Shola Jawid
Voice of the communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan
Neither Imperialism nor Islam –
Interview with an Afghanistan Maoist Leader:
Also available in فارسی
Q. After the Soviets the Taleban came to power… What is it that attracts people to Islam? How can the communists draw the people from the Islamists to their own side? A. If we are to talk about the “Islamic mobilisation” that dates back to the 1960s, it was during this period that various political groups, with different ideological and political stances, relatively widely emerged on the scene. The communist movement (Maoism) was born then and the new-democratic movement stood tall; the revisionist party (Peoples Democratic Party), from which two factions emerged, “Khalq” and “Parcham”, both tied to the Soviet social-imperialists, and other bourgeois-nationalist groups and political forces also appeared. Against this backdrop, the reactionary religious feudal forces reacted and organised a reactionary religious movement under the auspices of the Afghanistani government that was supported by the reactionary Arab regimes and regimes in the region that were supported by Western imperialism. The prevalent feudal culture in society, the pseudo-communist pseudo-progressive claims put forward by the Russian puppet regime, and the Islamic regimes in the neighbouring countries of Iran and Pakistan, unconditionally supported by Western imperialists and reactionary Arab states, all and all, contributed to bringing the spontaneous war fronts of resistance increasingly under the influence of reactionary forces. The communist and revolutionary forces tailing the spontaneous movement prepared the ground for the Islamic forces to further influence the war of resistance against social-imperialism. That is how the Islamic forces, by prevailing in the war of resistance against social-imperialism, took over the government after the collapse of Najib’s regime. Islam was not the only factor bringing the Islamists into power…. The dramatic advances made by the Taleban, who evolved from a small force into a major power claiming to govern the entire country, was supported by three powerful imperialist/reactionary factors. The US and British imperialists not only worked behind the scenes to organise the “Islamic mobilisation”, but also directly and indirectly supported them afterwards. So of the three major factors propelling the Taleban into power, only one of them was Islam. This factor, Islam, was mainly used by the Taleban against other Islamists, not so much against communists, to combat the “corruption and decadence” that was prevalent among other Islamists. This was to justify and legitimise the “war among Muslims”. Overall, the reactionary Islamic forces are consolidated in the “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” current and are supported by the US imperialists and their allies as foreign supporters of the regime. Therefore, what we see as the Taleban today cannot be taken as the main model of Islamism in Afghanistan. By looking at the other Islamic countries and around the world, one can see that anti-American pan-Islamism (the Al Qaeda type) does not constitute the major portion of the Islamists. The numerous crimes committed by the “Jihadi” and “Taleban” Islamists during the “Islamic State” of “Jihadis” and the “Islamic Emirate” of the Taleban have indeed faded the old glory of Islam in the eyes of the masses. This situation alone provides a good opportunity for the communists to draw people from the Islamists onto their own side. The prevalent feudal culture, in the absence of a powerful non-religious force, namely the communists, generates and regenerates masses that would support various shades of Islamists in an endless circle, or masses that would live a life indifferent to politics. As far as the Islamism packaged in the Constitution is concerned, it is supported by the imperialist invaders, as well as by the reactionary Arab regimes and Islamists in the region, who march under the imperialists’ drum-beat. A large section of the feudal and bourgeois comprador classes is the main supporter of Islamism. Naturally, for as long as the dominance of semi-feudal, semi-colonial power is not challenged by a national revolutionary war of resistance, they will continue to retain their mass base. As far as Islamism in its specific Afghanistani form of the Taleban and global Al Qaeda is concerned, it involves some other factors as well. Suppressing this form of Islamism is an excuse for the American imperialists’ campaign. In other words, the Taleban fights as part of an extensive international force. Naturally, this is an important factor drawing the masses onto the side of the Taleban. In fact, the lack of a strong revolutionary communist or even anti-American nationalist movement, including in Afghanistan, is the reason why the masses commit themselves to crazy Islamism, creating an oppressive reactionary religious movement that is used to justify the American imperialists exporting “progress and democracy”. If a strong revolutionary alternative existed in Afghanistan and in other Islamic countries, Islamism, mainly serving the invaders and their lackeys, would not have appeared in the form of the Taleban or Al Qaeda – and even if it did, it would not have been this powerful. In order to draw the masses away from them to their own side, the struggle of the Afghanistani communists must take the form of an international struggle. Such a struggle must be based on the context of resistance against the imperialist occupying invaders and their puppets, and it should be carried out at the global, regional and Afghanistani national level. For as long as we are unable to play a powerful role in the struggle against the invaders, the Taleban will always be able to utilise the anti-American sentiments of the masses to organise them for their own organisational interests. Taleban Islamism has some serious problems. During their rule in the name of the “Islamic Emirates” they severely oppressed non-Pashtun people. That is why the Taleban’s Islamism is not supported by people of other nationalities. This lack of support for the Taleban among non-Pashtun people provides suitable conditions to organise against the invaders and their lackeys. This does not mean we have no opportunity for organising the masses of people among the Pashtuns. Such an opportunity does exist, because the masses of Pashtun people have had their “fair share” of the Taleban’s oppression. Communists in their struggle against Islamic theocracy can successfully utilise opportunities when there is a broad secular movement. This requires ideological struggle against idealism to propagate dialectical materialism. On another level this struggle should be carried out against Islamic politics and economics by propagating the principles of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist politics and economics. Without such a struggle the communist party cannot establish a mass base for itself. Indeed, we should be mindful of the nature of the struggle, which is protracted. But that does not mean we should negate such a struggle…. Islam in Afghanistan and other countries, such as Iran, is not a question of the religious belief of the masses. We are facing Islamic rule and we are struggling against an Islamic Republic. In our situation, Islamic politics is armed with the sword of anti-communism. Communists cannot ignore an all-around struggle against such an enemy that is armed with this sword.
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