Tracking Down
The Holy War

The attacks by Islamic extremists on the World Trade Centre and trains and buses in Madrid and London challenged the West.

How to react to an invisible enemy driven by the desire to destroy the West and replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic society? And how did it come to this?

Broadcasted byt DR, NRK, UR, YLE, Historie France

The Ideologue

The  attacks by Islamic extremists on the World Trade Centre and trains and buses in Madrid and London challenged the West. How were we to react to an invisible enemy driven by religious fanaticism and the desire to destroy the West and to replace it with a fundamentalist Islamic society based on the Koran and Sharia law? And how did it come to this?

The Warriors

Back in 1981 a group of Islamic extremists tried to topple the Egyptian government. They managed to kill President Anwar Sadat but there was no revolution. One of the key figures was Ayman Al Zawahiri. He would go on to meet the Saudi Arabian Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, and together they would start an organization of which the world had never seen the like: the Al Qaeda terror movement.

The Network

Although the US and Europe have dedicated vast resources to capturing terrorist leaders, terrorist groups are still capable of carrying out attacks. The “war on terror” may have weakened Al Qaeda and driven its leaders into hiding, but it has succeeded in transforming itself into a network which also embraces many young Muslims in the cities of Europe. Via satellite TV and the Internet they are being fed a massive message of Jihad. But although Al Qaeda has gotten better at recruiting and spreading its message via the Internet the movement is losing some of its momentum. As an instrument for overthrowing governments Al Qaeda’s holy war lacks something absolutely vital: popular support among ordinary Muslims.