a radical Sunni Muslim organization dedicated to the elimination of a Western presence in Arab countries and militantly opposed to Western foreign policy: founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988.
Also, al-Qaida.
Origin
< Arabical-qa'ida, literally, the base
British Dictionary definitions for al-Qaeda
al-Qaeda
/ælˈkaɪdə; ælkɑːˈiːdə/
noun
1.
a loosely-knit militant Islamic organization led and funded by Osama bin Laden, by whom it was established in the late 1980s from Arab volunteers who had fought the Soviet troops previously based in Afghanistan; known or believed to be behind a number of operations against Western, especially US, interests, including bomb attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001