| The collapse of the Soviet Union on December 31st , 1991 after an announcement by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev brought an end to the Cold War. Undoubtedly, the entire world heaved a sigh of relief because the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was, indeed a threat to world peace and stability. However, since the end of the Cold War, global peace is once more threatened by the growth of a new and particularly dangerous clash. This clash has claimed thousands of lives and is still claiming more. This is the clash between some Western nations notably the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Islamic extremist organizations like the Armed Islamic Group and Al Qaeda.;Saudi-born Osama Bin Laden, with strategic help from Egyptian-born Ayman Azwahiri, founded the Islamic extremists/terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda. This group is the largest and the most influential of all the Islamic extremist organizations. Islamic extremists consider the above-mentioned Western nations as largely godless and secular societies. They also believe that, in some cases, these Western countries represent Judeo-Christian traditions whose influences on Islam and Islamic nations should be stopped. This happens to be one of the primary causes of this struggle against the West by these Islamic extremists groups. In addition, other Islamic extremist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah whose primary enemy is Israel have also threatened Western interests. In fact, Hezbollah has actually carried out an attack against the United States and France in Lebanon to protest America's support for Israel.;This thesis examined the root causes of this problem. In addition, this thesis also discussed the reasons why Islamic extremist groups have engaged in this struggle against some Western nations especially, the ones mentioned above. Furthermore, the negative implications of this clash, as it affects the international community, were also discussed in this thesis. Another important aspect covered by this thesis is the area of efforts made to end this clash. Consequently, this thesis also examined whether enough has been done to reduce the level of and, if possible, eliminate completely this problem.;Carrying out a research on Islamic extremism may involve a close study of extremist organizations like Al Qaeda. This could prove to be an uphill task because many of these organizations have no identifiable base that one could go to interview and observe them in order to get more information. Therefore, this thesis was written using many writings, articles, journals, books and the media, including the Islamic media so as to get an Islamic perspective on the issue. |
