: ______________________________________________________
2. The official job of the NSC: _______________________________________________
3. Job descriptions of Benjamin, Simon and Clark: _______________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. Why were Centrist and left-of-center institutions/publishers uninterested in publishing
this book: _____________________________________________________________
5. Why did Right-of-center institutions object to this book? _______________________
______________________________________________________________________
6. How did September 11 change the focus of the book? __________________________
______________________________________________________________________
7. What is the perspective of this book and why is knowing the perspective of the writers
important? ____________________________________________________________
8. What source materials is the book based on? _________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
9. What is the authors’ thesis? ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 1: “DAYBREAK”
1. What did jihad mean to El-Sayyid Nosair and his friends, and why do the authors
argue that he inaugurated the age of sacred terror? (5-7):
a. jihad: _______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2. Why did Ramzi Yousef desire to kill 250,000 people? ________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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3. What was Yousef’s understanding of jihad? _______________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. Why, after the publication of the fatwa, “Declaration of Jihad Against Jews and
Crusaders,” did the terrorists decide to rely on suicide attacks? _______________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
5. What four groups has bin Laden targeted for destruction: ____________________
______________________________________________________________________
6. Why did al-Qaeda target the Twin Towers for destruction? __________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 2: IBN TAYMIYYA AND HIS CHILDREN
1. Identify the two benefits of President Bush “politically correct” rhetoric in his
January 2002 State of the Union Address in which he stated that the terrorists
“are not imbued with the spirit of religion…they only claim to be?” (39)
a. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2. What was the supreme motivation of the terrorists according to the authors?
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. The authors say that to grasp the worldview of al-Qaeda and its leader, Usama
bin Laden, it is essential to start with the medieval Muslim theologian, ibn
Taymiyya. Explain his views on the following:
a. the Islamic scriptures: _________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. Islam’s Golden Age: __________________________________________________
c. The role of the clergy: ________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
d. The role of religion in the state: _________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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e. A ruler who did not enforce sharia or exhibit personal piety: ___________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
f. The definition and status of jihad: ________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
g. Two groups whom jihad should be used against: ____________________________
____________________________________________________________________
h. The significance of his expanded use of jihad: ______________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. What is the significance of Muhammad ibn al-Wahhab’s alliance with
Muhammad ibn Saud? _________________________________________________
5. How did the meaning of jihad change during the modern period? _____________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
6. What is the Muslim Brotherhood credo? __________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
7. Maududi transforming Islam into a revolutionary ideology in Pakistan by
expanding the definition of Islamic religion and jihad: “The religion ‘seeks to
alter the social order of the entire world and rebuild it in conformity with its own
tenets and ideals…. Jihad refers to the revolutionary struggle…to achieve this
objective.’” He formed _________________________________________________
8. Sayyid Qutb fused together the core elements of modern Islam. Define his
understanding of the following:
a. human government: ___________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. jihad: ______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. American culture: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
d. the existential choice before Muslims: ____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
e. salvation: ___________________________________________________________
f. Jews: ______________________________________________________________
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9. What is the lesson of Abdel Rahman’s (the Blind Sheikh) 1982 acquittal in a
Cairo courtroom? _____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
10. The one characteristic of Egyptian religious terrorism: _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
11. In light of the uprising at the Grand Mosque, explain why the end-of-the-world
motif meshes well with the deep pessimism and anger that permeates most of the
Islamic world. _______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
12. Describe the main threads that run through these apocalyptic visions of religious
violence:
a. America: ___________________________________________________________
b. a last battle: ________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
c. Historical time: _____________________________________________________
CHAPTER 3: THE WARRIOR PRINCE
1. Identify the formative event of Usama’s early twenties: ______________________
2. Bin Laden’s early view of jihad: __________________________________________
3. Bin Laden’s view of Saddam Hussein: ____________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. The effect on bin Laden on the arrival of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia:
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
5. What was the hallmark of al-Qaeda’s operations in Sudan? __________________
______________________________________________________________________
6. Explain how world events in the early 1990’s provided frequent and alarming
confirmation of a global plot against Muslims:
a. The Gulf War: _______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. the Madrid Peace Conference: __________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. the breakup of Yugoslavia beginning in 1991: ______________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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d. Events in Algeria in late 1991, the first Chechnyan war from 1994-1996, and the
conflict in Kosovo in the late 1990’s: _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
7. But set against this crisis was bin Laden’s belief about two things that are at the
heart of his thinking:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
8. Identify al-Qaeda’s priority as set forth in bin Laden’s 1998 fatwa, “Jihad
Against Jews and Crusaders” which preceded and justified the attacks on the
U.S. embassies in East Africa: ___________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
9. Explain how al-Qaeda interpreted the American appearance in the Horn of
Africa (Somalia) and their resetting of priorities: ___________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
10. What was Hezbollah’s aim concerning the U.S. and how did it differ from
al-Qaeda’s? _________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
11. What is the issue for al-Qaeda concerning the U.S.? ________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
12. What is Abu Hajar’s contribution to al-Qaeda’s strategy? __________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
13. What is the relation between Sunni and Shiite cooperation in terrorism (bin
Laden is Sunni)? _____________________________________________________
14. What is the significance of al-Qaeda’s attempts to procure unconventional arms?
_____________________________________________________________________
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CHAPTER 4: RAIDERS ON THE PATH TO GOD
1. A core tenet of al-Qaeda’s strategy: ______________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the following concepts that appear in bin Laden’s first fatwa, known as
“the Ladenese Epistle:
a. bin Laden’s prescription for the woes besetting Islam: ________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. the form of this action: ________________________________________________
c. the ghazis: ___________________________________________________________
3. Explain why the removal of American troops would/will not stop bin Laden’s
campaign against the U.S.: ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. Identify and explain the significance of bin Laden’s second fatwa, issued on
February 23, 1998:
a. the Arabian peninsula: _________________________________________________
b. Iraq: _______________________________________________________________
c. the Middle East: ______________________________________________________
d. the power of this statement: ____________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
5. Explain the innovation and significance of the two bombings (Nairobi and Dar es
Salaam) in two countries at once:
a. ____________________
b. ____________________
c. ____________________
d. scope: ______________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
6. What is the thought inherent in bin Laden’s statement that “we [Islamists]
concentrate on the following…the need to inflict the maximum casualties against
the opponent, for this is the language understood by the West. ________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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7. Explain the rationale and effect of two or more almost simultaneous terrorist
strikes favored by the theorists of the new terror. ___________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
8. To what extent do al-Qaeda’s actions reflect a strategy with intelligible goals and
methods. Is the group a rational actor? (156-161):
a. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. In the 911 and Cole attacks he tried to show the Muslim world that ______________
____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
9. Explain how for bin Laden 911 and its aftermath “was a moment that reversed
the course of time” (158). ________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
10. Explain how to al-Qaeda procuring a weapon of mass destruction is an act of
piety. _______________________________________________________________
11. What did the terrorist attacks of 911 mean to those who carried them out?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 5: FIELDS OF JIHAD
1. What advantage does al-Qaeda have as a “network of networks?” _____________
______________________________________________________________________
2. Contrast the position of the jihadists with the salafi fundametalists concerning the
time of holy war. ______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. What is the position of the jihadists concerning the “near enemy” and the “far
enemy”? _____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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4. Identify the four factors/reasons why the jihadists’ conviction that they may yet
vanquish the near enemy is not entirely delusional:
a. hearts and minds: _____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. Dar al-Islam Occupies Dar al-Harb: ______________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. Appearances deceive: __________________________________________________
d. Burgeoning socioeconomic problems: _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
6. What danger does the Muslim Brothers pose to Mubarak’s government? ______
______________________________________________________________________
7. What are the four basic Islamic arguments put forward that challenge the
legitimacy and competence of the Saudi royal family?
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
8. Explain this statement: “By satisfying the clerics’ insistence that they propagate
Wahhabism, the Saudi rulers buy their own political legitimacy at the cost of
stability elsewhere” (187). ______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
9. What is the nature of the threat posed by the salafis to the stability of Jordan and
the Hussein regime? ___________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
10. Explain the significance of the June 1967 war and why jihadists are ever more
eager to carry out attacks in Israel:
a. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
b. ___________________________________________________________________
11. Explain how the Hamas charter portrays the conflict in solidly religious terms?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
12. What threat does Hamas pose to Arafat’s fatah movement? _________________
_____________________________________________________________________
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13. What is the importance of Europe for the jihadists? (215) ___________________
_____________________________________________________________________
PART TWO: AMERICA
CHAPTER 6: A PARADIGM LOST
1. Describe the “unspoken consensus that has shaped American policy concerning
terrorism: (see 219) ____________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. What about terrorism began to change in the early 1990’s? ___________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. Define “paradigm” and the new paradigm that began to emerge in the 1990’s.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
4. Identify the major attacks that pushed terrorism up the ladder of foreign policy
priorities during the early years of the Clinton presidency:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
5. Describe the significance of the following:
a. the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of February 1995: ________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. PDD-39 (June 1995): __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 7: THE UNKNOWN WAR
1. What was so significant—and alarming—about the embassy bombings in Nairobi
and Dar es Salaam? ___________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. Explain how the issue of Pakistan’s involvement in Kashmir affected U.S.
demands regarding U.S. demands regarding al-Qaeda. ______________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
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3. Identify two unprecedented challenges that the intelligence community faced in its
attempt to “get bin Laden:”
a. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
4. Which federal agencies were the least troubled by the rise of al-Qaeda and
contributed little or nothing to the White Houses’ understanding of al-Qaeda?
______________________________________________________________________
5. The two greatest foreign policy traumas of Clinton’s first term: _______________
CHAPTER 8: THE SHOCK OF THE NEW
1. Contrast Condoleezza Rice’s foreign policy priorities with the outgoing Clinton
administration during the early months of the Bush administration: ___________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
2. Identify the two top foreign policy priorities of the Bush team’s first months of the
new administration:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
3. Identify the three initiatives that Clark wanted to push forward:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 9: A FAILURE OF INTELLIGENCE
1. The key question this chapter deals with is how a surprise attack of this
magnitude could occur to 280 million Americans living in the information age…”
(351). Identify the reasons for this intelligence failure:
a. The press ___________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. Congress ____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. The media (like Mary Ann Weaver and Dan Rather) believed __________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
e. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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2. Explain why the authors say that “the key date [for recognizing the threat of
jihadist terror before September 11) is not August 7, the day of the [Africa
embassy] bombings, but the twentieth, when the United States struck al-Qaeda
targets in Afghanistan and Sudan” (351). _________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. Explain why the press and the American public fail to take al-Qaeda seriously?
(373)
a. Insularity: ___________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. Cynicism and disbelief: ________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. Hostility to political institutions: _________________________________________
d. Culture of scandal: ____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. Explain the serious consequences of the press’ dismissal of the al-Shifa attack.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
5. The Bush administration chose not to raise public awareness of the danger; thus
there was virtually no public discussion of al-Qaeda by the national leadership
until after September 11. (382)
CHAPTER 10: HOW GREAT A FAILURE?
1. How great a failure was September 11?
a. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2. Explain the “impetus”—and how alien it is to our way of thinking—behind the
mass killing of September 11. ___________________________________________
PART THREE
AFTER AFGHANISTAN
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CHAPTER 11: TERROR AND STRATEGY
1. Identify reasons why the authors believe that America still does not view
September 11 as a watershed:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
e. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
f. ____________________________________________________________________
2. What is the message to the U.S. of the Suleiman Abu Ghaith’s post-Afghanistan
communiqué: _________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
3. Identify some possible consequences of a second, more spectacular and more
deadly attack, say in Manhattan:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
4. Identify two ways to limit the frequency and scale of surprise attacks:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
5. The authors identify four radical departures from the past that must be
understood as America gropes toward a reorientation to the challenge of the new
terrorism:
a. pre-emption not an option: ______________________________________________
b. deterrence not an option: _______________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
6. Identify three reasons why the U.S. is resented (407) and explain each one:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
7. Concerning al-Qaeda’s campaign against globalization, explain the following:
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a. the catalyst for this campaign (409): ______________________________________
b. the pattern of religious belief: ___________________________________________
c. the fundamental problem: ______________________________________________
d. the current challenge: __________________________________________________
8. Explain why voices more moderate than bin Laden’s are not necessarily more
appetizing to secular western taste (410): __________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
9. Though the West faces a serious threat that could last a generation, the U.S.
possesses several advantages in its struggle against the jihadists:
a. ____________________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________________
10. According to the authors, what are the features of a sustainable strategy against
the jihadists?
a. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
b. recognize important distinctions as follows:
(1) avoid putting Palestinian terrorism into the same rhetorical basket as jihadist
violence because most of our allies distinguish between Arafat and bin Laden
(2) Saddam Hussein is not bin Laden
c. cooperation on the political level
d. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
e. ___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
f. self-defense
g. convince Muslim populations that they can prosper without destroying the West
(418)
CHAPTER 12: A WORLD OF TERROR
1. What makes religious motivated violence/warfare different from other kinds of
warfare? _____________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Copyrighted 7/1/03: AFR
All rights reserved
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