Consider this answer to the question as to why a group of young Muslims flew two hijacked aircraft into New York's twin towers on September 11 2001: "Al-Qaeda is unhappy with America and other countries getting involved in places like the Middle East. People linked to al-Qaeda have used violence to make this point in the USA, and in other countries."
There you have it. Those of us who thought that the perpetrators of the attacks on America were driven by a pernicious ideology rooted in a twisted version of Islam should think again. We should put to one side al-Qaeda's oft-stated ambition to create a new caliphate in which individual liberties are suppressed, women are repressed and non-believers, or kuffars, can be killed without qualm.
