In every era of conflict, Western powers have painted themselves as defenders of democracy and security. But look closely at the bloody pages of modern history, and you find an uncomfortable truth: when the so-called “terrorists” serve imperial goals, the West does not destroy them — it arms them, trains them, funds them, then discards them when convenient.
No chapter exposes this better than the tangled story of Al-Qaeda. Ask an average Westerner how the group began, and they might mumble something about caves in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden’s twisted hatred for freedom. The reality? The roots were nourished in Washington and London long before any “War on Terror” was declared.
In the late 1970s, the Soviet Union’s Red Army rolled into Afghanistan. The world watched an atheist superpower crush an independent Muslim nation. The West saw an opportunity. American National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted, decades later, that the CIA’s covert operation, codenamed Operation Cyclone, funnelled billions of dollars in arms and training to Afghan mujahideen fighters. The mission? Bleed the Soviets dry.
So thousands of volunteers from across the Muslim world poured into the Afghan mountains — but they did not travel alone. U.S. and British intelligence set up camps, handed out AK-47s, Stinger missiles, cash, and propaganda leaflets glorifying “jihad” against communists. Osama bin Laden, then a wealthy Saudi contractor, was their useful contact. He built roads, camps, and safe houses — all under the watchful eye of Western handlers.
When the Soviets retreated, the narrative pivoted overnight. The same freedom fighters became “radicals.” The CIA’s monster outgrew its leash. But the pattern did not end there.
Fast-forward to the chaos of Syria’s civil war. Leaked documents and declassified emails show that Western powers knew well that extremist groups would fill the vacuum once the state collapsed. In 2012, a secret U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency memo warned that arming the so-called “moderate opposition” would inevitably empower jihadist factions, including what would become ISIS. Yet the weapons kept flowing.
The same double game unfolded in Libya. In 2011, NATO bombs rained down on Tripoli to “protect civilians.” In reality, they helped dislodge Muammar Gaddafi’s government — a state that, for all its flaws, had kept Al-Qaeda at bay for decades. The result? Libya fractured into fiefdoms ruled by rival militias, some openly flying the black flags of jihad.
Even Hillary Clinton, in a now-famous congressional hearing, stumbled under questioning: “Yes, we created Al-Qaeda to fight the Soviets. We were so successful that we got carried away.” The admission fell flat in Western media, but in the streets of Kabul, Baghdad, and Aleppo, it has long been an open secret.
Why does this cycle repeat? Because chaos is useful. Extremists break up states that might resist Western hegemony. They become a convenient excuse to deploy troops, build bases, and sign multi-billion-dollar weapons contracts. When they outlive their usefulness, they become a propaganda tool — the monster that justifies the endless “War on Terror.”
Today, this manipulation extends even deeper. Western think tanks produce glossy reports about “countering radicalisation,” yet never address the radicalisation they once sowed with drone strikes, black sites, torture prisons, and economic warfare. Muslim youth, caught between repressive regimes at home and bombs abroad, find themselves pulled into the same traps designed decades ago.
For Palestinians, the hypocrisy is glaring. A stone-throwing teenager in Gaza is labelled a terrorist overnight, while Israel’s history is filled with former militias like the Irgun and the Stern Gang — groups that bombed markets and hotels, assassinated UN envoys, and openly bragged about ethnic cleansing. Today, their descendants sit in the Knesset and sign deals in European capitals.
The lesson is simple: terrorism, in the eyes of the empire, is not a moral absolute. It is an instrument — to be incubated, unleashed, or crushed, all depending on whose power it serves.
As Muslims, our Qur’an is clear. We reject killing innocents. We reject sectarian bloodshed and vigilante brutality. And we reject the West’s cynical theatre that arms our region’s worst criminals while posing as saviours.
History demands that we remember: the next time they point at a black flag and shout “terrorist,” we must ask — who gave him the gun?
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