The spiritual leader of the anti-Taliban resistance believes that Afghanistan can become a second Ukraine
Author: Andrey Serenko, Director of the Analytical Center of the Russian Society of Political Scientists
Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta
The Taliban regime (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation) poses a threat not only to the people of Afghanistan but to the whole of Central Asia. The religious leader of the anti-Taliban resistance, Mawlavi Habibullah Hessam, stated this in an interview with NG columnist Andrei SERENKO in his first interview with Russian media. Mawlavi Hessam is one of the closest associates and chief advisers of the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (FNSA) Ahmad Massoud. Having received an excellent Islamic education in Afghanistan and Pakistan in his youth, Mawlavi Habibullah Hessam served as an imam in one of the mosques in Kabul and was a member of the upper house (Senate) of the Afghan parliament. One of the country's first clerics, he criticized the doctrine and ideology of the Taliban from a religious point of view, immediately becoming a mortal enemy for the Taliban. A few years ago, Mawlavi Hessam survived a suicide attack, and about a month ago, Taliban fighters killed his brother and nephew in Panjshir province. Today, Mawlavi Habibullah Hossam is the head of the Spiritual Department of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (FNSA) and the Governor of the Ulema Council of Afghanistan.
- The Taliban have been in power in Afghanistan for more than ten months. How do you assess the first results of their reign?
– After the transfer of political power by the United States on the basis of the Doha Agreement to the Taliban terrorist group and terrorist networks of various countries of Central Asia and the world, our country was on the verge of destruction. The Afghan security forces have collapsed, there have been political and administrative, educational and economic collapses, the migration of millions of people, the flight of specialists, the disappearance of educational and training opportunities, the transformation of national trust into national disloyalty and chaos in all areas, and most importantly, all-pervasive poverty, which is now rapidly progressing.
People in Afghanistan suffer from unemployment, poverty, the hypocrisy of the invaders, and a lack of physical and psychological security. The country lives in the absence of national and international legitimacy, and the Taliban kill thousands of people in the course of serial killings. The privacy, welfare, and honor of people are being harassed every day. The Taliban have started ethnic cleansing the population and every day they arrest and torture people because they are Tajiks, Panjshirs, Andarabs, and Hazaras. In places inhabited by peoples hostile to the Taliban, the forces of ethnic terror staged mass graves and other atrocities. Over the past ten months, this land has turned into hell for its inhabitants, and this process continues.
- What do you think the Taliban are? A Pashtun national project wrapped in a religious veneer? A terrorist group? A Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence project? Or is it all of this combined?
- The Taliban terrorist group as a project consists of three elements: 1) Pakistani intelligence and the actions of neighboring governments, 2) the ideology and thinking of the Takfiris and Kharijites (the most radical sects in Islam, preaching extreme intolerance and cruelty - "NG"), 3 ) ethnic discrimination. Historically, the Kharijites and terrorists were not representatives of any religion. Now modern Kharijites are Taliban terrorists who also do not represent the Islamic teachings, schools, and mosques of our people and our country. This terrorist movement commits crimes against the interests of the peoples of our country and the countries of Central Asia.
- The Taliban leaders announced their intention to build an "Islamic system" in Afghanistan. What does this mean from a religious, Islamic point of view? Can the Taliban create an effective state in Afghanistan that meets the Islamic criteria of justice and public good?
- In fact, the Taliban terrorist group was not created for the sake of rule and progress of the country. This is a movement posing as religious, but at the same time with anti-Islamic, non-free, anti-human norms and anti-human slogans. The only goal of this movement was and remains the collapse of the countries of the region and the establishment of a terror regime.
- The Taliban have been the main bearers of the doctrine of jihad in Afghanistan for several decades. However, some time ago, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (FNSA), which is fighting against the Taliban, called its activities jihad. What is the difference between these two positions? How would you characterize the concept of jihad and how it is understood today by the leaders of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan?
- Jihad is an Islamic obligation, which is that when Muslims are subjected to occupation and violence, they are obliged to fight for their lands, country, people, and faith. The leader of this struggle for the freedom and independence of the country and society must be legitimate.
The Taliban terrorist group waged (in the 1990s - NG) a war against the Islamic State of the Mujahideen, led by its leader, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, the country's national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud and other jihadist leaders. It was a rebellion because Afghanistan was not under the occupation of any other country. Taliban terrorists called their war and killings "jihad" against all their opponents, which is a clear distortion of the meaning of this sacred word. This interpretation of "jihad" is dictated by Pakistani intelligence.
The National Resistance Front, as its name implies, continues to fight using the laws of self-defense enshrined in all religions and creeds, in which God speaks to people through the Book, such as the Holy Quran and the Prophet in his hadiths. The self-defense of the National Resistance Front from the army of Pakistan and neighboring countries, that is, protection from aggression also gave it legitimacy at the international level.
- The Taliban have created and continue to strengthen their system of religious education, which is an important element in the preparation of new thousands of fighters for the Taliban. What can the anti-Taliban opposition, and above all the Afghan National Resistance Front, oppose to this?
- The Taliban terrorist group was born out of a thousand radical religious schools in Pakistan, and now this group has also created many similar schools to train suicide bombers in our country. Taliban terrorists were created not only for our country, the purpose of their existence is a threat to the region and the whole world. Unfortunately, now they have enough weapons and finances to support radical terrorist schools.
Our people and the National Resistance Front have no choice but to resist multidimensionally, and this war has been imposed on us. The terrorist group "Taliban" is a project of the Westerners to destroy the countries of the region, and our country is a potential Ukraine in this regard.
- The Taliban traditionally actively use suicide bombers. Taliban propagandists even call "istishhad" (the suicide of a suicide bomber) the pinnacle of jihad and Islam. To what extent does this practice correspond to the norms of Islam?
- Suicide is one of the fixed prohibitions in Islam, and there is no reason for its legitimacy, it is absolutely, without any exception, forbidden from the point of view of Islamic teachings.
- In Afghanistan, the positions of ISIS* are strengthening today. How would you characterize this terrorist project? How dangerous is it for Afghanistan and its neighbors - the countries of the region?
- ISIS and the Haqqani network* are one side of the coin and they have one goal, but the Taliban network is ISIS for our country, and the rest of the movements supported by the Taliban are ISIS for countries of the region, and the world.
- Ahmad Massoud became the first Afghan politician to declare his readiness to take up arms against the Taliban dictatorship. You personally know the leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan very well. How do you assess its political potential and prospects?
– The leader of the National Resistance Front is the only person recognized by society with national and international legitimacy, and his path is the path of Ustad Rabbani Shahid and Ahmad Shah Masood Shahid, whose experience was and remains the most successful in the first stage of jihad and resistance.
– What do you think about Russia's current policy towards Afghanistan?
- Russian policy in the field of diplomacy has problems, and the people of our country are somewhat skeptical about the Russian approach, as they consider its cooperation with their enemies.
– How do you see the development of the political situation in Afghanistan in the near future? What, in your opinion, awaits the Taliban regime? What are the prospects for the Afghan National Resistance Front and other anti-Taliban groups?
- The Taliban terrorist group has deceived the neighbors and the international community, which knows about it. The National Resistance Front believes in the line and path of Massoud, whose goal is truly peaceful national and international coexistence.
– In Afghanistan, the positions of spiritual Islamic “orders”, the Sufi tariqats of Naqshbandiya, Qadiriya, and others have always been quite strong. What is the position of these communities now and how noticeable is their influence on the political situation?
- The Sufi clan, also known as Saifi, is one of the branches of Pakistani intelligence, most of which are the current illegitimate rulers of our country. The British, during several of their aggressions against our country, abused the influence of the Sufis on the people. Zalmay Khalilzad (former US Special Representative for Afghanistan, author of Washington's draft deal with the Taliban. - "NG") and the Americans from time to time invested in restoring their influence for their own purposes. The Sufis firmly believed that their beliefs had been distorted by intelligence interference, and now they do not have the same beliefs as before. Pakistan, England, and America committed unforgivable crimes against the people of our land, abusing the influence of the Sufis, which continues to this day.
– What way do you see overcoming the multi-year crisis in Afghanistan? What role should the Afghan Islamic clergy play in it?
– The community of scholars, religious figures, mosque imams, and school teachers are trying to save the religion of Islam, the Hanafi madhhab, the mosque, and religious schools from the shame and conspiracy of the Taliban terrorist group, as this movement and its followers are a great danger to Islam, Muslims, and everything humanity. To overcome the crisis, unity, cohesion, and coherence of all spheres and strata of society are needed, it is difficult to overcome this problem without unity and struggle. And undoubtedly, the cooperation of anti-terrorist governments in the fight against terrorists is an undeniable necessity.
* The organization is under UN sanctions or banned due to terrorist activities.
