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The Algerian Terror Lesson

[Boston Globe] Editorial - The suicide bombings at UN headquarters and the Supreme Court building in Algiers this month were crimes against humanity. They also offered clues about the aims of al-Qaeda and true scope of the threat from fanaticized jihadists. The primary objective of al-Qaeda and likeminded groups is to overthrow Arab regimes they consider to be un-Islamic, such as the regime in Algeria. In the Algerian press, the bombings were seen as a sign that government efforts to co-opt violent Islamists by pardoning them have failed. There remains a lingering threat from small bands of radicals intoxicated by a fanciful vision of restoring the glory of a vanished Islamic caliphate around the world. Yet when Muslim communities experience what it would be like to live under the al-Qaeda version of a restored caliphate - as in Iraq's Anbar province - they recoil in horror.
2007-12-18 01:00:00
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