Islamic terrorism

=== Economic motivation ===
[[File:Osama bin Laden (cropped).jpg|alt=Osama in November 2001|thumb|Osama Bin Laden, the founder of multinational terrorist group [[Al-Qaeda]], in November 2001.]]
Following the 9/11 attack, commentators noted the poverty of Afghanistan, and speculated that blame might partly fall on a lack of a "higher priority to health, education, and economic development" funding by richer countries,<ref name="Stern-2001">{{cite journal |last1=Stern |first1=Jessica |title=John Harvard's Journal: Talking about Terrorism |journal=Harvard Magazine |date=November 2001 |issue=November–December 2001 |url=https://harvardmagazine.com/2001/11/talking-about-terrorism.html |access-date=31 August 2019}}</ref> and "stagnant economies and a paucity of jobs" in poorer countries.<ref name="Sachs">{{cite news |last1=Sachs |first1=Susan |title=A NATION CHALLENGED: WHO SEETHES, AND WHY; Despair Beneath the Arab World's Rage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/14/world/a-nation-challenged-who-seethes-and-why-despair-beneath-the-arab-world-s-rage.html |access-date=31 August 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=14 October 2001}}</ref>

Among the acts of oppression against Muslims by the United States and its allies alleged by the head of Al-Qaeda, are economic exploitation. In a 6 October 2002 message by Osama bin Laden 'Letter to America', he alleges
{{blockquote|You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of your international influence and military threats. This theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world. ... If people steal our wealth, then we have the right to destroy their economy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=bin Laden |first1=Osama |title=Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver |access-date=31 August 2019 |work=The Guardian}}</ref><ref name="Swanson-stealing">{{cite web |last1=Swanson |first1=Elmer |title=Muslims are starving to death and the United States is stealing their oil |url=http://gemsofislamism.tripod.com/us_stealing_muslim_oil.html |website=Gems of Islamism |access-date=31 August 2019}}</ref>}}
In a 1997 interview, he claimed that "since 1973, the price of petrol has increased only $8/barrel while the prices of other items have gone up three times. The oil prices should also have gone up three times but this did not happen",<ref>bin Laden in an interview with Hamid Mir, Pakistan, 18 March 1997. Quoted on p.230 of ''The New Jackals : Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism'' by Simon Reeve, 1999.</ref>{{#tag:ref|(This claim seems to be based on incorrect facts — the price of wheat did not increase three fold from 1973–1997 — and the questionable assumption that the demand and price for oil would continue to rise at a steady rate after the [[1973 oil crisis|Arab Oil Embargo]] raised it by four fold in a short period.)<ref name="Swanson-stealing" /><ref name="Macrotrends">{{cite web |title=Wheat Prices – 40 Year Historical Chart |url=https://www.macrotrends.net/2534/wheat-prices-historical-chart-data |website=Macrotrends |access-date=3 June 2021}}</ref>|group=Note}} (On the other hand, in an interview five weeks after the destruction the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] towers his operation was responsible for, bin Laden described the towers as standing for—or "preaching"—not exploitation or capitalism, but "freedom human Rights, and equality".)<ref>Osama bin Laden interviewed by Tayser Allouni, Al Jazeera, 21 October 2001, in ''Messages to the World: the Statements of Osama bin Laden'', ed. Bruce Lawrence, translated by James Howarth (London, Verso, 2005), 112</ref>

In 2002, academics Alan B. Krueger and Jitka Maleckova found "a careful review of the evidence provides little reason for optimism that a reduction in poverty or an increase in educational attainment would by themselves, meaningfully reduce international terrorism."<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Krueger |first1=Alan B. |last2=Maleckova |first2=Jitka |title=Does Poverty Cause Terrorism |magazine=The New Republic |date=24 June 2002 |url=http://www.nber.org/ens/feldstein/Krueger/LC514_Week_02_Does_Poverty_Cause_Terrorism.pdf |access-date=31 August 2019}}</ref>  Alberto Abadie found "the risk of terrorism is not significantly higher for poorer countries, once other country-specific characteristics are considered", but instead seems to correlate with a country's "level of political freedom".<ref name="Abadie-2005">{{cite journal |last1=Abadie |first1=Alberto |title=Poverty, Political Freedom, and the Roots of Terrorism |journal=American Economic Review |date=September 2005 |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=50–56 |url=https://www.nber.org/digest/may05/w10859.html |access-date=31 August 2019 |series=(NBER Working Paper No. 10859}}</ref>

Martin Kramer has argued that while terrorist organizers are seldom poor, their "foot-soldiers" often are.<ref name="kramer-2004">{{cite book |last1=Lieber |first1=Robert James |title=The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=118 |isbn=978-0-521-85737-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4kH7I9f6o64C&q=martin+kramer+the+vehicle+of+counter-elites%2C+people+who%2C+by+virtue+of+education+and%2For+income%2C+are+potential+members+of+the+elite&pg=PA118 |access-date=31 August 2019}}</ref> Andrew Whitehead states that "poverty creates opportunity" for terrorists, who have hired desperate poor children to do grunt work in Iraq and won the loyalty of poor in Lebanon by providing social services.<ref>Andrew Whitehead, "Does Poverty Cause Terrorism?", Homeland Security Policy Institute, 21 August 2007</ref>