How much does Al-Qaeda have to do with religion?

How much does Al-Qaeda have to do with religion?

Jason Burke (Author) gives expert video advice on: What is Al-Qaeda?; What does Al-Qaeda want?; When was Al-Qaeda formed? and more...

Al-Qaeda formed part of a broader movement that can be termed modern Islamic radical militancy. Clearly, Islam the religion plays an enormously important role in that. When you talk to militants you can see they are men of a profound faith, they are men who see religion as an incredibly important part of the world, their world view they refer continue to religion. It is very much a part of how they live their lives and why they want to take the lives of others. When you look beyond that, as in all militant radical movements, you're into a world of causes, root causes, whether those be socio-economic, whether those be historical, whether those be cultural, an enormously complex area. What you can say is radical Islamic militancy is a phenomenon that has long reaching roots going back decades, centuries in the Islamic World and in the Islamic World's interaction with the West.