Thousands Pouring Into Afghanistan For Holy War Against U.S.

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

This exodus is hardly secret. Heads of the religious schools, or madrasah, have been forthcoming with information -- their charges will swell the ranks of those committed to fight a jihad, they say.

Many of these students, moreover, have been trained in guerrilla warfare and the use of weapons such as anti-aircraft guns. This made up a small part of their curriculum, with most time spent studying a narrow interpretation of Islam.

But there is a sense of deja vu in all this: like-thinking men have been down this road before and with similar purpose, soon after Afghanistan was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1979.

Then, Muslims from varying nationalities, both Arab and non-Arab, were drawn to Afghanistan with the same zeal. Calling themselves the mujahideen (Islamic fighters), thousands of them pledged to fight a jihad to defend a Muslim country, and their campaign led to the Soviet Union's retreat after a decade-long occupation.

Among the Arabs who identified with this jihad was the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, the man identified by the United States as a primary suspect in the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sep. 11.

On that occasion, the mujahideen had the United States to thank. Besides the assistance given to them by the United States and its allies -- estimated in the neighborhood of $10 billion worth of arms and aid -- something more significant was offered: legitimacy.

Former president Ronald Reagan even delivered this famous line when members of the mujahideen visited the White House: They are the "moral equivalent of our founding fathers."

This time around, that is hardly the case. Those heading to Afghanistan are raging against the United States, given the international military force it leads to take on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban for protecting Bin Laden.

This time, too, legitimacy is out of the question, at least from the United States.

But will the U.S. offensive in Afghanistan inadvertently provide Islam's angry young men with a boost, consequently propelling their significance in the Muslim world to new heights? Will it give their ideas a fresh airing?

This cannot be discounted because of the central role Afghanistan has played in their lives and the pan-Islamic notions that are rooted in what has become an international jihad organization. Equally important is the stance taken by governments in the Muslim world toward such activity.

From countries as distant as Sudan and Algeria to nearby Uzbekistan, they came to train and then fight battles in Kashmir, Chechnya and Afghanistan.

There are hardly any examples during the 20th century of jihad as violence assuming so "pronounced an 'Islamic' and international character," wrote Eqbal Ahmad in a critique of the jihad movement spawned in Afghanistan in an essay, titled "Jihad International Incorporated."

"The jihad's pan-Islamic dimension was a historic new phenomenon," he added. "With the Afghanistan war, pan-Islamism grew on a significant scale as a financial, cultural, political and military phenomenon with a worldwide network of exchange and collaboration."

Now, with Afghanistan under siege, the pan-Islamic message is gaining currency. The landlocked country has become the magnet for Islam's angry young men from other countries in Africa, Asia and the Arab world.

Once again calling themselves mujahideen, Muslim men from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Bangladesh have pledged to participate in the jihad, says IslamOnline, an electronic magazine based in Doha, Qatar.

Mauritians and other Africans are also listed in a force prepared to defend the Taliban, it notes, adding that they are a "pan-global Islamic force formed to defend any Muslim country that would come under attack by 'enemies of Islam'."

Afghanistan's attraction also stems from it being a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, says a specialist on Asian Islam, who requested anonymity. The Sunnis are the majority among the one billion Muslims in the world, while the Shiite Muslims make up the minority.

"The Taliban have been projecting themselves as practitioners of a pure Sunni faith and Afghanistan as pure Sunni Islamic country," she added. "Sunni Muslims will be able to relate to such rhetoric easily, without the qualms that arise with countries like Iran, which is Shiite, and Iraq or Syria, which are more secular and socialist than Islamic."

Such growing fervor is making governments in Muslim countries increasingly edgy. Beyond calls to the United States to direct the assault against terrorism rather than Islam, there is little they can do given the policies -- or lack thereof -- they have pursued regards the jihad movement conceived in Afghanistan.

Most of the Muslim countries have done little to question or stop their nationals travelling abroad to fight in the wars of another country. Where crackdowns have occurred, as has been the case in Egypt, they have been on Muslim radicals functioning locally.

Some, like Saudi Arabia, openly encouraged such activity. Besides funding such activities, the Saudis have also made use of them to push through the fundamentalist version of Sunni Islam they practice, called Wahabism. It is taught to members of the jihad movement, consequently spawning a narrow, intolerant and oppressive brand of Muslim men. The Taliban is a case in point.

Meantime, current U.S. policy to defeat the Taliban for protecting Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network could well serve as a rallying cry for the jihad movement to increase its numbers from among the world's Sunni Muslims, thus ensuring longer life for its radical creed.

"It is possible, at least from among the extremist minority to begin with," said the specialist on Asian Islam. "Most of them have been schooled with the notion of Islam being a warrior religion."

That, of course, would be rich with irony. After all, the rationale to establish an Islamic force of private Muslim citizens was legitimized during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan -- with U.S. blessing.