Today there was a great talk at Harvard's Belfer Center on the Afghan resistance to the Soviet Union invasion in the 80s. The speaker was the rising Norwegian scholar Thomas Hegghammer. Promo:
In the 1980s, thousands of Arabs volunteered to fight in Afghanistan
against the Soviet occupation. The consequences of their involvement
are widely known. The so-called Arab Afghan movement spawned al-Qaida
and other extremist groups well into the 1990s. But why did the Arabs
go to Afghanistan in the first place? Or more interestingly: why had
the Muslim world not seen private transnational mobilization for war
before the 1980s? Who initiated and led the mobilization effort and
why? …The presentation
relies on findings from new empirical research conducted for a book
project about the jihadist ideologue Abdallah Azzam and the first Arab
Afghans.
against the Soviet occupation. The consequences of their involvement
are widely known. The so-called Arab Afghan movement spawned al-Qaida
and other extremist groups well into the 1990s. But why did the Arabs
go to Afghanistan in the first place? Or more interestingly: why had
the Muslim world not seen private transnational mobilization for war
before the 1980s? Who initiated and led the mobilization effort and
why? …The presentation
relies on findings from new empirical research conducted for a book
project about the jihadist ideologue Abdallah Azzam and the first Arab
Afghans.
My informant tells me:
Here’s the kicker for you. The talk was
largely about the Palestinian jihadi Abdullah Azzam. In Q-and-A, Hegghammer was
asked a question (the questioner prefaced his query with a remark about Steve
Walt and the lobby) about the parallels between Zionism and trans-national
Islamism. Hegghammer’s answer was that Abdullah Azzam, the Palestinian father
of transnational jihad, was deeply influenced by the Zionist project and he
wished to emulate them. I.e., this pan-Islamist jihadi was influenced
by his Zionist enemies and wished to replicate their trans-national movement. Needless
to say, nice polite students and faculty seemed uneasy with the parallels
and there were scowls and smirks… I look forward to seeing how he will be treated when he makes
these arguments in print.
largely about the Palestinian jihadi Abdullah Azzam. In Q-and-A, Hegghammer was
asked a question (the questioner prefaced his query with a remark about Steve
Walt and the lobby) about the parallels between Zionism and trans-national
Islamism. Hegghammer’s answer was that Abdullah Azzam, the Palestinian father
of transnational jihad, was deeply influenced by the Zionist project and he
wished to emulate them. I.e., this pan-Islamist jihadi was influenced
by his Zionist enemies and wished to replicate their trans-national movement. Needless
to say, nice polite students and faculty seemed uneasy with the parallels
and there were scowls and smirks… I look forward to seeing how he will be treated when he makes
these arguments in print.
