이슬람국가(IS)와 알-카에다의 이념적 그리고 전략적 차이

Ideological and Strategic Difference between Islamic State and al-Qaeda

The ‘establishment’ of Khalifa system by Islamic State (IS) will generate long-term instability in the Middle East. IS is an Sunni extremist organization which has a clear difference with the conventional Jihadist groups like al-Qaeda. IS and other Islamist groups have a similar ultimate goal of building an Islamic state, but they have different strategies and methodologies. The major targets of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda is ‘far enemy,’ i.e., the West led by the US and Israel, IS has prioritize ‘near enemy’ rather than 'far enemy’ cleansing the Muslim community. While Al-Qaeda seeks a ‘defensive jihad’ to protect the Islamic world from the threat posed the West, IS has combined the ‘defensive’ with ‘offensive jihad.’ IS has resorted to a strategy of building Islamic state to remove non-Islamic elements in the Middle East. This study explores how much ideology and strategy between al-Qaeda and IS are different. Despite the fact that the two radical Islamist organizations have utilized the religion of Islam to justify their activities and atrocities, this research assumes that IS, which declared the establishment of Khalifa state, has more assertively put the emphasis on its territorial domination and governance than al-Qaeda did. In order to demonstrate the ideological and strategic difference between the two organizaton, this study analyzed the speeches made by the main leaders of the two groups, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Osama bin Laden. The texts in the speeches of the two leaders were analyzed through the KH Coder. The result of the analysis showed considerable differences in word usage and co-occurrence networks.