Islamic Fundamentalism since 1945 by Milton-Edwards Beverley

Author:Milton-Edwards, Beverley
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2005-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

The Afghan saga

Who, doomed to go in company with Pain

And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!

Turns his necessity to glorious gain.

(William Wordsworth, ‘The Happy Warrior’)

When a successful Communist coup followed by the invasion of Soviet forces in the war-torn statelet of Afghanistan took place in 1979, few could predict that just a decade later one of the world’s most important superpowers – the Soviet Union – would be defeated militarily and left on the brink of a territorial meltdown that would end the Cold War and herald in a new era where the ‘End of History’ and a ‘New World Order’ would be declared. While there were a variety of forces responsible for the spectacular collapse of Communism, the mujahideen elements associated with the fundamentalist fringe leading the Islamic resistance in Afghanistan believed that they were primarily responsible. This led to an increased confidence and proved the logic of their Islamist doctrines and theories.

The Soviet interlude in Afghanistan was but one of many attempts by foreign forces to dominate the country. Moreover, the Muslim resistance had, in many respects, much in common with earlier resistance efforts against foreign occupiers that had coloured the Algerian struggle for independence from the French or with the role played by Muslim militia and resistance forces in the campaign of violence against the British occupation of Egypt. Yet in Afghanistan it was the Muslim resistance which was dominant among other competing organisations and forces espousing nationalist ambitions in the Afghan milieu. Indeed, it has been contended that the Americans and the Pakistan intelligence services (ISI) consciously created the establishment, and support for mujahideen groups with an extreme agenda over those Islamist elements in Afghanistan that had previously prevailed. This led either to the marginalisation of more moderate nationalist groups or served to radicalise them. The ISI money pipeline encouraged extremist elements such as Bin Laden and the Taliban and also acted as a useful conduit for the waging of other campaigns in Kashmir.3 The Islamic tenor to the resistance effort was seen as successful in facing up to what had appeared to be an indomitable enemy. With the defeat of the Soviet forces, it appeared too many that Islam was the new peril. The mujahideen represented the potency of a new generation of adherents to the fundamentalist agenda at a time when other ideological alternatives were being declared bankrupt. Afghan society appeared to soak up the fundamentalist doctrines not only promoted by home-grown clerics but a succession of Arab mujahideen who espoused their own ideas and interpretations from within the fundamentalist house. As a failed state, the country was also vulnerable to the competition among external elements and powers that then took place. The war gave rise to intervention from the USA, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, often as much in competition with each other as in support of the Afghan resistance effort. This multi-ethnic ethnic state would, therefore, become a focus of many contests. Images of the Afghan resistance and tracts published by its leaders

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