State-building harder than fighting USSR: Abdullah Anas

By Mehmet Ozturk

ISTANBUL (AA) - Rebuilding the Afghan state will be harder than waging "jihad" against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, according to a prominent Algerian scholar.

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Abdullah Anas, son-in-law of late Palestinian "mujahid" Abdullah Azzam, spoke about his new book, entitled "My Life in Jihad: From Algeria to Afghanistan".

"Jihad, martyrdom and sacrifice are easier than building a viable state and society, which is a much harder task than waving a Kalashnikov and jumping into a trench to fight your enemies," Anas said.

The 60-year-old scholar, who served as head of the Mujahideen Services Office in Peshawar during the Afghan-Arab "jihad" against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, recalled his personal experiences with the Afghan resistance.

- State-building

Anas, who currently lives in the U.K., reiterated his main theme: “Building a state based on education, healthcare, human rights and freedom is much more difficult than taking up arms.”

“That’s what happened in Afghanistan after 1992,” he asserted, referring to the period that followed the fall of Afghanistan’s communist regime.

“We and our fellow mujahideen dreamt of the day we would enter Kabul,” he recalled. “But when we got there -- and the communist regime fell -- we didn’t reap the fruit we were seeking.”

“This raises a very important question,” he said. “Namely, why wasn’t an independent state built in Afghanistan after its liberation?”

He added: “With the eruption of the [2011] Arab Spring, I realized that we don’t have a state-building culture.”

Anas continued: “While the Arab/Islamic world may be able to provide martyrs [i.e., those willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause], it appears unable to build a viable state, which is a much greater challenge."

Speaking of the Afghan resistance, Anas said the "jihad" had gone through three distinct phases.

The first phase, he said, constituted the decade from 1979 to 1989, when Soviet forces were present in Afghanistan.

From 1989 to 1996, he explained, Afghanistan went through the second phase of the civil war. This was followed by a third phase, he said, which began in 2001 and has continued into the present.

“But it was only during the first phase, from 1979 to 1989, that the genuine Afghan jihad was waged,” Anas said.

- Witness to ‘jihad’

Asked why he wrote a book on the Afghan "jihad", Anas explained that many academics who wrote about the post-1979 period did not experience events on the ground, thus leaving several questions unanswered.

“Why, for example, did Abdullah Azzam leave Palestine for Afghanistan?” he asked. “And why did Al-Qaeda kill Ahmed Shah Massoud [shortly after the 9/11 attacks]?”

“And why did young people leave Europe, Malaysia, Algeria -- and other countries -- to go fight in Afghanistan?” Anas queried. “In the book, I speak as a witness to events, not as a mere ‘expert’ or ‘analyst’.”

“The book begins with my journey to Afghanistan,” the author said. “And it goes on to describe my personal experience with jihad.”

“I wanted to tell the reader what I saw and lived,” Anas continued. “I hope the book provides a clear picture of the general situation in Afghanistan at that critical time.”

“Many people have the misconception that the Afghan jihad began with Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, or after the events of Sept. 11, 2001,” he said.

- Distortions

According to Anas, the very word “jihad” has been subject to considerable distortion.

“The word today is no longer clear,” he explained. “Dictatorial regimes equate ‘jihad’ with ‘terrorism’. Many people today see jihad as some kind of crime.”

“But I lived through genuine jihad with Sheikh Abdullah Azzam,” he said. “In the West, the meaning of jihad has been distorted; it is now erroneously equated with terrorism.”

“Extremist groups like Al-Qaeda and Daesh may believe they are conducting jihad,” he added. “But they’re merely shedding blood under the pretext of jihad.”

"I, on the other hand, have fought alongside true leaders of jihad, including Sheikh Abdullah Azzam and Ahmad Shah Massoud,” he continued. “I have seen them apply the philosophy of jihad on the ground.”

Asked about Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Anas told Anadolu Agency: “He was one of the founders of the service bureau established by Abdullah Azzam. He stayed with us until he defected in late 1988.”

After this, Anas said, bin Laden joined up with Egyptian “jihadists” Ayman al-Zawahri and Sayed Eman.

“They were extremists who believed it was okay to kill civilians,” he said. “When they came to Peshawar, they did not follow Sheikh Abdullah Azzam in prayer [i.e., they deviated from him ideologically]."

“Al-Zawahiri claimed Sheikh Abdullah Azzam's doctrine was ‘flawed’,” Anas recalled. “By this means, al-Zawahiri succeeded in wooing Osama bin Laden over to his line of thinking.”

As for the current situation in Afghanistan, Anas said that the long-troubled country “now has a new generation of young people who realize the enormous value of freedom”.

"If Afghanistan ever manages to attain a degree of stability, I believe it would become -- after Turkey -- another ‘model’ for the Muslim world,” he said.

Anas added: “But it won’t be able to attain this sought-for stability until outsiders stop meddling in its affairs.”