a house divided, 1933–73
For the mujahidin the jihad was not merely a matter of killing Russians,
as the cia planned, but it was about instilling their version of jihad and
Islam into the hearts and minds of the populace, particularly the younger
generation. Yet while being funded by the cia and other Western nations,
the political ideology espoused by these Islamists was innately opposed
to the secular values of those countries. Sayyid Qutb, whose teaching
had a strong influence on Rabbani, Hikmatyar, Sayyaf and Mas‘ud, had
penned a devastating critique of what he termed America’s moral deca-
dence and cultural ‘primitiveness’, portraying the usa as a Machiavellian
superpower that publicly promoted peace and democracy while covertly
pursuing a war against Islam. 50 While the mujahidin fought the Russians
with American-supplied weapons and dollars, radical Islamists actively
promoted an anti-American and anti-Western world view through schools,
madrasas and mosques established in refugee camps and mujahidin-
controlled territory. Frontier madrasas run by Pakistan’s jui and other
radicals offered free schooling to the children of poor refugees and war
orphans, while older students received scholarships to study Islam in
Saudi Arabia. The mujahidin circulated tracts on women’s deportment and
warned Afghans about the moral decadence of Westerners. Islamist apolo-
gists also published tracts attacking Christianity and urged Afghans not
to mix with Christians or foreigners, for fear they would be ideologically
compromised by Catholic and Protestant workers who had established aid
agencies in Pakistan as part of the international relief effort.
American, British, Swedish and other European aid agencies unwit-
tingly contributed to this radicalization by funding schools inside
Afghanistan, even though it was impossible for foreign advisers to monitor
their curriculum. Indeed, it was difficult enough for foreigners to monitor
educational activities inside the refugee camps due to access restrictions
imposed by Pakistani officials and mujahidin commanders who controlled
the camps. The University of Nebraska’s Center for Afghanistan Studies
even used usaid money to fund mujahidin-approved primary school text-
books, which included extended treaties on jihad, images of Kalashnikov
assault rifles, tanks, grenades and graphic images of decapitation of
Soviet soldiers.
While radical Islamists tried to indoctrinate the poor and displaced,
middle-class Afghans who could afford to live outside the refugee camps
sent their children to Pakistani schools or paid for home tutoring. In
Iran, where there were no refugee camps, Afghan children attended state
schools and encountered another version of revolutionary Islam, while the
sons and daughters of refugees given asylum in Western countries passed
nandana
(Nandana)
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