286 CHAPTER EigHT ■ War and Strife
Much recent terrorist activity has its roots in the Middle East—in the ongoing quest
of Palestinian Arabs for self- determination and their own internal conflicts over strat-
egy, in the hostility among vari ous Islamic groups toward Western forces and ideas (in
par tic u lar, what they perceive as Western support of Israel’s persecution of Palestinian
Arabs and the education and in de pen dence of women), and in the resurgence of extrem-
ist Islamic fundamentalism. Among terrorist groups with roots in the Middle East are
Hamas, Hez bollah, and Palestine Islamic Jihad. After September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda
was the most publicized of these groups. A shadowy network of extremist Islamic fun-
damentalists from many countries, including some outside the Middle East, Al Qaeda,
led by the late Osama bin Laden, is motivated by the desire to install strict Islamic
regimes in the Middle East, support radical Islamic insurgencies in Southeast Asia,
and punish the United States for its support of Israel. When the United States and its
allies began to seriously hurt Al Qaeda—as they did from 2009 to 2012— its leader-
ship adapted by dispersing and forming new affiliates, such as Al Qaeda in Iraq and Al
Qaeda in Yemen. But support for Al Qaeda has now diminished.
In its stead, as Chapter 5 explains, the Islamic State has emerged, with its roots in the
1979 Iran Shiite revolution and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That invasion by the U.S.
i n January 2015, a young Jordanian fighter pi lot named Muath Safi Yousef al- Kasasbeh was
burned alive by the islamic State after having been captured in Syria. His execution was
videotaped by the iS and distributed on the internet via a Twitter account. Al- Kasasbeh’s
execution provoked outrage in Jordan and worldwide.