Article

2016-10-01 Afghanistan

President Ghani and Hekmatyar Sign Peace Deal

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Posted by Fred 2016-10-01 00:00|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top
File under: Hizb-i-Islami-Hekmatyar

#1 The history of the Afghan resistance can be dated from the nineteen sixties and the intersection of three Muslim Brothers: Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf (1946-) and Burhanuddin Rabbani (1940-) both studied at Al Azhar University, Egypt, in the nineteen sixties, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (1947-), a Muslim Brother who graduated in engineering from the University of Kabul. All three were acquainted with and were greatly influenced by the writings of Egyptian Muslim Brother and salafist intellectual, Sayyid Qutb. The three would become the leaders of the mujahideen forces to emerge following the Soviet Invasion.

Well before the Soviet invasion of December 1979 the Jamiat e-Islami movement had been founded by Rabbani. Called Afghanistan's oldest mujahideen movement, it was from its inception associated with the international Muslim Brotherhood. While Rabbani was the brains behind the movement, the field leadership was assumed by the ruthless Pushtun commander and Muslim Brother Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

It was at the University that Rabbani, the Al Azhar-trained Tajik and member of the salafist Naqshabandi (Sufi) sect emerged as a student leader in the nineteen sixties. Rabbani, born in Afghanistan's remote Badakhshan province had been influenced by both the Pakistani Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi and Hassan al-Banna the Muslim Brotherhood founder. In addition, Rabbani would translate Qutb into Dari, Afghanistan's official language, and tranfuse that salafist influence to his own followers. Rabbani would later serve as President of Afghanistan from 1992-1996. Rabbani was a Tajik, a minority in a nation that counted some seven million Pushtun and five million Tajik at the time of the Soviet invasion. It was Rabbani's task (and misfortune) to try and meld the interests of two ethnic groups who had often been antagonistic. Following the end of the war with the Soviets Hekmatyar sought to seize control of Afghanistan in what was called the war of the warlords. A war eventually won by the Pakistan-backed taliban. Hekmatyar licked his wounds, kept his band of cutthroats together and maintains to this day the control of Afghanistan opium trade. In sum, he is, as he always has been, a miserable sonofabitch.

Blank lines added between paragraphs for ease of reading.

-- tw at 4:10 p.m. ET

Posted by Shick de Medici6262 2016-10-01 08:45|| 2016-10-01 08:45|| Front Page Top

#2 Thanks for that, will try to assimilate.

Posted by Shipman 2016-10-01 10:48|| 2016-10-01 10:48|| Front Page Top

#3 What's the over / under on the peace deal being violated by the Hekster, one week?

Posted by Raj 2016-10-01 13:05|| 2016-10-01 13:05|| Front Page Top

#4 A useful summation, Shick de Medici6262. Thank you.

What's the over / under on the peace deal being violated by the Hekster, one week?

Oughtn't fighting season be winding down soon, as winter approaches? I believe the post-Taliban tradition is to take the demobilization payments all winter, then rejoin the bad guys preparatory to fighting season in the spring. So that's where I'd place my bet.

Posted by trailing wife 2016-10-01 16:24|| 2016-10-01 16:24|| Front Page Top

#5 The peace deal depends on how much boodle and influence Hek can get with and from Kabul.

Posted by Pappy 2016-10-01 17:22|| 2016-10-01 17:22|| Front Page Top

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