Yet whatever military success the United States and its allies have had in disrupting al-Qa’ida’s operations and destroying its cells has been hampered by the failure to recognize and confront the social movement—Jihadism—of which al-Qa’ida is merely the most militant manifestation. The truth is that al-Qa’ida has always been less an entity than a system of thought, a “mode of activism,” to quote Abdullah Azzam. “Al-Qa’ida is not an organization,” declared Abu Musab al-Suri. “It is not a group, nor do we want it to be. It is a call, a reference, a methodology.” Though the word “al-Qa’ida” is
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