Politics, Faith and Identity in Contemporary Afghanistan: How and When was Islam Politicized in Afghanistan?

Abstract

Islam in the politics of Afghanistan is a Keyword. Any political faction who wishes to dominate the political scene of Afghanistan needs to show the people of the country regard and respect for their faith, even if it is a lip service. Islamist/jihadist groups played a vital role in expelling the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade of deadly confrontation. At least One Million people died and Three Million more were displaced (Barfield 2010). While the enemy is out for more than 27 years now, peace remains an unforeseeable dream. The resistance against the Soviets crossed national borders and received support from all non-Soviet world, mainly Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The jihadists were joined by the Muslim volunteer fighters. This foreign involvement altered the nature of the resistance such as embarking on other perceived rivals of the Muslim world. An example is Al-Qaeda's endeavors to harm American interests from their basis in Afghanistan. The question that arises is about the nature of the resistance. Why were they all projected as Islamists? What is their background in the country, before the Soviet aggression? How and whether the resistance transformed the nature of the Afghan Islamism or it is the same now as it was before the Soviet Invasion? How popular these Islamist were before the Invasion? To attempt to answer such questions, this thesis hypothesizes the following: First, People and parties of Afghanistan were incentivized to Islamize by the triangle of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United States as argues (Naby 1984) to fight the Soviet invasion and counter the “Godless communist” ideology with Islam's concept of Holy War (aka Jihad) 3 Second, the anti-Soviet resistance was hijacked by foreign hands from nonIslamist voices such as nationalist, democratic and monarchists and they faced persecution and forced to operate in the margins of the resistance. The continued dominance of political Islam is due this fact and related to the path dependency. Third, the Islamists of Afghanistan had built a relatively stronger popular base that allowed them to appeal to the public to join them in the campaign against the PDPA government and Soviet aggression. The communists on the other hand did not enjoy popular support and thus doomed to fail.