New Jihadism and Al-Qaeda's Approach towards it

The war for God''s sake is called jihad in Islamic texts. The new jihadists have opened a front against the West by selective use of verses from the Quran، despite the absolutely defensive nature of jihad in Islam. The main purpose of this article is to introduce what we call «new jihadism» - as a globalized phenomenon. The method of study and analysis is descriptive- analytical. The result is that new jihadism، represented by Al‐Qaeda، is Islamic violent extremists'' reaction to Western hegemony. The new jihadists consider this reaction as a way of achieving salvation and god’s satisfaction; and also they are caught in the illusion of victory over the West and creation of an imaginary Islamic alternative. Since new jihadists have been developed in the context of globalization it benefits from globalization''s means such as Information and Communication Technology. Transnational Al-Qaeda، as the symbol of globalized new jihadists، has become a trans-territorial decentralized threat. It could be said، after the death of Bin Laden that the jihadists who believe that the very existence of the West is a threat will continue to use decentralized violence to fight a foe which cannot be ignored.