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Joachim Wach, concluded that "religious experience is a response to what is experienced as ultimate reality."² The use of the term, "ultimacy" or "ultimate concern," originated with theologian Paul Tillich and was used by Robert Baird to mean `a concern which is more important than anything else in the universe for the person involved." Baird's student, Catherine Wessinger, recognized the significance of ultimate concern to religious groups, in particular to millennial movements, which are oriented toward achieving a collective salvation on earth or in another existence. ³ Both Islam and Christianity began as millennial movements that expected God to establish his rule on earth. The sacred writings of Islam and Christianity assure the faithful that God will dispense ultimate justice at the end of one's life or at the end of history. In this paper I will apply the term, "ultimate reality," to Usamah bin Ladin's vision of God's rule, which he believes will be achieved when the Muslim nation (ummah) violently overthrows their unjust rulers, and a new Caliphate establishes Islamic rule under Islamic law, or sharia, on earth. Sometime between 1987 and 1989 in Afghanistan, bin Ladin founded an organization called Al Qa'ida dedicated to achieving this ultimate reality.

It is an axiom in religious studies that religion is not necessarily good. Religious doctrine, for example, may be self-consistent, but it may justify almost any behavior.⁴ According to Joachim Wach, religious experience is "the most intense experience" of which human beings are capable, and it "involves an imperative, a commitment which impels man to act."⁵ A religion can involve an imperative that compels its members to commit mayhem in order to achieve their intense vision of ultimate reality. In extreme cases, a millennial group may act as the hand of God in order to bring about their vision of ultimate reality, which they believe is inevitable, because it is ordained by God. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, were carried out by nineteen men who were intensely committed to acting as the hand of God, in order to hasten the establishment of Islamic rule. They executed a coordinated set of airplane hijackings and used the commercial jetliners as guided bombs to destroy their targets, which were chosen as much for their importance as symbols⁶ of American financial, governmental, and military power, as for their strategic importance. Approximately six thousand people were killed⁷ when three of the four teams of hijackers completed their suicide missions. The fourth team was overpowered by passengers and crashed in a field short of its target.

After the attacks, investigators found a document they called the "hijackers' letter" in the suitcase of Mohammad Atta, who is believed to have been the leader of the operation. A copy of this document was found in the belongings of a hijacker who was on the plane that hit the Pentagon. Miraculously, a charred copy of the same document was found in the debris of Flight 93-the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania. The hijackers' letter is actually a list of imperatives or orders that tell the hijackers how to comport themselves at each step of their operation. They are told to read certain parts of the Qur'an the night before,⁸ to bless their equipment, to pray without moving their lips and incurring suspicion, to dress in a certain way, etc. Each step along the way they were to pray for "victory, control, and conquest." According to the document the hijackers have no choice but to carry out the final stage of a suicidal plan that they had volunteered for at least a year earlier, because Allah obligates their compliance. They are instructed that if "God decrees that any of you are to slaughter...do not cause the discomfort of those you are killing, because this is one of the practices of the prophet, peace be upon him." And if their commitment to kill should waver at the last minute, the text adds, "that would be treason, and would do more damage than good...because the deed is an obligation and [distraction] is optional. And an obligation has priority over an option."⁹

The words about compassionate slaughter are taken from the ahadith (sayings) of the Prophet (Praised Be His Name) and were meant to apply to the slaughter of animals or the execution of criminals, much as we use lethal injection instead of hanging as a capital punishment. The words about "treason" and the obligation to do the deed are taken from the "religion" of bin Ladin, which has set forth its own unique interpretation of the words of Allah (qur'an) and the practice (sunnah) and sayings (ahadith) of the Prophet (Praised Be His Name).¹⁰

These nineteen educated young men committed acts of terrorism as a means of accomplishing the ultimate reality envisioned by Abdullah Azzam, an itinerant Palestinian theologian. Azzam taught his students that it was the "clear responsibility of each and every Muslim" to struggle to achieve "a single goal, namely the establishment of Allah's Rule [the Kalifah] on earth."¹¹ Azzam's ideas inspired Usamah bin Ladin, a wealthy Saudi, who helped his teacher recruit and train Arab mujahidin (`the ones who struggle' or wage jihad) to fight the Soviets in the Afghan war. Azzam taught that the war would be won by "Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues."¹²

In 1984 Azzam and bin Ladin set up an Office of Services (Makhtab al Khadimat)¹³ that recruited and trained thousands of mujahidin from many Muslim countries.¹⁴ Among them were members of revolutionary groups from Egypt who urged bin Ladin to finance a wider struggle to overthrow corrupt regimes throughout the Muslim world. The Egyptians quarreled with Azzam, who was killed by a car bomb in 1989, but bin Ladin had already joined them to found Al Qa'ida, which means `The Base' in Arabic. Under bin Ladin's leadership as emir, Al Qa'ida continues to finance and train mujahidin in weapons and operations against Muslim governments throughout the world.¹⁵ It is run by a consultative council (shura al-majlis) that includes Bin Ladin's two Egyptian aides, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammad Atef, who may have masterminded the the September 11 attacks. Al Qa'ida's current mission is to establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by supporting the revolutionary operations of its allied groups. The Caliphate is envisioned as a self-sufficient Islamic utopia that lives according to Islamic law.¹⁶ The jihadist members of Al Qa'ida believe they are the followers of Truth who will win the armed struggle against the followers of Falsehood, which is also described as a war between "amendment" [purification] and "corruption" in the writings of Abdullah Azzam.¹⁷ Al Qa'ida has issued legal opinions (fatwas) that tell Muslims it is their duty to kill Americans and Jews because they have invaded the sacred spaces of the Arabian peninsula and Jerusalem. Fatwas are legal opinions that are usually issued by credentialed legal scholars or heads of state about questions that arise in the Muslim community (ummah). Referring to the American military presence in Saudi Arabia, five leaders of Al Qa'ida issued an unconventional fatwa on February 23, 1998, that states,

The Arabian Peninsula has never-since God made it flat, created

its desert, and encircled it with seas-been stormed by any forces like

the crusader armies [sic] spreading in it like locusts...for over seven

years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the

holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating

to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning

its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the

neighboring Muslim peoples.¹⁸

The fatwa calls on "every Muslim who believes in God and hopes for reward to obey God's command to kill the Americans and plunder their possessions wherever he finds them and wherever he can."¹⁹ The jihadists are certain that in spite of America's technological superiority and wealth, the followers of Truth will inevitably prevail, because even if the "followers of Falsehood apparently defeat them....the final conquest is for the believers even if it is delayed for a while" [emphasis added].²⁰ It is clear from the writings of Abdullah Azzam that the jihad he envisioned was as much a cosmic battle against apostasy as a political one against corrupt regimes.

Mohammad Atta and his 18 companions were intensely committed to the ultimate goal of purifying the followers of Islam, as they defined them. They were carrying out a decree from Allah in a ritualized fashion in order to establish a new world order, and they accomplished this religious task through the power of prayer and through what they called "compassionate" slaughter. In the worldview of the hijackers and their fellow members of the Al Qa'ida jihadist network, this was an act of shahada, which means `martyrdom', the ultimate testimony to Truth; in their view, it was not terrorism. In their minds the real terrorists were symbolically represented by their 6,000 victims, who had sinfully supported "crusaders," i.e., American soldiers and clients who had trespassed on the holiest spaces in the world. Nothing could have motivated these young men to commit such heinous acts except religion. Their "martyrdom" ensured them a place in heaven with other exemplary heroes of the faith, and they believed they would be revered as exemplary heroes on earth after their death.

There is a worldwide debate being waged in the media, schools, and councils of government concerning whether the jihadist movement sheltered under the umbrella of Al Qa'ida is or is not Islam. Some argue that it is a type of Wahhabism, the puritanical branch of Sunni Islam adopted by the Saudi rulers and practiced in bin Ladin's birthplace. If that is so, bin Ladin's brand of Wahhabism is unorthodox, because he was expelled from Arabia in April, 1994, for seditious statements, and he reputedly has close ties with Shiite organizations sponsored by Iran. The Wahhabis historically persecuted the Shi'ites because they worshipped at tombs of their saints and did not adhere to Abd al-Wahhab's radical interpretation of monotheism. In addition, al-Wahhab equated "Arab" with "Islam," while bin Ladin has spent his wealth in support of Sudanese, Chechnyans, and, of course, the Pushtun Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. Others trace bin Ladin's doctrines back to the strict fourteenth-century reformer, Ibn Taymiyya, who, in turn, influenced Abd al-Wahhab. It is true that Ibn Taymiyya, al-Wahhab, and the jihadists all believed that the purest form of Islam was found in the seventh-century community of the Prophet and his Companions in Madinah, but that is where any anti-corruption doctrine would find its inspiration-in the hagiographic tradition of the founders' community. There are Muslims who preach the message of Al Qa'ida in mosques and classrooms around the globe, including, until recently, in America. Conversely there are Muslims who vehemently claim that the jihadist creed of bin Ladin is a perversion of Islam. Jihad means `struggle', and in the Qur'an it frequently refers to the armed struggle waged by the Prophet and his early successors, the Rightly-Guided Caliphs. Strengthened by religious commitment to extend a relatively enlightened rule among all peoples, Muslim armies defeated superior foes, in part, by accepting greater casualties with equanimity. The stories of heroes who were disciplined in battle and compassionate in victory have inspired subsequent Islamic revitalization movements. Does the religion of bin Ladin belong to this tradition of ascetic renewal, or is it some kind of innovation, and, if so, what kind?

I believe that the religion of bin Ladin has more in common with movements that arise out of a "cultic milieu," which is a parallel religious tradition of disparaged and deviant interpretations and practices that challenge the authority of prevailing religions with rival claims to truth. These upstart movements are dynamic and novel, but usually short-lived. They adhere to an alternative theology that they regard as more authoritative than the laws, rituals, and interpretations that define their parent religions.

The analytic concept of the "cultic milieu" was proposed by Colin Campbell, who called it an ideological underground. Michael Barkun defines the cultic milieu as "the domain of rejected and stigmatized knowledge" that exists alongside the conventional institutions of learning in society.²¹ The cultic milieu is the dynamic seedbed of novel interpretations of sacred matters out of which new religious communities take shape. The great majority of new groups are benign. A significant number are ridiculed, some are persecuted; only a small number mutate into organizations such as Al Qa'ida that justify violence as a theological imperative. It is these violent groups that we try to identify, understand, and assess. Jean-Francois Mayer, has called them "spectacular" religions, because their members have committed shocking acts of suicide and homicide.²²

Contemporary "spectacular" religious movements include Jonestown, the Order of the Solar Temple, Heaven's Gate, The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth). They appeared in the United States, Switzerland, France, Uganda, and Japan. They borrowed from diverse religions, including: Protestant and Catholic Christianity, communist ideology, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Each group shared its cultic milieu with other stigmatized groups. The majority of other groups in the same cultic milieu did not embrace violence.

In the United States, for example, the cultic milieu of apocalyptic Christianity includes a number of disparate communities, some of whom have founded separate communities, stockpiled food and weapons, and are waiting for Armageddon, their myth of the final war between God and Satan. One these groups underwent a rapid change after the leader introduced a bible-based doctrine that justified holy war, declared himself a king, and trained new members to commit murder. At this critical turning point, the group adopted a new name that identified it as the "The Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord." After a standoff with police, the leaders surrendered, but were acquitted of most charges and served only moderate sentences. Like Al-Qa'ida, CSA's narrow and novel interpretation of sacred word obligated members to strike against those it deemed impure and corrupted.²³

The parent religion of Al Qa'ida, founded by Usamah bin Ladin, is Sunni Islam.²⁴ The core tenet of Al Qa'ida is jihad as `armed struggle on behalf of the entire Muslim nation of 1.2 billion souls. It is the deviant interpretation of jihad as an obligation to kill unbelievers that sets the Al Qa'ida movement apart from its parent religion. Al Qa'ida may also be located within a cultic milieu that originated in post-colonial Egypt in 1928, when devout Muslims reacted against secular Western influences by forming the broad-based Muslim Brotherhood. After a harsh suppression by the secular regime of Gamal Abdul Nasser, a radical wing of the Brotherhood, inspired by the movement's martyrs and the writings of Sayyid Qutb,²⁵ split off to form secretive groups devoted to armed struggle against the state. Members of Egyptian Jihad assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981, as well as other high officials.²⁶ A splinter of Jihad called the Vanguards of Conquest are believed to have killed tourists at Luxor in 1997.²⁷ The Islamic Group (al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya) was founded by Sheikh Umar Abd-al Rahman, the leader of an Al Qa'ida cell in New York that carried out the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and plotted a number of other terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad. After the Egyptian government declared a covert war on the jihadists in October, 1990, they intensified their violent acts and spread out abroad to foment new operations against the United States, a symbol of Western power.²⁸

Bin Ladin's religion of jihad conforms to a religious "genotype" that could conceivably arise from the cultic milieu in any society. By legitimizing violence and terror as a theological imperative, jihadism shares defining features with similar movements in other cultures. The genotype of Al-Qa'ida is what Catherine Wessinger and Michael Barkun call "revolutionary millennialism."²⁹ Revolutionary millennialists believe that violence "is the means to become liberated from their persecutors and to set up the righteous government and society," and notes that such movements "have caused death and suffering on a massive scale."³⁰ I would also add that revolutionary millennialist movements that obligate members to act as the hand of God to achieve their ultimate reality believe they are part of an ordained plan that ensures their victory even against seemingly impossible odds. Revolutionary millennialist movements are often open to innovation and tend to have a relatively fluid structure. Occasionally a millennial movement will give rise to a messianic leader who is gifted with words that resonate with the grievances and humiliations suffered by a disparaged population. A messiah is a messenger, a type of prophet who communicates a coherent vision of ultimate reality and the prescribed means of achieving it. He is human, but he communicates an ultimate vision of a utopian transformation that can be achieved either by peaceful or violent means. Messiahs are associated with messages of the ultimate transformation of a tired and corrupt world into a renewed and just reign. They proclaim a new world order and they can arise out of almost any cultic milieu or religion. ³¹

I consider a revolutionary millennial movement that is led by a messiah who obligates followers to commit suicide and murder in order to establish a universal rule to be the most dangerous type of revitalization movement. When the movement legitimates violence as the sole means of achieving its ultimate reality, it poses a major threat to outsiders and perceived enemies. What we see in the Al Qa'ida data is a revolutionary millennial movement that obligates its members to die and kill to achieve an ultimate reality based on a nostalgic, romanticized version of the early Caliphate. The religion of bin Ladin teaches that defeat in battle will be reversed in a final victory and death is eternal bliss. Like other messianic transformative creeds, the jihadists believe that their deeds and words have an efficacious, or magical, power that exceeds the technological superiority of their enemies. They believe that they will win the final battle because they are prepared to die until they do, no matter how long it takes. The greatest fear of such a movement is that it will fail to recruit new members in sufficient numbers to carry out its violent acts. Ian Reader and Jacqueline Stone have studied Japanese millennial movements that turned to terror when they failed to meet their expectations of growth.³² We see in the Egyptian jihadists a similar response to their harsh persecution and failure to meet their expectations in Egypt by intensifying their violent acts and spreading their jihad to Central Asia, North Africa, Europe, and the United States. Such groups can be more dangerous as they weaken, not less. ³³

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