Browsing by Subject "Osama Bin Laden"

This thesis descirebes violence by non-state actors as a struggle for recognition. It uses terrorist organization al-Qaida as en example. The goal is to scrutinize if moral questions arise as an important motive for the non-state actors to use violence. The concept of recognition was created by Hegel. The idea is that individuals desire recognition from each other. The one who is recognazied is a selfconcios subject, but those from whom the recognition is denied, are seen as objects. Reciprocity is an absolute condition for the recognition, because only self-concious subject can give meaningful recognition. Being recognized is more important than life. Reciprocal recognition enables collective consiousnes, through which individuals form conception about themselves as part of it. Later the concept of recognition was linked to the relations of societies and cultures. The idea is that recognition can be given or denied as a result of an ethnic or cultural background of an individual. Frantz Fanon problematized reciprocal recognition by suggesting that in a western society only white members of the society with western cultural background can achieve recognition. From this perspective, those who are subordinated by the western culture needs make themselves as subjects by breaking ranks against the western culture. In this struggle subordinates show their desire to be recognized as separate and different from the westerners. The desire stems from that they have observed that western culture is a racist one and subordinates them as a group. Reciprocal recognition becomes problematized in this context where it becomes impossible to recognize members from another group based on the qualities and values of that group. This thesis suggests that al-Qaida acts in this kind of context where centeral feature are relations between groups of humans. Those relations cannot be easily limited geographically or to interstate relations. Material for the research are letters by Osama bin Laden from 1994 to 1998. I analyze the letters from the perspective of the recognition. Through the concept I create a structure for the discourse so that the discourse could be portrayd as a struggle for recognition. The focus is in that how the own group is distinguished as a subject and the other as an object, and also how in this context violence becomes acceptable and even necessary. The discourse displayed in Bin Laden´s letters is portrayed as a struggle for the recognition. The method to analyze the letters is critical discourse analysis through which I try to portray the discourse in relation to the framework. At the discourse portrayed, muslims are one honorable and great nation, which is unjustly oppressed. Enemy for this subject are foremost the western nations, but the object is created especially through the hostility towards muslim leaders. However the muslim leaders are seen as minions and vassals of the west and they represent greedy and corrupted values and hostility towards muslims, which are attributes of the western societies. Western nations and muslim leaders together with the jews form a conspiracy to annihilate islam and to loot muslims and their lands. The violence is unavoidable in this context, because the conpirators that represent falsehood won´t retreat from their intentions. The muslims need to defend the truth and themselves against the attacking falsehood for the sake of the truth and for the sake of themselves. The discourse portrayed in the letters have parellels to earlier research about that how the struggle for the recognition builds up when the non-reconized becomes to demand recognition. The discourse actually don´t tell why the object is so hostile towards muslims and its hostility comes as given quality of the object. In this sense the discourse emphasizes the special role of the subject as a rationale for the demand of the recognition but it also emphasize the evilness of the object as a rationale why the subject is unrecognized. In this manner the discourse has especially parelles to the Fanon´s outlook about the difficultness of the reciprocal recognition between the groups and his outlook about the necessity of the violence between them. Moral arguments seem to have pivotal role in that how al-Qaida forms its motives to violence and how it generates support for its existence. Opression is foremost seen from the moral perspectives and economic and political oppression are results of moral corruption and wickidness of the object.