Islam and the Challenge of Communism

Abstract

The conflict that has been taking place in Afghanistan for the pastthree years has come to be interpreted in markedly different waysdepending on one’s viewpoint. Those in the West, including students andspecialists of the region and policy makers, tend to view the events inAfghanistan primarily in geo-political or geo-strategic terms. Forinstance, questions are asked such as what impact is being felt in termsof the military, strategic and economic interests of the superpowers? Ofthe other states in the region? What effect will there be on relationsbetween states in the region? Between the superpowers? And so on.Differing from this view and its apparent preoccupation with securityand strategic concerns, is a perspective that is more commonly voiced inthe Muslim world2 which casts the conflict in Afghanistan in terms ofIslam and the challenge of Communism, or perhaps it would be moreaccurate to say in terms of the converse: Communism and the challengeof Islam. This view suggests that what the real conflict in Afghanistan isabout is the struggle between these two great ideologies or belief systemsand the effort on the part of each to vanquish the other.Because this latter interpretation is less frequently presented orvoiced at meetings of Western scholars, I would like to develop to someextent this theme in this short paper. First of all, I would like to presentsome of the points made by this Islamic school of interpretation-I would ...