SUMMARY
Jam’iyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan is an Afghan rebel group and a political party. The group is sometimes referred to as ISA (Islamic Society of Afghanistan). Jam’iyyat-i Islami was one of the seven main insurgency groups based in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s, commonly referred to as the Mujahideen. When the Mujahideen took control of Kabul in 1992, Jam’iyyat-i Islami formed the new government which ruled Afghanistan for four years until the Taleban ousted it in 1996. During the Taleban years, Jam’iyyat-i Islami was part of UIFSA (United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan) more commonly known as the Northern Alliance, together with two other opposition groups, Junbish-i Milli-yi Afghanistan and Hizb-i Wahdat.
The Islamist movements in Afghanistan originate from a cell of intellectuals at Kabul University. In the 1950s, the theology faculty opened, and graduates could travel to other Muslim universities. Inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a group called the Muslim Youth was formed in the mid-1960s. As a reaction to a communist-backed coup in 1973, Jam’iyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan was created by members of the Muslim Youth network. At a meeting in late 1973 or early 1974, the Islamists formed the group and agreed that armed struggle was necessary to topple the Afghan government. Some of the most important persons involved in the formation of Jam’iyyat-i Islami were Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdol Rasol Sayaff, who later became the leader of Ittihad-i Islami Bara-yi Azadi-yi Afghanistan. They recruited Islamist students such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Abdul Haq, and Ahmad Shah Massoud, all of whom came to play important roles in the insurgency. In 1975, Jam’iyyat-i Islami captured a district in the Panjsher Valley north of Kabul. However, the uprising failed as the population turned against the rebels and supported the army instead, forcing the Islamist fighters to take refuge in Pakistan. Hekmatyar, together with the most radical elements of the organisation, left Jam’iyyat-i Islami and established a separate rebel group, Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan (Islamic Party of Afghanistan). Jam’iyyat-i Islami’s members were predominantly Tajik, in contrast to Hekmatyar’s Hizb-i Islami whose followers were mainly Pashtun. Jam’iyyat-i Islami had its strongholds in northern Afghanistan and around Kabul, but also in the western province of Herat.
After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Islamist struggle against the communist regime became increasingly violent and Jam’iyyat-i Islami increased its manpower and strength. While the political leader Rabbani was based at the headquarters in Peshawar, Pakistan, several important commanders led the organisation in Afghanistan. Among the most prominent were Ismael Khan in Herat and Ahmad Shah Massoud, also called the Lion of Panjsher, in the Panjsher Valley north of Kabul. There were numerous opposition groups in Afghanistan fighting the Soviet-backed government during this time period. Seven large Sunni Muslim groups, one of them Jam’iyyat-i Islami, were based in Pakistan and were commonly referred to as the Mujahideen. The groups made several attempts to unite in an alliance, both in order to increase their combat strength but also because the external donors, primarily the US, preferred to support one cohesive organisation rather than numerous dispersed groups. However, cooperation between the groups was often hindered by bitter rivalries between them. During the second half of the 1980s and in the early 1990s, Jam’iyyat-i Islami was part of a loose alliance, the Islamic Unity of the Afghan Mujahideen, together with Mahaz-i Milli-yi Islami-yi Afghanistan, Jabha-yi Nijat-i Milli-yi Afghanistan, Harakat-i Inqilab-i Islami-yi Afghanistan, Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan, Ittihad-i Islami Bara-yi Azadi-yi Afghanistan, and Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan - Khalis faction.
When the Mujahideen groups ousted the communist President Mohammad Najibullah in 1992, Jamiyyat-i Islami’s leader Rabbani became Afghanistan’s interim president. Although the original agreement signed by the different Mujahideen groups stipulated that the presidency should rotate between the groups, Rabbani did not step down until the Taleban took control of Kabul in September 1996. In October, he met with representatives from two other Mujahideen groups and together they formed UIFSA (United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan), more commonly known as the Northern Alliance. UIFSA fought the Taleban government during the latter part of the 1990s, before they, with US support, defeated the Taleban in 2001. Rabbani, who had been internationally recognized as the president of Afghanistan during the Taleban years, handed over power to Hamid Karzai in December 2001. Jam’iyyat-i Islami is now one of Afghanistan’s largest political parties and Rabbani has remained its official leader. In 2010, President Karzai appointed him leader of the 70-man strong High Peace Council; a group made up of tribal and political leaders as well as former Taleban and Mujahideen. The aim of the Council was to promote peace and start negotiations with the Taleban and Hizb-i Islami-yi Afghanistan.
Jam’iyyat-i Islami has received large-scale military and financial support from various countries during the conflict in Afghanistan. During the 1980s and early 1990s, countries such as United States, France and United Kingdom supported the Islamist insurgents in an attempt to counter-balance the Soviet influence in Afghanistan. Several Arab countries, for example Saudi Arabia and Egypt, also supplied funds and arms. Almost all of the military aid was handled by the Pakistani ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). The two countries that provided most support to the Mujahideen were United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1979, US President Jimmy Carter authorized a program of covert military assistance to the Mujahideen groups. Until 1992, when military aid ceased, the US gave $2-3 billion to the Islamist insurgents, a sum which was matched by Saudi Arabia. Of this aid, Jam’iyyat-i Islami received approximately 20%.
Jamiyyat-i Islami-yi Afghanistan has been involved in the intrastate and non-state categories of UCDP organised violence.
