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Originally posted by AccidentallyOnPurpose
later dubbed al-Qaeda by the U.S. government
Like I said there is no actual organization known as AlQaeda, just a bunch of groups with a few shared ideologies. People do tend to be supporters of some of these ideologies but not many can claim to be "AlQaeda" supporters.
Bin Laden has preferred to use the International Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders as the name for the grouping rather than "al-Qaeda". While common usage of the name "al-Qaeda" dates from much earlier, 2001 saw the first formal use of the name "al-Qaeda" for the grouping when the American government decided to prosecute Bin Laden in his absence using anti-Mafia laws that required the existence of a named criminal organisation. Bin Laden himself is probably the best source for the origin of the al-Qaeda label. Speaking in 2001 he said: "The name 'al Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al Qaeda [meaning 'the base' in English]. And the name stayed."[2]