The al-Qaeda 'fight' club

Radicalized Sunni Muslims comprise the heart of al-Qaeda as it was founded by Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan. With Osama and the founding leaders eliminated, the stateless organization remains a club for radical Islam Jihadists. The UN Security Council, NATO, EU and USA classify them as terrorists.

Who are the members now and what are they fighting against?

First, they are Muslims who believe in governance by sharia law -- Law by the Quran.
Second, they want to expel anything that is not Muslim from what they define as lands of Islam.

They are at war with the world outside Islam. The war is transportable. Muslims who wish to practice sharia law within their families may find themselves at odds with the nation states in which they live.

Radical Muslims are at war among themselves, Sunnis vs. Shiites for instance.

Al-Qaeda members are outliers to the modern world who are often poor and exploited by wealthy leaders who enjoy power in commanding terror outside formal political institutions.

To limit and to eliminate them requires constant vigilance and attention to their formation and to their sources of funding. It requires identifying their leaders and eliminating them.

That requires international cooperation as we have with increasing focus wherever new cells emerge. (...)