How the US Invented Islamo-Fascism
By Adrian Chan-Wyles
PhD
Around 2900 people died in the terrorist attacks on the
World Trade Centre buildings in New York on September the 11th,
2001. Although no group has ever claimed
responsibility for these attacks, and despite Osama Bin Laden claiming in an
interview that neither he, nor his Al Qaeda organisation was responsible, the
US Bush administration decided that he was guilty and that Afghanistan must be
invaded as a result. Although there is
no evidence linking Al Qaeda to 911, the Taliban movement of guerrilla fighters
in Afghanistan did grow-out of the US sponsored Mujahidin (which was led on
America’s behalf by Bin Laden) during the Soviet-led incursion into that
country during the 1980’s. In 2003, the
US and its allies (predominately the UK), illegally invaded Iraq and usurped
the legitimate regime of Saddam Hussein.
Of the alleged 19 suicide bombers that hijacked the planes during the
911-terror attacks, 17 were of Saudi Arabian origin, and 2 were Egyptian,
although this evidence has been disputed.
None were from Iraq or Afghanistan, and yet these two countries were
chosen for the US to wreak its revenge. It
is estimated that approximately 1,400,000 innocent people have been killed in
the Middle East due to US retaliatory military action. Today, Islam is routinely demonised through
the Western media, which simultaneously ignores all the inconsistencies,
illogicalities, and blatant lies that the US broadcast as news and informed
opinion. Despite the massive death toll
in the Middle East, both invasions failed and only served to establish ever more
far-right militarised Islamo-fascist regimes.
The ideology these regimes pursue is a form of Western fascism
superimposed over tribal concerns, and then justified by a thin-veneer of
misconstrued Qur’anic quotations – it is not Islam. In fact it is solely the invention of the
United States during 1970’s and 1980’s, and was designed to bring down the
Soviet-friendly governments of Afghanistan.
What the US ideologues did not take into account is what would happen if
this highly potent far-right religionism was turned on its creators – the Americans. What must not be lost sight of is the fact
that it is Muslim people who are the victims of a continued policy of
neo-imperialism. This includes the
Mujahidin who were misled into fighting the Soviets, and the Taliban who took
their place and were confronted with modern highly destructive Western military
technology. It also includes the peoples
of Iraq, Libya and now Syria, who continue to die in their thousands, victims
of US’s inspired militarism; and then there are the Palestinians – the perpetual
victims of a racist Zionist State that has been armed and encouraged in its
genocidal mission by the USA. The people
of Pakistan should reject American imperialism, make peace with India, and
unite with the Middle East to throw out Islamo-fascism, and help restore the
true and civilising beauty that is Islam.
Westerners, for their part, should educate themselves and see through
the false anti-Soviet rhetoric of the Cold War, and the far-right inspired US
propaganda that demonises Islam.
Westerners should not attack Muslims or Islam, but instead attack the
ignorance that underlies the racial supremacists that have inspired the US misrepresentation
of Islam. To do this, Westerners should
join with authentic practitioners of Islam and work to find the truth – in this
it will be understood that the common enemy is Western derived fascism and not
the religion of peace.
Islam is a religion of peace, but more than this, it is also a deeply caring communal society and culture, that has a number of different and historically conditioned expressions throughout the world. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States of America has targeted the Middle East as the next big enemy that threatens America’s interests in the world, and has taken military, political, cultural, social and propaganda steps to confront and annul its presence. This US policy, at its base, relies solely upon the prejudice that is ‘Islamophobia’, which in its simplest terms is the complete and total misrepresentation of Islam, Islamic culture and Muslims at the point of contact. The desired effect is to inspire exactly the same distaste and disgust that is usually reserved for the historical assessment and memory of Adolf Hitler and the antics of his despicable Nazi Party in the minds of the average Westerner. Just as Hitler’s Nazi regime used mass media to indoctrinate the population of Germany with its fascist ideology, the US has used print, film, and the internet to propagate an anti-Islamic rhetoric that has travelled far beyond the borders of America. The point of this exercise in mass deception has been to demonise Islam and all Muslims in the minds of US and other Western citizens, as a precursor to extensive military action against Islamic countries and regimes, whilst pursuing the object of ‘regime change’. Regime change is the neo-imperial and neo-colonial policies of the US and its EU allies. Its premise is to rhetorically and militarily attack all Islamic regimes that do not support the USA and its Zionist ally Israel.
The modern State of Israel was created by the imperialist British in 1948 and was achieved by Jewish terrorists living in Palestine who for many decades previously, had waged a violent guerrilla campaign against the British authorities in Palestine, killing and maiming many thousands of people who did not support the Zionist notion of a racially superior Jewish State – this included amongst its many victims Jewish people who did not support Zionism due to its underlying racist rhetoric. When a Socialist Labour Party came to power in 1945, it intended to pay for its widespread implementation of a Welfare State in the British homeland by the rapid dismantlement of what remained of the British Empire. Palestine – as a protectorate – was abandoned to the Zionist Jewish campaigners, around geographically half of which was internationally recognised as the ‘State of Israel’. The problem was that the Palestinians – whose county it actually was – were not consulted at any stage of this development, many of whom found themselves living in the newly designated ‘Israeli’ area of what was once their former homeland of Palestine. Many were forced-out of ‘Israel’ and into the over-crowded section now defined as ‘Palestine’. Quite naturally this led to resentment and allegations of ethnic cleansing carried-out by the Israelis against the Palestinians – a situation that has continued to this day in an asymmetric resistance, which sees the Israeli military using state of the art American-supplied weaponry to suppress the demonstrations of Palestinians who are at best either lightly armed, or not armed at all. The Jewish nationalists who pursued the Zionist establishment of an Israel State, essentially lived in the past philosophically, and intended from the beginning of their terror campaign to establish the Biblical myth of ‘Israel’ in the modern world. These Jewish people who historically lived in Palestine, were not subject to the appalling holocaust aimed at the European Jewish population by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, which used starvation, beating, experimentation, shooting, beheadings, and mass gassing as a means to eradicate homosexuals, ethnic minorities, Communists, the Disabled, dissidents, intellectuals, and entire Jewish populations from Germany and the geographical areas that Germany either influenced or militarily conquered. It is estimated that this pogrom killed at least 6 million innocent Jewish men, women, and children. However, after WWII, the Zionists in Palestine – seeking to boost the number of Jewish people living there (and disenfranchise the Palestinians further), actively encouraged the surviving Jewish populations to resettle en masse in Palestine as a means to populate the new Israel. This is exactly when the Zionist State of Israel began to associate itself with the European holocaust of its Jewish population, as a further means to justify its policy of racial discrimination against the Palestinians, and the perpetuation of the myth of Israeli spiritual and racial superiority – a position that many Jewish people living outside of Israel neither accept or support as a valid expression of Jewishness. This is an important factor to take into consideration when assessing the American (and Israeli) attitude toward Islam – many Jewish thinkers and religious leaders, not to mention ordinary Jewish people, actively campaign and resist Zionism and the often destructive actions carried-out by the Israeli State. Furthermore, the Israeli State often uses the tactic of deliberately misrepresenting any and all criticism aimed at its ongoing mishandling of the Palestinian people as being the product of ‘anti-Semitism’. In other words, the fascist State of Israel reduces all criticisms of its behaviour to being a product of a worldwide prejudice against Jewish people. This could be no further from the truth, and is exposed as the lie it is by the existence of many anti-Zionist protest groups and associations around the world that are ‘Jewish’.
Defining Israel in historical context is important for understanding American notions of Islam. Israel is essentially an American colony, and one which can be relied upon to ruthlessly and unquestionably pursue US foreign policy in the Middle East. In return for this duplicity, the US has armed Israel with nuclear weapons and a limitless supply of other arms which include fighter planes, tanks, artillery, tracking technology, as well as various other weapons systems. This special relationship includes economic aid to the Israeli State the like of which is not even accorded to ordinary US citizens. The racist Zionism of Israel against the Palestinians, ensures that Israel remains the perpetual enemy of all Middle Eastern countries, the Muslim populations of which quite naturally support the oppressed Palestinians. Generally speaking, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, proxy wars continued in the Middle East, with the USSR arming, training and financing the pro-Palestinian Islamic nations against Israel – which was itself backed by the USA and its Western allies. However, although America’s pro-Israeli loyalty was clear for all to see, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is clear that the US did not pursue an openly ‘anti-Islamic’ policy until the demise of the Soviet Union. This change of policy after 1991 appears to have been a matter of the US ensuring that its massive industrial-military complex still had an ‘evil’ enemy to face to justify its economic existence. The ‘new’ chosen enemy of the USA was of course the enemy of Israel – namely Islam. Islam was chosen because it is the religion of many Palestinians, and was perceived by the US (and Israel) as being the common denominator for Middle East-wide resistance to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, but things were not always like this. The suddenness of this ‘about face’ by US foreign policy can be seen by looking at the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1989.
It was in the years leading up and including the Soviet Afghan War that the US intelligence and security services covertly created the socio-economic and cultural conditions for the development of what may be called ‘Islamo-fascism’. It accomplished this feat in Pakistan and the remote tribal areas of Afghanistan. Its purpose at that time was simple and intended to remain localised, as it was designed to undermine the Communist regime in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was formerly part of the USA, and its Communist government had not been directly created by the Soviets, but from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan had been on very close and mutually supportive terms. In fact, one of the first international treaties enacted by Lenin (and his new Communist regime), was signed on February 28th, 1921, assuring friendship between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan (just two days prior to this, the Soviets had signed a peace-accord with Persia). Further influence was felt through the Soviet Islamic Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that shared a common border with Afghanistan, all of which had successfully carried-out Communist Revolutions in their own right, and managed to integrate Islamic theology with Marxist-Leninist political thought. These areas experienced rapid economic growth, and the infrastructure of their societies developed as a result, becoming modernised and beneficial to its citizens. Far from being repressed (as Western propaganda would have the world believe), Islamic practice continued as it had done for centuries in these Soviet Republics free of any direct political involvement or hindrance. In many ways this situation was maintained because of the obvious material benefit of being part of the Soviet Union, and religious groups had no need to seek political power in their own right. The implementation of Marxist-Leninism in the Soviet Islamic Republics was liberal and designed to accommodate very different religious and cultural manifestations from those existing in Russia. Although Afghanistan remained a tribal and feudalistic monarchy until 1973, Soviet influence had seeped into the country, which included extensive material, economic and cultural support, with many Soviet advisors (both civilian and military) permanently based in the country, whilst Afghani citizens were invited (free of charge) to be educated in the USSR proper, and to receive high quality (but free) medical treatment, amongst many other incentives. This influence eventually led to a Communist Revolution in the country and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) in 1978. This regime practiced an Islamised version of highly liberal Marxist-Leninism, which was being attacked and undermined by covert US intelligence and military action in the area virtually from its inception.
US operatives working in Pakistan and the remote tribal areas of Afghanistan, devised a plan to subvert Islamic theology, and drive a wedge between it and Soviet-style Marxist-Leninism. They did this by linking promises of massive amounts of military and financial aid to Pakistani and Afghani tribal leaders, with their compliance to US plans for the area. The US wanted Afghanistan to be Soviet-free with the further objective being the de-Sovietisation of the already Communist Islamic Republics. The US intention was to sow seeds of ideological discontent amongst the ordinary Islamic tribes in Afghanistan by establishing what seemed to be Islamic colleges (or ‘madrasas’) in Pakistan, but instead of learning conventional Islamic theology, these centres trained young men in a form of fascist nationalism usually found in the West – and premised upon the false notion of racial supremacy. This linked Western prejudice against the USSR with the already existing tribal antagonism that existed within Islam in general, and Afghanistan in particular. This brew of highly volatile angst, resentment, revenge, and brutality, was then superimposed with a skewed pseudo-Islamic rhetoric that saw American trained Imans, Muftis, and Mullahs teaching impressionable young tribal men (many of whom were illiterate), to attack and kill the perceived enemy in the most brutal and vicious manner. These counterfeit religious authorities justified their Islamo-fascism by claiming what they were saying was justified by the Qur’an, and could be found within its pages. This lie was successful due to the general respect within which Islamic religious authorities are generally held, and the fact that a largely illiterate audience has no means of checking the Qur’an for accuracy. What is important to understand here is that Western nationalism has no place or relevance in the average Afghan tribe, and the often brutal and feudalistic behaviour of such tribes is in fact historically conditioned and not justified by the Qur’an at all. In this respect, as the Qur’an is a religious text designed to bring peace and civility to the world, it shares much more with Marxist-Leninism than it does with Western racism, prejudice and race-hate. This is why the US had stop the association at all costs between Islam and Communism. At its base, this policy was probably premised on protecting the US oil supplies coming as they did primarily from the Middle East, in an attempt to stop that region coming under Soviet influence or direct control.
US military and intelligence officers travelled around the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan ‘recruiting’ poorly educated young men to attend what were really terrorist training camps. At these camps they were indoctrinated with the new US-made Islamo-fascism and taught how to use various fire arms and explosives, as well as partake in basic military operations. From these camps (in Pakistan) they would be moved into the Afghan heartland to carry-out guerrilla war-type operations against the new Afghan Communist regime. It was a slow trickle at first, but it was enough to destabilise the new government and resulted in the assassination of its leader Nur Mohammad Taraki, by his prime minster Hafizullah Amin in late September 1978. Hafizullah Amin allowed the country to slide into ever greater chaos that saw tribalism and murder spiral out of control, and even appear to threaten the security of the Soviet Islamic Republics. This appeared to the Soviet leadership to be the emergence of a deliberate tribalism in the area that even before the assassination of Taraki, had seen mass imprisonments and executions in the country carried-out on the grounds of tribal ethnicity. This is why the USSR acted on the 24th of December, 1979. Contrary to Western propaganda, there was no large-scale ‘invasion’ of Afghanistan – there were already many thousands of Soviet advisors and Red Army and special (Spetsnaz) troops already in the country – a presence that was generally welcomed by the Afghani population. Yes, the 40th Army did send Spetsnaz across the Soviet frontier into Afghanistan, but this was low-key and hardly noticed at the time. Spetsnaz forces located and killed Hafizullah Amin who had taken refuge in Tajbeg Palace in southern Kabul. This action was taken as the USSR authorities viewed the intensification of tribal violence as emanating from this individual. Babrak Karmal was immediately installed as leader of Afghanistan and things started to appear to settle down. The problem was that tribal differences had been allowed to affect every part of life in Communist Afghanistan, and this led to a social regression from a modern and unified nation, into a hierarchy of disparate and feudalistic tribes fighting for prominence. Of course, the United States not only implemented this state of affairs, but also aided and abetted its destructive development as a deliberate anti-Soviet policy.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, the USSR was essentially assisting a friendly neighbour that was experiencing a disintegration of civil society through an upsurge in religiously based tribalism. It was not an act of imperialism on behalf of the USSR, but rather the Soviet authorities coming to the aid of a beleaguered Communist State, albeit one that existed outside of the USSR itself. The problems were immense as religious and tribal identities proved very powerful to over-come when triggered and encouraged by outside influences. This regressive step that saw the developed and civilised infrastructure of Afghanistan fall apart over a decade, the US ideologues viewed as ‘liberation’ from the tyranny of Communism. Not only this, but the brutality and wanton destruction associated with their new invention of Islamo-fascism became eulogised in mainstream American media and academia, with the maniacal antics of the Mujahidin being presented as ‘brave’, ‘selfless’, ‘intrepid’, ‘courageous’, ‘daring’ and ‘religiously motivated’, and so on. At no time did any US narrative examine the highly exploitative conditions the Mujahidin soldiers had to live in, fight in, and die in. These simple men influenced by Western racism and prejudice were persuaded to sacrifice their lives in their tens of thousands fighting the sophisticated Soviet war machine. The Mujahidin was controlled by one Osama Bin Laden (a paid CIA operative), who was responsible for recruiting and co-ordinating Mujahidin operations in theatre. This citizen of Saudi Arabia (and friend of the Bush family), willingly led a new type of Islamic fundamentalism that projected a form of armed Western nationalism onto Islamic theology. Whilst fighting the Soviets, Osama (along with the Mujahidin in general), were viewed most favourably in the USA, but in reality what motivated Osama was the eradication of Western influence from the Middle East – and that included the Soviet Union at the time. Perhaps the most sickening portrayal of the Mujahidin as some kind of chivalrous order European knight is found in the US film entitled Rambo III – which sees the fictional US super-soldier pitted against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Rambo pays tribute to every attribute of the Mujahidin that is today despised as being the product of terrorism in the Taliban.
In the end the Soviets could not prevail in Afghanistan and its modern and progressive system collapsed and returned its culture to the level of religiously inspired feudalism. Osama Bin Laden, with the exit of the Soviets, took all the CIA money and armament, and re-branded the Mujahidin the ‘Taliban’. He also declared war on the West. It is a peculiar situation that Pakistan, as an ally of the US, continues to operate the Madrasa colleges that now train ‘terrorists’ to attack US interests around the world. In reality nothing has actually changed on the ground. The system and ideology of American-created Islamo-fascism is still in operation, but now the target of its race-hate and prejudice has switched to its founder – the USA – its allies, and any Muslim State or person who refused to be misled by this abhorration that masquerades as Islam. In other words, Islamo-fascism deliberately targets conventional Islam, and although Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda has attacked and killed Westerners (not just Americans), it has by far murdered many more Muslim people for disagreeing with its ‘foreign’ ideology. What we are seeing here is that a ruthless ideology created by the US in the 1970’s to fight the Soviet Union, has now developed a life of its own and is attacking the non-Islamic West. The greatest tragedy here is that the US would have the world believe that it is Muslims that are the problem, when in fact it is Muslims who have been the victims of US imperialism, and US inspired propaganda and ideological manipulation. This includes those who have been misled by US influence in the area, and the hundreds and thousands of Muslims the US military has killed in recent years in the Middle East, whilst trying to stamp-out its own creation of Islamo-fascism.
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2015.
Islam is a religion of peace, but more than this, it is also a deeply caring communal society and culture, that has a number of different and historically conditioned expressions throughout the world. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States of America has targeted the Middle East as the next big enemy that threatens America’s interests in the world, and has taken military, political, cultural, social and propaganda steps to confront and annul its presence. This US policy, at its base, relies solely upon the prejudice that is ‘Islamophobia’, which in its simplest terms is the complete and total misrepresentation of Islam, Islamic culture and Muslims at the point of contact. The desired effect is to inspire exactly the same distaste and disgust that is usually reserved for the historical assessment and memory of Adolf Hitler and the antics of his despicable Nazi Party in the minds of the average Westerner. Just as Hitler’s Nazi regime used mass media to indoctrinate the population of Germany with its fascist ideology, the US has used print, film, and the internet to propagate an anti-Islamic rhetoric that has travelled far beyond the borders of America. The point of this exercise in mass deception has been to demonise Islam and all Muslims in the minds of US and other Western citizens, as a precursor to extensive military action against Islamic countries and regimes, whilst pursuing the object of ‘regime change’. Regime change is the neo-imperial and neo-colonial policies of the US and its EU allies. Its premise is to rhetorically and militarily attack all Islamic regimes that do not support the USA and its Zionist ally Israel.
The modern State of Israel was created by the imperialist British in 1948 and was achieved by Jewish terrorists living in Palestine who for many decades previously, had waged a violent guerrilla campaign against the British authorities in Palestine, killing and maiming many thousands of people who did not support the Zionist notion of a racially superior Jewish State – this included amongst its many victims Jewish people who did not support Zionism due to its underlying racist rhetoric. When a Socialist Labour Party came to power in 1945, it intended to pay for its widespread implementation of a Welfare State in the British homeland by the rapid dismantlement of what remained of the British Empire. Palestine – as a protectorate – was abandoned to the Zionist Jewish campaigners, around geographically half of which was internationally recognised as the ‘State of Israel’. The problem was that the Palestinians – whose county it actually was – were not consulted at any stage of this development, many of whom found themselves living in the newly designated ‘Israeli’ area of what was once their former homeland of Palestine. Many were forced-out of ‘Israel’ and into the over-crowded section now defined as ‘Palestine’. Quite naturally this led to resentment and allegations of ethnic cleansing carried-out by the Israelis against the Palestinians – a situation that has continued to this day in an asymmetric resistance, which sees the Israeli military using state of the art American-supplied weaponry to suppress the demonstrations of Palestinians who are at best either lightly armed, or not armed at all. The Jewish nationalists who pursued the Zionist establishment of an Israel State, essentially lived in the past philosophically, and intended from the beginning of their terror campaign to establish the Biblical myth of ‘Israel’ in the modern world. These Jewish people who historically lived in Palestine, were not subject to the appalling holocaust aimed at the European Jewish population by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, which used starvation, beating, experimentation, shooting, beheadings, and mass gassing as a means to eradicate homosexuals, ethnic minorities, Communists, the Disabled, dissidents, intellectuals, and entire Jewish populations from Germany and the geographical areas that Germany either influenced or militarily conquered. It is estimated that this pogrom killed at least 6 million innocent Jewish men, women, and children. However, after WWII, the Zionists in Palestine – seeking to boost the number of Jewish people living there (and disenfranchise the Palestinians further), actively encouraged the surviving Jewish populations to resettle en masse in Palestine as a means to populate the new Israel. This is exactly when the Zionist State of Israel began to associate itself with the European holocaust of its Jewish population, as a further means to justify its policy of racial discrimination against the Palestinians, and the perpetuation of the myth of Israeli spiritual and racial superiority – a position that many Jewish people living outside of Israel neither accept or support as a valid expression of Jewishness. This is an important factor to take into consideration when assessing the American (and Israeli) attitude toward Islam – many Jewish thinkers and religious leaders, not to mention ordinary Jewish people, actively campaign and resist Zionism and the often destructive actions carried-out by the Israeli State. Furthermore, the Israeli State often uses the tactic of deliberately misrepresenting any and all criticism aimed at its ongoing mishandling of the Palestinian people as being the product of ‘anti-Semitism’. In other words, the fascist State of Israel reduces all criticisms of its behaviour to being a product of a worldwide prejudice against Jewish people. This could be no further from the truth, and is exposed as the lie it is by the existence of many anti-Zionist protest groups and associations around the world that are ‘Jewish’.
Defining Israel in historical context is important for understanding American notions of Islam. Israel is essentially an American colony, and one which can be relied upon to ruthlessly and unquestionably pursue US foreign policy in the Middle East. In return for this duplicity, the US has armed Israel with nuclear weapons and a limitless supply of other arms which include fighter planes, tanks, artillery, tracking technology, as well as various other weapons systems. This special relationship includes economic aid to the Israeli State the like of which is not even accorded to ordinary US citizens. The racist Zionism of Israel against the Palestinians, ensures that Israel remains the perpetual enemy of all Middle Eastern countries, the Muslim populations of which quite naturally support the oppressed Palestinians. Generally speaking, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, proxy wars continued in the Middle East, with the USSR arming, training and financing the pro-Palestinian Islamic nations against Israel – which was itself backed by the USA and its Western allies. However, although America’s pro-Israeli loyalty was clear for all to see, prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is clear that the US did not pursue an openly ‘anti-Islamic’ policy until the demise of the Soviet Union. This change of policy after 1991 appears to have been a matter of the US ensuring that its massive industrial-military complex still had an ‘evil’ enemy to face to justify its economic existence. The ‘new’ chosen enemy of the USA was of course the enemy of Israel – namely Islam. Islam was chosen because it is the religion of many Palestinians, and was perceived by the US (and Israel) as being the common denominator for Middle East-wide resistance to Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, but things were not always like this. The suddenness of this ‘about face’ by US foreign policy can be seen by looking at the Soviet-Afghan War of 1979-1989.
It was in the years leading up and including the Soviet Afghan War that the US intelligence and security services covertly created the socio-economic and cultural conditions for the development of what may be called ‘Islamo-fascism’. It accomplished this feat in Pakistan and the remote tribal areas of Afghanistan. Its purpose at that time was simple and intended to remain localised, as it was designed to undermine the Communist regime in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was formerly part of the USA, and its Communist government had not been directly created by the Soviets, but from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union and Afghanistan had been on very close and mutually supportive terms. In fact, one of the first international treaties enacted by Lenin (and his new Communist regime), was signed on February 28th, 1921, assuring friendship between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan (just two days prior to this, the Soviets had signed a peace-accord with Persia). Further influence was felt through the Soviet Islamic Republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that shared a common border with Afghanistan, all of which had successfully carried-out Communist Revolutions in their own right, and managed to integrate Islamic theology with Marxist-Leninist political thought. These areas experienced rapid economic growth, and the infrastructure of their societies developed as a result, becoming modernised and beneficial to its citizens. Far from being repressed (as Western propaganda would have the world believe), Islamic practice continued as it had done for centuries in these Soviet Republics free of any direct political involvement or hindrance. In many ways this situation was maintained because of the obvious material benefit of being part of the Soviet Union, and religious groups had no need to seek political power in their own right. The implementation of Marxist-Leninism in the Soviet Islamic Republics was liberal and designed to accommodate very different religious and cultural manifestations from those existing in Russia. Although Afghanistan remained a tribal and feudalistic monarchy until 1973, Soviet influence had seeped into the country, which included extensive material, economic and cultural support, with many Soviet advisors (both civilian and military) permanently based in the country, whilst Afghani citizens were invited (free of charge) to be educated in the USSR proper, and to receive high quality (but free) medical treatment, amongst many other incentives. This influence eventually led to a Communist Revolution in the country and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) in 1978. This regime practiced an Islamised version of highly liberal Marxist-Leninism, which was being attacked and undermined by covert US intelligence and military action in the area virtually from its inception.
US operatives working in Pakistan and the remote tribal areas of Afghanistan, devised a plan to subvert Islamic theology, and drive a wedge between it and Soviet-style Marxist-Leninism. They did this by linking promises of massive amounts of military and financial aid to Pakistani and Afghani tribal leaders, with their compliance to US plans for the area. The US wanted Afghanistan to be Soviet-free with the further objective being the de-Sovietisation of the already Communist Islamic Republics. The US intention was to sow seeds of ideological discontent amongst the ordinary Islamic tribes in Afghanistan by establishing what seemed to be Islamic colleges (or ‘madrasas’) in Pakistan, but instead of learning conventional Islamic theology, these centres trained young men in a form of fascist nationalism usually found in the West – and premised upon the false notion of racial supremacy. This linked Western prejudice against the USSR with the already existing tribal antagonism that existed within Islam in general, and Afghanistan in particular. This brew of highly volatile angst, resentment, revenge, and brutality, was then superimposed with a skewed pseudo-Islamic rhetoric that saw American trained Imans, Muftis, and Mullahs teaching impressionable young tribal men (many of whom were illiterate), to attack and kill the perceived enemy in the most brutal and vicious manner. These counterfeit religious authorities justified their Islamo-fascism by claiming what they were saying was justified by the Qur’an, and could be found within its pages. This lie was successful due to the general respect within which Islamic religious authorities are generally held, and the fact that a largely illiterate audience has no means of checking the Qur’an for accuracy. What is important to understand here is that Western nationalism has no place or relevance in the average Afghan tribe, and the often brutal and feudalistic behaviour of such tribes is in fact historically conditioned and not justified by the Qur’an at all. In this respect, as the Qur’an is a religious text designed to bring peace and civility to the world, it shares much more with Marxist-Leninism than it does with Western racism, prejudice and race-hate. This is why the US had stop the association at all costs between Islam and Communism. At its base, this policy was probably premised on protecting the US oil supplies coming as they did primarily from the Middle East, in an attempt to stop that region coming under Soviet influence or direct control.
US military and intelligence officers travelled around the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan ‘recruiting’ poorly educated young men to attend what were really terrorist training camps. At these camps they were indoctrinated with the new US-made Islamo-fascism and taught how to use various fire arms and explosives, as well as partake in basic military operations. From these camps (in Pakistan) they would be moved into the Afghan heartland to carry-out guerrilla war-type operations against the new Afghan Communist regime. It was a slow trickle at first, but it was enough to destabilise the new government and resulted in the assassination of its leader Nur Mohammad Taraki, by his prime minster Hafizullah Amin in late September 1978. Hafizullah Amin allowed the country to slide into ever greater chaos that saw tribalism and murder spiral out of control, and even appear to threaten the security of the Soviet Islamic Republics. This appeared to the Soviet leadership to be the emergence of a deliberate tribalism in the area that even before the assassination of Taraki, had seen mass imprisonments and executions in the country carried-out on the grounds of tribal ethnicity. This is why the USSR acted on the 24th of December, 1979. Contrary to Western propaganda, there was no large-scale ‘invasion’ of Afghanistan – there were already many thousands of Soviet advisors and Red Army and special (Spetsnaz) troops already in the country – a presence that was generally welcomed by the Afghani population. Yes, the 40th Army did send Spetsnaz across the Soviet frontier into Afghanistan, but this was low-key and hardly noticed at the time. Spetsnaz forces located and killed Hafizullah Amin who had taken refuge in Tajbeg Palace in southern Kabul. This action was taken as the USSR authorities viewed the intensification of tribal violence as emanating from this individual. Babrak Karmal was immediately installed as leader of Afghanistan and things started to appear to settle down. The problem was that tribal differences had been allowed to affect every part of life in Communist Afghanistan, and this led to a social regression from a modern and unified nation, into a hierarchy of disparate and feudalistic tribes fighting for prominence. Of course, the United States not only implemented this state of affairs, but also aided and abetted its destructive development as a deliberate anti-Soviet policy.
During the Soviet-Afghan War, the USSR was essentially assisting a friendly neighbour that was experiencing a disintegration of civil society through an upsurge in religiously based tribalism. It was not an act of imperialism on behalf of the USSR, but rather the Soviet authorities coming to the aid of a beleaguered Communist State, albeit one that existed outside of the USSR itself. The problems were immense as religious and tribal identities proved very powerful to over-come when triggered and encouraged by outside influences. This regressive step that saw the developed and civilised infrastructure of Afghanistan fall apart over a decade, the US ideologues viewed as ‘liberation’ from the tyranny of Communism. Not only this, but the brutality and wanton destruction associated with their new invention of Islamo-fascism became eulogised in mainstream American media and academia, with the maniacal antics of the Mujahidin being presented as ‘brave’, ‘selfless’, ‘intrepid’, ‘courageous’, ‘daring’ and ‘religiously motivated’, and so on. At no time did any US narrative examine the highly exploitative conditions the Mujahidin soldiers had to live in, fight in, and die in. These simple men influenced by Western racism and prejudice were persuaded to sacrifice their lives in their tens of thousands fighting the sophisticated Soviet war machine. The Mujahidin was controlled by one Osama Bin Laden (a paid CIA operative), who was responsible for recruiting and co-ordinating Mujahidin operations in theatre. This citizen of Saudi Arabia (and friend of the Bush family), willingly led a new type of Islamic fundamentalism that projected a form of armed Western nationalism onto Islamic theology. Whilst fighting the Soviets, Osama (along with the Mujahidin in general), were viewed most favourably in the USA, but in reality what motivated Osama was the eradication of Western influence from the Middle East – and that included the Soviet Union at the time. Perhaps the most sickening portrayal of the Mujahidin as some kind of chivalrous order European knight is found in the US film entitled Rambo III – which sees the fictional US super-soldier pitted against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Rambo pays tribute to every attribute of the Mujahidin that is today despised as being the product of terrorism in the Taliban.
In the end the Soviets could not prevail in Afghanistan and its modern and progressive system collapsed and returned its culture to the level of religiously inspired feudalism. Osama Bin Laden, with the exit of the Soviets, took all the CIA money and armament, and re-branded the Mujahidin the ‘Taliban’. He also declared war on the West. It is a peculiar situation that Pakistan, as an ally of the US, continues to operate the Madrasa colleges that now train ‘terrorists’ to attack US interests around the world. In reality nothing has actually changed on the ground. The system and ideology of American-created Islamo-fascism is still in operation, but now the target of its race-hate and prejudice has switched to its founder – the USA – its allies, and any Muslim State or person who refused to be misled by this abhorration that masquerades as Islam. In other words, Islamo-fascism deliberately targets conventional Islam, and although Osama Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda has attacked and killed Westerners (not just Americans), it has by far murdered many more Muslim people for disagreeing with its ‘foreign’ ideology. What we are seeing here is that a ruthless ideology created by the US in the 1970’s to fight the Soviet Union, has now developed a life of its own and is attacking the non-Islamic West. The greatest tragedy here is that the US would have the world believe that it is Muslims that are the problem, when in fact it is Muslims who have been the victims of US imperialism, and US inspired propaganda and ideological manipulation. This includes those who have been misled by US influence in the area, and the hundreds and thousands of Muslims the US military has killed in recent years in the Middle East, whilst trying to stamp-out its own creation of Islamo-fascism.
©opyright: Adrian Chan-Wyles (ShiDaDao) 2015.