Global Jihad: temi, piste di diffusione e il fenomeno del reducismo ...

part of a global conspiracy. The expectations from Bin Laden to launch further
attacks by al-Qa’ida, and on American soil, are enormous. The search for a new Salah
al-Din al-Ayyubi to confront the Crusaders is playing an important role for Arab
Islamists. Yet, the more interesting issue is the denial of such perceptions by Bin
Laden and al-Qa’ida. The denial might be first of all a result of the pure Wahhabi
nature of the Saudi element of the organization. Another reason could be the
personality of Bin Laden, who has not made so far any attempt to create around him
an image of an Islamic savior. The idea of al-Qa’ida is to establish solid solidarity of a
new generation, front, or movements, which are not dependent upon individuals or
miracles but on a united strategy and the hard work and the struggle of a
community.
The idea of the Mahdi has not died yet. Many books speculating on the Mahdi, and
precisely when he will emerge to deliver the Islamic community from its dire straits,
have been published in the Sunni Arab world in the last several decades, most of
them since 1979—the date not only of the Islamic Revolution in Iran but also of the
abortive attempt to overthrow the Saudi regime.
11. Jihadi Apocalyptic Discourse
In the past four years that followed the September 11 attacks, the collapse of the
Taliban in Afghanistan, the declaration of a global war against Jihadi terrorism, and
throughout the American occupation of Iraq on one hand, and the Jihadi Sunni
insurgency there on the other, there was a major development in apocalyptic Jihadi
discourse. Jihadi scholars and sympathizers were viewing the historic moment as
clear signs for the start of the process that would lead to the Day of Judgment or
Resurrection, with all the apocalyptic rituals that should precede it according to the
Islamic belief. The traditional Islamic terms of the Dulab—circle of a century between
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