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dc.contributor.authorBartolo, Romain
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-29T16:29:04Z
dc.date.available2014-10-29T16:29:04Z
dc.date.issued2011-05-18
dc.identifier.citationBartolo, R. (2011). Decentralised leadership in contemporary jihadism: towards a global social movement. Journal of Terrorism Research, 2(1), pp. 44-61.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2049-7040en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/jtr/article/view/173en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10023/5606
dc.description.abstractOn October 19th 2003, nearly six months after the outset of the invasion of Iraq by US troops, a video was released by al-Qaeda media arm al-Sahab showing Osama bin Laden directly threatening Spain. In his words, Spain, then governed by Prime Minister José Maria Aznar from the Partido Popular (PP), may face a terrorist attack should Spanish military forces continue to be part of the coalition that invaded Iraq[1] and toppled the Saddam Hussein regime. Less than six months later, on March 11th 2004, Madrid was shaken by coordinated bomb attacks in several commuter trains at peak hours, killing 191 people and wounding thousands. The “first well-known al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist conspiracy in Europe”[2] had been in preparation for years thanks to the long-term presence of radical Islamists on Spanish soil. The first jihadist bombing on this continent since 9/11[3] seemed to have answered Osama bin Laden’s warning call. Those who later claimed responsibility for these attacks pointed out Iraq as their main source of motivation. Symbolically the bombings were carried out a few days before the first anniversary of Iraq’s invasion. On the national scene, because “terrorism is meant to terrify”[4] and affect an audience, terrorists clearly intended to affect the outcome of the national general elections scheduled three days later. The Madrid terrorists were not self-starters, nor were they members of al-Qaeda who had performed an oath of allegiance to bin Laden. Instead, they were mostly first-generation immigrants from Northern Africa or the Near East who had been settled in Spain for years, had decent jobs and for some of them wives and children[5]. The setting up of the Madrid bombings was an illustration of the rising context of the contemporary jihadist movement, targeting a country and blaming it for what was happening thousands of kilometres away. This example is highly valuable to describe the continuously evolving nature of the jihadist movement up to now.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherCentre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrewsen_US
dc.relation.ispartofJournal of Terrorism Researchen_US
dc.rightsThis is an open access article published in Journal of Terrorism Research. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)en_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
dc.subjectJihadismen_US
dc.subject.lccHV6431en_US
dc.subject.lcshTerrorismen_US
dc.titleDecentralised leadership in contemporary jihadism: towards a global social movementen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.description.versionPublisher PDFen_US
dc.publicationstatusPublisheden_US
dc.statusPeer revieweden_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.173en


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This is an open access article published in Journal of Terrorism Research. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Except where otherwise noted within the work, this item's licence for re-use is described as This is an open access article published in Journal of Terrorism Research. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)