News reporters and scholars have misinformed US citizens of Al-Qaeda’s origins in promoting a War on Terror agenda. Ultimately, key concepts and strategies were adopted to preserve support for a translational jihad cause. Accurately portraying the development of Al-Qaeda can improve our understanding of how other jihad groups function and what measures should be taken to address the potential threat.
Using misconceptions and falsehoods about Al-Qaeda to generate fear and distrust is a similar approach used by President Trump on border security. In reflecting on both Al-Qaeda’s and MS-13’s development, this will show how mendacity has justified military action.
A War on Terror agenda has convinced most citizens that the Taliban and other Middle Eastern organizations have always targeted the United States. In reality, the origins of “jihadism” can be traced back to Qutb, and their quest of fighting the near enemy. While Western commentators focused on portraying him as a philosopher of terror, as Fawaz A. George, author of “The Rise and Fall of Al-Qaeda” writes, “the militant Islamist movement known as ‘jihadism’ was inward looking, obsessed with replacing “renegade” secular Muslim rulers with Qur’anic-based states or states governed by the sharia”. His bottom-up approach was aimed to motivate Muslims to fight off Western intrusion and cultural invasion. Although bin Laden claimed to trace his movement back to Qutb, he never endorsed a war on United States or Britain.
In portraying Qutb as the leader for anti-United States sentiments, it distorts the truth while advancing the interest of military organizations. The distortion of origins is also evident with MS-13 and how we are letting “bad hombres” cross our borders.
Since the Clinton Administration, we have seen an anti-illegal immigrant rhetoric which distorts the origins of undocumented immigrants. In 1980, MS13 originated in Los Angeles, CA, from a group of Salvadorian refugees who had difficulty integrating into society.
Recently escaping from the Civil War, the gang violence and danger within Los Angeles motivated Salvadorians to form their own cohesive group for security . The formation of MS13 was one of survival, as most members joined with a sense of purpose. Gang violence and lack of opportunities created MS13, they did not form outside of the border with the plan of undermining the United States. President Trump still argued in his State of the Union address how they’re invading the border; quoted in the New York Times, he says, “Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13 and other criminal gangs to break into our country”.
His contention that this gang is invading this country undermines the historical truth, that they formed in Los Angeles. The standard narrative overlooking ideological differences and misconstruing the truth is also evident in seeing how experts contended that it was cohesive agreement to attack the United States.
Many reporters tried to construe the attacks of September 11 with historical implications of hatred towards United States. Yaroslav Trofimov wrote extensively on how al-Qaeda’s origins are traced to Seige in Mecca back in 1979. George writes that while superficially convincing, “there exists no hard evidence for bin Laden entertaining or expressing anti-United States sentiments before 1990-91”. As reporters tried to make sense of the 9/11 attack, they decided to construct a narrative to better understand the cause of the attack. The stationing of troops in Saudi Arabia could more clearly bridge a connection between bin Laden and distrust towards the West. Bin Laden’s distrust towards the West stems from the fundamental conspiracy that the United States military bases would dominate Muslim lands.
President Trump shared this proclivity with Bin Laden in constructing a conspiracy to advancing his agenda against foreigners. However, misconstruing MS13 as an invading terrorist organization, which requires additional deportation, has proven to be detrimental in creating instability across Latinx communities.
In failing to understand the systemic reasons for MS13, deportation has further strengthened the organization. Reported in the New York Times, a zero-tolerance approach can be traced back to the Clinton Administration, “the enactment of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, deporting thousands of foreign-born residents convicted of crimes”. The deportations allowed the gangs to spread throughout Central America, with less effective law enforcement mobilizing the organization.
Instead of addressing the issue at home, the United States government is responsible for turning MS13 into a transnational organization. Unfortunately, a similar inaccurate framing of the Taliban, through a War on Terror lens, led us to attack Afghanistan and suppress their “cohesive transnational jihadist efforts”.
Understanding how “experts” and news stations have misconstrued transnational terrorist organization is important to finding a solution for national security. Misconstruing MS13 as an invading terrorist organization has resulted in further alienating communities and deporting members into more unstable environments. In 2009, most United States citizens reported disapproval of engaging in the Afghanistan war.
Recognizing how we misinterpreted most jihadist organizations as all sharing Al-Qaeda tendencies, we should not continue this pattern with our undocumented immigrants. We must recognize the historical development of MS13 within the United States. Analyzing their situation as marginalized communities in need of educational, housing and employment infrastructure. In progressing as a society, we cannot allow mendacity to further justify our military actions.