By Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta 

The end of the Cold War and Bipolarity of international system gave birth to Unilateralism, despite the wishes of people around the world, the International legal system was ignored. Many countries were invaded; their governments were toppled, and their people bore the damages.

Islam replaced communism as the enemy in the ideology of hegemonic order. Islam became synonymous with terrorism; thus, the foundation of one of the biggest human civilizations was questioned.

When it seemed that neo-liberalism prevailed globally and history reached its end per Fukuyama’s thesis, from Iraq, Libya to the Northern African states came under attack, and many stateless lands were emerged. In the countries that lost their statehood and authority, Islamic extremism and terrorism began to grow. This set the ground for bloody competitions and destructive conflicts. International jihadist networks migrated to these Countries. We witnessed social violence and ethnic fragmentations, and one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern history.

Our country, Afghanistan, is one of the countries affected by extremism and terrorism. For the last forty years, we have been stuck in destructive proxy wars. There are some strategic mistakes that happened. Western countries spearheaded by the United States supported fundamentalist groups throughout the twentieth century, and used them in their policies of domination against leftist movements, as well as the third world countries and Liberation movements. One of the central policies of the western countries was supporting the movements who took religion as identity, and misused it to gain political power.

Islam is a civilization in its totality. Various nations with different cultures and history have lived with it. Undoubtedly, all Muslims have the same conception of fundamental principles of faith, but in all other questions of religion there is diversity and pluralism in reading and understanding. Today, there are various movements and conceptions in the Islamic countries that see Islam as a civilization. They want harmony between Islamic and modern values of our epoch. Meanwhile, they want the Islamic world to be trustable for the rest of the world. But the harsh reality is that institutions who promote fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of Islam are supported, promoted and used by western and conservative states as a tool of foreign policy.

After the soviet invasion of Afghanistan, under the pretext of fight against communism, the United States and western countries, supported the radical movements of political Islam in Afghanistan. International jihadists, including Osama Bin Laden, were brought to Afghanistan with the support of these countries’ intelligence agencies. Thus, Afghanistan was turned into a hotspot for international jihadism. 

Until then, our country was one of the most tolerant and secure countries of the world. But with the invasion of the Soviet Union, and West’s response, Afghanistan turned into an Islamic extremism hotspot, and the battleground for various proxy wars. Afghanistan was not a failed state; rather, it was destroyed due to Pakistan’s interventions through international jihadist extremism. Our people still remember anti-communism fighter’s rhetoric of “we will fight communism till the last Afghan”. Communism was defeated but the imposed war was not ended on Afghans.

There is a quote from Mr. Zbigniew Brezezinski’s speech, who was national security advisor during President Jimmy Carter, about misuse of Afghan Muslims in the war against communism here. I personally was present in this meeting. On 13th January, 2013 Hamid Karzai, former president of Afghanistan, invited a group of US policy makers for dinner in Washington D.C. Mr. Brezezinski was invited too. Former president Karzai asked him, “Mr. Brezezinski, is it correct that you introduced green belt theory?” (The theory of surrounding Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc with Islamic extremism)?

Mr. Brezezinski replied: “Not exactly Mr. President, but I believed in surrounding the Soviet Union with insecure hotspots; and through this, lay the ground for communism collapse. Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan was a good opportunity for this.”

Karzai said: “but this led to massive reinforcement of Islamic terrorism, which torments the entire world now.”

Mr. Brezezinski calmly replied: “Mr. President, from a historical perspective, reinforcing of religious fundamentalists is nothing compared to the historical defeat of communism”.

From the US and Western countries’ viewpoint, Mr. Brezezinski’s perspective might be correct; but from the perspective of Afghans, as well as other countries suffering from bloodshed, religious extremism, and terrorism that was the biggest disaster by which we are still suffering, we, the Islamic countries, are the prime victims of terrorism which was first reinforced as a tool for hegemonic policies.

From a strategic perspective, sustainable peace in the world is not possible unless peace-seeking humanity, the Russian Federation, and Islamic world join hands to fight against terrorism, and the rest of the world also must be committed to avoid its tool of foreign policy. I believe that supporting and strengthening modernist and reformists movements in the Islamic world to counter religious extremism is a strategic step toward a better future for the humanity. This only needs political will and determination.

Unfortunately, some countries, not only do not have the will, but they use extremism as an option to some extent. From their perspective, extremism is good until it serves their hegemonic interest. If not, it is bad. Sadly, in the fight against extremism, selective approach leads to using extremism. Some countries still use this approach in international arena, which does not help to end conflicts and proxy wars especially in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

We need a paradigm shift. I believe animosity against Islam, Islamophobia, rise of populism, and extreme nationalism will only perpetuate hatred and violence. Throughout the world, majority of Muslims do not support political and extremist Islam. As I explained, they themselves are the prime victims of extremism. But the question is, can we build a strategic partnership between moderate Muslims and the peace-loving rest of the world, based on mutual respect, tolerance of different cultures and common human values?

I believe the strategic partnership between the Islamic world and Russia should reflect this new paradigm, which would be fundamentally different from other traditional approaches among the cultures in our world.

It is worth mentioning that we, the Afghan people, are grateful to the Russian Federation’s assistance regarding security and peace in Afghanistan. In February and May this year, Moscow hosted two intra-Afghan dialogues. Russia’s strong presence in the Afghan peace process, and their assistance in reaching an inclusive and sustainable peace is valuable for us. We hope that the Russian Federation helps us in this regard and remains an active international partner.

The above article is transcript of speech by Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, at the 5th Annual meeting of the Group of strategic vision Russia-Islamic world in Ufa, 28-30 November, 2019.

Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta is former Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser, former Foreign Minister and the Senior Advisor on International Affairs to President Hamid Karzai and Chairman of AISS advisory Board.

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