Where do the two points of view lead the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan?
Author: Rustam Rushangar, analyst (Afghanistan), especially for "Sangar"
On the Front of National Resistance, as a rule, two currents or representatives of two main political trends come together, and their opposition to the Taliban is their common point of contact. One of them is the Islamist political trend. Its representatives are former mujahideen or Islamist forces who believe that the resistance is a continuation of jihad and the struggle to protect the true values of religion and jihad. The second current consists of new political forces with secularist, democratic, and intellectual views. This movement is mainly composed of young and educated forces whose opposition to the Taliban has intellectual and secular roots.
Undoubtedly, the Resistance Front, founded by the great Mujahideen, is an Islamic and jihadist movement. The foundation of this Front is laid by jihadist thinking. The rejection of the jihadist and Islamist ideas of the Front can be seen as cutting the historical roots of this movement. But despite the resistance front's jihadist roots, there were also seeds of intellectual ideas within the movement that grew and fertilized over time. Today we have many young people who respect the values of jihad and have intellectual secularist views. They know that the spirit of jihad is the same spirit of fighting against occupation, aggression, and violence, and this is what we need in the fight against the monster called the Taliban. It is actually a reflection of a profound intellectual change in resistance that many are unaware of. When this neglected change and transformation takes place, one would think that the National Resistance Front is experiencing internal contradictions. Although it is not.
Martyr Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader and founder of Jamiat-e-Islami, was one of the moderate intellectual leaders whose religious-political views were close to those of religious intellectuals. Like many leaders of other Islamic parties, he has never been extreme and dry-minded in his religious views and has shown in practice that he is not against democracy and modern and civic values. In 2001, he cooperated with the new political system based on democratic principles and never took a stand against the popular system and intellectual currents. During his lifetime, Great Massoud considered the creation of a democratic government based on the will of the people one of the goals of his struggle and jihad. These are the same seeds that have been turned into secularist tendencies in the presence of a new generation of resistance.
When two currents of thought reflect more on their intellectual foundations, they reach more points of contact, and the difference in views disappears. If the jihadist current is deeply embedded in the thoughts of the leaders of the First Resistance Front, it will find many reasons to share its opinion with the secularist political movement. If you look closely at this secularist movement, you will find that the Resistance Front was never an ideological political movement and there are clear signs of the secularist views of the early leaders of the Resistance, on the basis of which it is possible to create an intellectual symmetry with the jihadist members of the Front.
The field of political action is the field of facts. Understand the facts and act accordingly. The fact is that in Afghanistan not a single political thought has been able to mobilize all political forces. The lesson of the political experience of Afghanistan over the past fifty years is that all political forces should consider an interactive approach. That is, they should not have the maximum idea of the political thought they want. Supporters of any political thought must be flexible in order to have a field of intellectual and ideological interaction with other currents.
In the preface, I would like to refer to recent statements by Abdulhafiz Mansour, a senior member of the National Resistance Front, and Ali Maysam Nazari, head of the Resistance Front's foreign relations department. Recently, Mr. Mansour wrote a short Facebook post about the main directions of the front, which drew criticism. Some have criticized Mr. Mansour and put forward the view that high-ranking members of the Resistance Front hold radical views, and on this basis, there is no difference between them and the Taliban leaders. Following the reaction that Mansour's statements provoked, Ali Maysam Nazari, tweeted that the statements of the members of the Resistance Front are their personal opinions and that the main lines of the Resistance Front do not create any ideological obstacles for people to join the front.
Hafiz Mansour can be considered the representative of the jihadists in the National Resistance Front. Similarly, Ali Maysam Nazari can be considered a new generation of secularist resistance fighters. Of course, it is clear that attributing these two to representatives of two currents is a theoretical approach to explaining the views of the Resistance Front, and in the real world such a division among the forces of the Resistance does not exist.
Hafiz Mansour is one of the figures of jihadist culture. Since his youth, he has been involved in cultural and media work in times of jihad and resistance. Now Mr. Mansur is actively working in the cultural and ideological department of the Front. Based on Mr. Mansour's work experience, it is likely that he holds jihadist views and notions. Mr. Mansour's sense of belonging towards the Front is also due to his years of experience in jihad and resistance. Ideologically, Mr. Mansour cannot be considered an Islamist ideologist. He started a discussion about Islamic culture courses in Afghan universities and rightly said that terrorist ideas are propagated under the name of Islamic culture. At the time, Mr. Mansour was accused by extremist Islamists of apostasy, renunciation of religion, and aversion to jihad and the values of jihad. But in the past two years, Mr. Mansour has occasionally taken a stance that some have interpreted as that of the Taliban.
Ali Maisam Nazari is also an informed, knowledgeable, loyal, and driven young man. Mr. Nazari's political record is not very rich, and perhaps, given the failure of the previous political generation, the fact that he is young can be considered an advantage. But if our judgment of him is based on his two years of work as head of the international relations department of the resistance front, we can say that his activity in this position was quite successful. He defended the Front well in international forums. The fact that Mr. Nazari was educated in the West and has a mission in Western countries to further the Front's goals naturally makes him a secularist and democratic advocate. Whether we like it or not, the Second Resistance is a field for the maneuver of purposeful and thinking youth. Nazari is one of the popular figures of the National Resistance Front, and the younger and more educated generation considers him their role model.
Mansour's conclusions on the main lines of the Resistance Front are one thing and Nazari is another. Of course, both conclusions are correct, and this indicates that the main lines of the Resistance Front are in some cases ambiguous and create the possibility of forming different ideas. For example, in the current list of the Front's main lines, there is a sentence that is very vague and open to interpretation. This ambiguity and interpretability has led, for example, to Mr. Mansour and Mr. Nazari having two different views on the main lines. Similar ambiguities existed in the Afghan constitution, which caused many intellectual conflicts between Islamists and secularists. It was a proposal that no law could be adopted in Afghanistan that contradicts the foundations of Islam. The foundations of Islam are one of the main points of contention between scholars, jurists, and commentators on Islam. What are the foundations of Islam? Every Muslim and every commentator has his own answer to this question.
As far as I know, the leadership of the Resistance Front is trying to revise its main directions, and the goal is to eliminate existing ambiguities and shortcomings, as well as to reflect the military-political experience of the past two years in the main lines. Of course, the existence of the main lines is an important and fundamental achievement for the resistance movement. In the past, the resistance movement, for some reason, did not have a main direction or a clear policy.
Today, for the Resistance Front, it is important that it is able to attract various intellectual and political forces. There are many reasons to fight the Taliban. This made all the political and intellectual forces of Afghanistan think about the war with the Taliban. This is a good opportunity and chance for the Resistance Front. It should give everyone the opportunity to fight the Taliban. This is possible if the Resistance Front defines for itself a vision and perspective in which all political forces see themselves and are confident that their fight against the Taliban under its auspices is a guarantee of their political future in Afghanistan. Undoubtedly, many of them are fighting against the Taliban not for religious and jihadist reasons. They have their own reasons and motives. There should be no objective or mental obstacles to their joining the Resistance Front.
From what I understand from Mr. Mansour's posts, he somehow wants to respond to the accusations that the Taliban are making against the Front. The Taliban's accusation is that the Resistance Front has rebelled against the Islamic system, which is tantamount to infidelity and atheism. Mr. Mansour wants to deny the accusations and declare that we are not infidels and atheists, but Muslims and Mujahideen. In my opinion, the Resistance Front should not respond to this accusation from the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan know both the Resistance Front and the Taliban. The fact that you are accused by a terrorist, intelligence, and mercenary group, and you constantly say no, no, we are not like that, but we are like that, somehow means that you have fallen under the influence of enemy propaganda and psychological war.
I believe that the Resistance Front should prove to people the following:
The Resistance Front fights for the protection of the people and is committed to their interests; The Resistance Front has a better plan to improve people's lives; The Resistance Front has learned from past political experiences and does not repeat past mistakes; Resistance Front no longer ignores the people's struggle against the Taliban; The Resistance Front no longer allows a few people to negotiate the fate of the people on behalf of the people; The resistance front no longer allows corrupt people who lack the vision and determination to fight to join the ranks of the people. The resistance front will no longer leave the stronghold of protecting national values at any cost; The resistance front will not lay down its arms until the guarantees of stable and legitimate popular government are achieved and...!
In my opinion, the reason for the fatigue and political passivity of people is that none of the various political currents has withstood the test of honesty and purposefulness before the people. Because of this, people are tired and angry and do not want to listen to the words of hostile political groups. People don't want to take an exam in Islam from any group. People want bread, security, and freedom. The National Resistance Front must pay attention to these issues.
