Al-Qaeda a brand name

while i watching the ITV news
they brought up that Al-Qaeda is more like a brand name now
used by diffrent orginazations to do things in its name

anyone else see this part of the report?

Thats true while they are actually different groups they will be generalised as "al-qaeda" here in the west.

As I said in another thread, the name is now more of a powerful symbol than anything else - used to strike fear into people like us.

How strange, I was just talking to a coworker..
Calling them a "Franchise".

then I see this thread..
I pretty much agree, I think there are plenty of mini Al-quaedas out there.
All using the same handbook.

Apparently it's working, because no one bothers to fill in the blanks. The news ticker reads the same thing over and over again.

Al-Qaeda is actually a "state of mind".
Anyone can claim to be Al-Qaeda and truly be so.

Although "al-Qaeda" is the name of the organization used in popular culture, the organization rarely uses the name to formally refer to itself. The origin of the name "al-qaeda" is disputed; some allege it was coined by the United States government based on the name of a computer file of bin Laden's that listed the names of contacts he had made at the MAK in the Bait al-Ansar guesthouse during the late 1980s. Bin Laden himself says of the origin, saying "We used to call the training camp al Qaeda [meaning "the base" in English].


en.wikipedia.org...