"Can anybody unequivocally tell me what JI and Al Quaida's ultimate goal is?"
Well the best explanation I have come across was on article in the 'Good Weekend" . in the SMH, I think sometime earlier this year. I'll try to summarise as best as I can & from memory.
This current fundamentalist movement, has it's origins going back ( & probably beyond) to the assassination of the Egyptian President Sadat in the 80 ‘s by the Muslim Brotherhood. , who where influence by a Muslim scholar who advocated a return to fundamentalist Islam. He linked the domination of the West over Islam going back to the Crusades. So he preached a form of retaliation & revenge on the West & also blamed moderate Muslims & their lack of obedience to the Koran for their current predicament. And amongst other things saw the West as decadent etc. etc.
Now I can’t recall the exact details, but after the assassinator there was a crackdown by the Egyptian authorities on the Muslin Brotherhood & a lot were jailed. And somewhere amongst this the spiritual advisor to Bin Laden, I think Ayman al-Zawahiri , his right hand man, was converted to the cause & jailed. Egypt released all the jailed Muslin Brotherhood, but told them to get out of the country & I guess the rest is history.
What in the ultimate goal? To establish fundamentalist Islam as a dominate worldwide religion & an end to Western Culture blah blah...
If I can I’ll try to find the article I’m referring to, however you’ll find the following in today’s SMH. -----
The Islambouli Brigades claimed responsibility for the downing of two Russian planes on August 24, which killed 90 people. The same group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station on August 31 that killed 10 people and injured more than 50.
"We in al-Islambouli Brigades, after we translated our words previously onto the land of Moscow and into the skies of Russia, announce that the head of the state of unfaithfulness will be our target in upcoming qualitative operations," the statement said in reference to Putin. The group, apparently named after an Egyptian militant who was behind the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Cairo, has distanced itself from the Beslan school seizure in southern Russia that left more than 320 people dead. ----
