The role of religion in al-Qaeda’s violence

This chapter explores the role of religion in jihadist violence by applying recent insights from the field of religious studies to the case of al-Qaeda. Whereas religion is often perceived as an explanatory factor in al-Qaeda’s attacks, the chapter demonstrates that the meanings attributed to religion are dependent on particular historical and cultural contexts. As a result, the chapter argues, the concept of religion cannot be consistently separated from its alleged secular counterpart, which makes any distinction between religious violence and secular violence arbitrary. Moreover, in the case of al-Qaeda’s violence, alleged religious and secular factors appear to be strongly intertwined and cannot be separated consistently. Thus, the chapter argues, whereas particular beliefs, values and practices deemed ‘religious’ by the perpetrators may fuel jihadist violence in particular contexts, questions of whether religion, as an abstract category, causes or contributes to violence are inconsistent. Instead, it is more fruitful to explore why questions on the role of religion in al-Qaeda’s violence have been so prevalent over the last years. The chapter concludes that, for al-Qaeda, presenting the perceived conflict between Islam and the West as a religious conflict reconfirms and authorises the group’s self-definition and facilitates and legitimises its violence.