Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency in South Asia

Religious Figures, Insurgency, and Jihad in Southern Afghanistan

135 the national bureau of asian research Religious Figures, Insurgency, and Jihad in Southern Afghanistan Thomas H. Johnson THOMAS H. JOHNSON is a faculty member of the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School as well as the Director of the Program for Culture and Conflict Studies. For two decades, Professor Johnson has conducted research and written on Afghanistan and South Asia. NOTE The views expressed in this essay should not be construed as an official position or policy of the U.S. government, Department of Defense, or Naval Postgraduate School. This article would have been virtually impossible to complete had it not been for the generous data supplied to the author by a colleague and Kandahar City resident under the pseudonym Conrad Jennings. His data, based on observations and interviews conducted over the last three years in Loy Kandahar, complemented much of the author’s own data gathered in Kandahar and Helmand in August–September 2008 and May–June 2009. The author would also like to thank Matthew Dearing, Matthew Dupee, M. Chris Mason, Wali Ahmed Shaaker, Ahmad Waheed, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Originally published in: Mumtaz Ahmad, Dietrich Reetz, and Thomas H. Johnson, “Who Speaks for Islam? Muslim Grassroots Leaders and Popular Preachers in South Asia,” National Bureau of Asian Research, NBR Special Report, no. 22, February 2010.© 2012 The National Bureau of Asian Research. This PDF is provided for the use of authorized recipients only. For specific terms of use, please contact . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This essay examines the social and political roles of religious figures in southern Afghanistan in an attempt to develop a more nuanced understanding of the present insurgency. MAIN FINDINGS • Islamic groups and Afghan mullahs play a critical role in politics in southern Afghanistan. The Taliban, Deobandis, Sufis, and Tablighi Jamaat are the most important religious groups and influences in southern Afghanistan. • Religion and politics are blurred as religious authorities frequently shift between religious and political roles. The West has had a tendency to misunderstand the relevance and implications of these roles. • Jihad is an important feature of Islamic life in southern Afghanistan. Large numbers of southern insurgents are waging jihad for the implementation of sharia (Islamic law). Several predominant religious figures and influences tend to advocate jihad. The West has underestimated the role of jihad in the present Taliban movement. • The ulema council in southern Afghanistan represents a sector of the clergy that has remained relatively un-radicalized by war. Insurgents and jihadists have frequently assassinated members of this council because it offers legitimate opposition to the Taliban’s radicalization of young madrasah students and unemployed villagers. • The political activities of two Islamic groups that represent a large number of rural and poor Afghans are misunderstood. Some Sufi groups in Kandahar have allied with insurgents since 2003 and have promoted rural resistance to secular authority. The Tablighi Jamaat, though avowedly apolitical and detached from the insurgency, has a relationship with the mujahedeen who regularly attend this group’s meetings. POLICY IMPLICATIONS • Political and military strategies aimed at countering the Taliban insurgency while ignoring the Taliban jihad are ill-founded and will probably not succeed. • Currently there is very little contact between NATO or ISAF and the ulema of southern Afghanistan. Rather than stereotype all religious leaders and institutions as militant fundamentalist, policies that incorporate certain religious groups into civil society should be considered. • There is a critical need to fix the corrupt justice system in Afghanistan. A central component of the Taliban’s strategy to win the trust and confidence of the Afghan population is based on the role of Taliban mullahs as arbitrators of individual and community disputes. This “shadow” justice system is proving very popular. 137 RELIGIOUS FIGURES, INSURGENCY, AND JIHAD u JOHNSON The more we stress Islam as a unit of analysis, the more we face the dangers of abstraction and unwarranted generalization. Islam keeps us mired in debates about normativity, where an emphasis on Muslims allows us to appreciate the dynamic nature of Islam as a lived experience.1 R eligious authorities play a critical role in the present conflict in Afghanistan.2 Consider, for example, the fact that virtually all Taliban leaders, from the senior regional leadership down to subcommanders at the district level, are mullahs3 (religious leaders).4 Indeed it is reasonable to argue that the present conflict in Afghanistan represents a classic insurgency...