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Afghan power brokers
Wielding the Koran with a pro-Western tilt
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN While some Afghan power brokers derived their power from money or greed, others pulled men together by appealing to a more basic spiritual impulse.
The most effective of these, of course, was Mullah Muhammad Omar, the radical Taliban leader. But while some radical Islamists drew power by demonizing others, within Afghanistan there is an older, more prominent Islamic tradition of tolerance called Sufism, which draws power and unity by emphasizing the commonalities between different sects, rather than their differences.
Pir Sayad Ahmed Gailani, who lives in a walled compound in Kabul, is the top leader of the Sufis. During the Soviet period, Pir Gailani was one of the more prominent faces of the Islamic resistance movement in Peshawar, Pakistan, although hostility from Saudi patrons meant his party received less money than more hard-line Islamist parties such as the Hezb-I-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Today, he is leader of the Mohaz I Milli I Islami, or National Islamic Front, which is staunchly nationalist, hostile to the power of mullahs and radical Islamists, and in favor of restoring the power of King Zahir Shah.
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By mixing a more familiar brand of Islam with a more pro-Western political stance, he hopes that his participation in the
loya jirga will help to drag Afghanistan away from the militant radical Islam that has left his country in ruins. He considers radical Islam to be all but dead here. "Afghanistan is basically a traditional society," says Gailani, who favors Armani suits and suede loafers over the traditional
shalwar kameez. "And it was a very wrong calculation, both for Soviet communists and for Arab Islamic radicals to think they could reshape it."
"The Arabs pumped billions and billions of dollars into this country, but if you look at the percentage of good that they achieved, the result was almost zero," he smiles. "When the American bombers came, the Arabs made a disappearing act, almost like putting ice in the sun."
For centuries, the mystical, intensely spiritual Sufism was the most prevalent sect found throughout Central and South Asia, including Afghanistan. Muslim worshipers would often come to Sufi preachers, or pirs, because of their reputation for healing through prayer. And men like Gailani, who comes from a long line of Sufi preachers, developed a strong personal following that could rival that of any warlord or king.
During the time of the more orthodox Taliban, who ruled from 1996 until last fall, Gailani fled to Pakistan, and Sufism was repressed as heretical. Shrines were closed, preachers were jailed or forced into exile, and Afghans were encouraged to shed the trappings of Sufi worship, especially the forms of dance and music that the faithful used to enter a trance and commune with God. Even today, there are orthodox leaders in Afghanistan who would like to see the end of Sufism. Among these are former mujahideen leader Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an eloquent Arabic speaker and staunch orthodox Sunni leader who is thought to be one of the men who encouraged Saudi families to fund the fight against the Soviets and later encouraged Arab fighters to live in Afghanistan.
Perhaps more important is Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the Northern Alliance and the first Afghan president to serve after the fall of the Soviet-backed government. It was President Rabbani who proposed the radical transformation of Afghan society along Islamic and Koranic lines, including requirements for women to wear burqas and strict punishment for crimes, which were later adopted by the Taliban. And it is Rabbani who some people believe is the real power behind the present government.
But for Gailani – who traveled to Afghanistan several times in the past few years to persuade the Taliban to moderate their behavior – such radicalism will be neutralized by the stronger Afghan traditions.
For evidence, he points to a handful of graveyards in Kandahar and Khost, where dead Al Qaeda fighters are buried in mass graves after fierce battles last fall. Local Afghans have turned these graveyards into Sufi shrines. Women come to the graves and tie prayer-strings, hoping for the birth of a son. Farmers pray for better crops. "These guys must be turning in their graves," chuckles Gailani. "They came here to eradicate this practice, and now there are people praying over their graves."
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