Uprisings challenge Al-Qaeda ideology

The Arab world’s recent uprisings present a serious challenge to Al-Qaeda ideology, demonstrating that regimes can be removed through means other than armed jihad and that the US will support the people – undermining a key tenet of Al-Qaeda’s ‘far enemy’ characterisation of the US. Analysts regard the death of Osama Bin Laden on 2 May as less significant. It was a shot in the arm for US President Barack Obama, but delivered little more than raw justice. Even the intelligence trove discovered at Bin Laden’s property in Abbottabad, Pakistan, appears to have lacked operational relevance and was fascinating only to Bin Laden gurus in the US counter-terrorism community.