Part 9: The Complex History of Islamic Extremism and Russia's Contribution to the Rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS

The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan elevates Osama bin Laden into a cult of personality.

Osama bin Laden -1988 - Credit – Photographer unknown – public domain

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This is part nine of a multi-report series that explains the rise of modern Islamic extremism. From 1951 to 2021, a series of key geopolitical events, many independent of each other, caused the Islamic Revolution, the rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS, the creation and collapse of the caliphate, and the reconstitution of ISIS as the ISKP. While Western influence and diplomatic blunders are well-documented throughout this period, the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation are equally culpable. The editors would like to note that a vast majority of the 1.8 billion people who are adherents to some form of Islam are peaceful and reject all forms of religious violence.

If you missed the previous installment, part eight is available.

The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan elevates Osama bin Laden into a cult of personality

There are questions about how much combat Osama bin Laden was engaged in with the mujahideen, but he did participate in a handful of tactical battles. During his time in Pakistan and Afghanistan, bin Laden used his wealth and influence to promote victories on the battlefield and recruit Arabs to the Islamic cause within Afghanistan. While bin Laden was media-shy, his talent as a leader was well-known in the Middle East, enabling him to cultivate a cult of personality. The image of him as a key leader of the Afghan resistance is mostly an illusion.

But bin Laden was looking ahead to the future. In 1988, shortly after the signing of the Geneva Accords, he quietly founded al-Qaeda. For him, Afghanistan was the end of a beginning. Al-Qaeda would continue its violent jihad against what bin Laden perceived were the enemies of fundamentalist Islam and fight to establish Muslim states controlled by Sharia law.

Despite fighting against the Soviet Union, a lot of bin Laden’s beliefs were influenced by his exposure to Soviet propaganda, including late 19th-century Eastern European and Imperial Russia antisemitism. In the simplest of terms, bin Laden believed that Muslim Arabs faced four enemies: the Jews and Israel, the United States, “heretics,” and Shia Muslims, particularly Iranian Shias.

At the time of the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden believed that the West had wronged Arab Muslims worldwide. The al-Qaeda charter established that the people of democratic nations directly participate in their government, making them legitimate military targets due to their complicity in their government decisions. Further, any “good Muslim” civilian who was killed due to their proximity to an attack would be blessed in death and go to paradise.

In 1989, bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia and was given a hero’s welcome along with his al-Qaeda Arab Legion. He continued to lead a triple life, running aspects of the family construction business, working with Pakistani and Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies, and indirectly and directly supporting jihadist activity in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Bin Laden would return to Afghanistan to personally lead up to 800 al-Qaeda fighters in Operation Jalalabad, which was an attempt to install a pro-Pakistani mujahideen government in Kabul. Although Soviet troops had withdrawn from Afghanistan, military aid to the Najibullah government continued. Moscow sent approximately $4 billion in weapons and ammunition, including OTR-21 Tochka-U short-range ballistic missile launchers with Scarab missiles and Su-27 multirole fighter aircraft.

Operation Jalalabad was a complete failure, with the Afghan army using its arsenal to stop the offensive. Up to 500 of bin Laden’s militants were killed, and he was forced to return to Saudi Arabia, further embittered by another betrayal.

Once back in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden supported opposition movements against the Saudi royal family and ordered the executions of the leaders of the Soviet-backed Yemeni government. He also interfered with reunification talks in Yemen, which have led to decades of civil war, famine, and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

That unrest continues to this day, with Yemeni rebels switching from al-Qaeda-oriented dogma to gaining support from the Islamic Republic Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran. Today, the IRGC-backed Houthi rebels control approximately 30 percent of Yemen and have interfered with global shipping since November 2023 in support of the Hamas-initiated war against Israel. In the last two weeks, two merchant ships, the Magic Seas and the Eternity C, were sunk by Houthi attacks, killing 11 civilian mariners. The U.S. launched Operation Rough Rider in March 2025 and carried out a 52-day-long bombing campaign on Houthi military and civilian infrastructure, supported by several Middle Eastern and European nations.

The increasing influence of bin Laden and his meddling in Saudi government affairs drew the attention of King Fahd and the ire of the then-President of Saudi Arabia, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Riyadh viewed bin Laden’s actions as going beyond a problem that could be managed. He had become a threat to the Saudi royal family.

The Soviet Union’s sphere of influence in the Asian subcontinent, the Middle East, and Africa was crumbling due to the floundering Russian economy and aggressive proxy and hybrid warfare conducted by the U.S. during the Reagan administration. As communist backed governments started to collapse, the promised U.S. support to repair roads, schools, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure was never delivered. This was creating a dangerous vacuum.

And the Saudis weren’t the only country warily watching bin Laden and the al-Qaeda Arab Legion. U.S. intelligence was also hearing chatter that his plans weren’t just contained to the Greater Middle East. There was increasingly reliable and alarming intelligence that al-Qaeda was preparing to target U.S. interests, including within the United States.

It was now 1990, and in less than two years, the first attempted al-Qaeda terror attack on U.S. soil would be stopped, and the Saudi government would send bin Laden into exile. Moscow can’t stop the coming collapse of the Soviet Union, attempting varying degrees of military intervention to stop the withdrawal of a dozen Republics and Warsaw Pact nations in Eastern Europe. But when a 13th Republic declares its independence, the Soviet Union responds brutally.

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Coming Up Next, Part 10: Over the last nine installments, we’ve outlined a number of events that, individually, are completely disconnected. However, in 1991, all roads from the Soviet Union, the U.S., Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan converged on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The only thing missing was the final spark. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was preparing to light that fire.