What's in a Name?

Is al-Qaeda on offense, or are thugs in Africa just trading on terrorism's best-known brand?

By Fareed Zakaria Monday, Feb. 04, 2013
    • Illustration by Oliver Munday for TIME

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    The Algerian terrorist attack was supposedly a response to France's military intervention in Mali and a show of support for one of Belmoktar's associates, Iyad Ag Ghaly. Mali's terrorism is also worth understanding. Nine months ago, an Islamic group, Ansar Dine, seized control of the northern sections of Mali, where it has imposed Shari'a. The group is led by Ghaly, a larger-than-life figure who has spent many years fighting not for Islam but for the rights of his ethnic group, the Tuaregs. Throughout this period he tussled with the central government in Mali but also negotiated amicably with it. His takeover of the north came in response to a coup in Mali that replaced a democratic government with a harsh dictatorship. In addition, Mali's central state and army are in slow-motion collapse. Through it all, Ghaly has reportedly made millions through drug and weapon smuggling.

    What conclusions can we draw from all this? These groups are largely composed of local thugs with long-standing grievances that often have little to do with global jihad. Also, terrorism is good business for them. Their causes have lost support at home, so they have latched on to the al-Qaeda brand in the hope of enhancing their appeal--and, perhaps crucially, gaining greater global attention. (Keep in mind Osama bin Laden's words in 2004: "All that we have to do is to send two mujahedin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-qaeda in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses.") To elevate these thugs and smugglers to grand ideological foes is to play into their hands.

    TO READ MORE BY FAREED ZAKARIA, GO TO time.com/zakaria

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