The Mafia and al-Qaeda: Violent and Secretive Organizations in Comparative and Historical Perspective
Author(s)
Schneider, Jane; Schneider, Peter
Abstract
In the immediate aftermath of September 11, we circulated an essay outlining possible comparisons between the 1980s and 1990s repression of organized crime in Italy and Sicily and the pending repression of the al-Qaeda network. The al-Qaeda network has been defined by the fanatical religious commitment of its adherents, their hostility to secular states, and this tempts some to assimilate it to Islamism, if not Islam. Our argument is that it is more fruitfully understood as a violent and secretive organization that, like the mafia, benefited from some reckless and ill-considered acts of sponsorship, proffered by parts of many institutions and states, Its vengeful energy has been amplified by the dislocations of globalization. Respondents questioned, in particular, our neglect of abuses of civil liberties in the antimafia process, our implied conflation of racketeering with religious extremism, and our positive assessment of the role of citizens’ social movements in delegitimating terrorist violence. In this article, we address these and related criticisms, in part through expanding and clarifying the original argument. Our premise at the time, that the rhetoric (and pursuit) of a “war” on terrorism distorts what should be framed as a repressive action against a cellular and networked, violent and secretive organization, is reinforced.
