Islamist Responses to the August 2021 Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan: The Case of Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study seeks to uncover how Malaysia’s Islamists responded to the August 2021 re-assumption of the reins of government in Afghanistan by the Taliban. Utilizing semi-structured interviews held with Malaysian stakeholders of the country’s Afghanistan-related policies, this article finds that, despite forebodings swirling around the policy-making community regarding a possible hike of violent extremism following the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s American-supported government, the impact of Taliban’s ascendancy on the growth of Islamist extremism in Malaysia has so far been negligible. However, taking into account past close linkages between jihadist networks of Malaysia and Afghanistan during the latter’s occupation by the Soviet Union, this research urges all stakeholders to not under-estimate the plausibility of violent offshoots emerging from non-violent manifestations of Islamist extremism in Malaysia. While conceding that non-violent extremism is the more prevalent form of Islamist radicalism to be threatening peace in Malaysia, evidence of the recent willingness of young Malay-Muslim zealots to fight alongside Muslim terrorists in Iraq, Syria and the Philippines should be enough to ring alarm bells to the Malaysian authorities. This study’s novelty lies in having derived input from Malaysian informants who have had first-hand experience in dealing with Taliban and other interested parties in Afghanistan.