what Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban share and how they differ

One of the UN consultants on the Taliban, who worked in the embassies of the USSR and Russia in Afghanistan, brought up the case of three well-known armed organizations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban group: in his analysis, he explained that they are all Sunnis and they are against the West. But he pointed out the differences between the last two mentioned and noted that while the one who took power in Afghanistan is a predominantly Pashtun national-religious movement, the other advocates a global caliphate.

Georgi Machitidzeuno had prepared, in 2014-2019, reports for the UN Security Council with an assessment of emerging terrorist threats in the regions of South Asia, the Middle East and the Middle East.

What these organizations have in common:

• They are all outlaw terrorists in Russia and in many countries.
• They are Sunnis.
• They are all against the West, whatever their influence, including cultural.
• They are all present in Afghanistan.

The differences:

• The Taliban are a predominantly Pashtun national-religious movement.
• ISIS calls for a global caliphate. Hence the competition between the two.

In addition, ISIS criticizes the Taliban for their alleged cooperation with Pakistan. “The Taliban’s ties to Pakistani intelligence services were seen as proof that the Taliban had lost their right to represent the jihadist movement. ISIS has always opposed the nationalist character of the Taliban movement, as this was contrary to the ideas of the Taliban. a global jihad ”, explains the Russian expert.

Perspectives

But precisely the fact that the Taliban are Sunnis, mostly Pashtuns, prevents them from creating a unified state in Afghanistan. The extension of the area of ​​influence of the Taliban arouses fear among residents. Particularly powerful are the Hazaras, Iranian-speaking Shiites of mixed origin. They created an armed organization called the Resistance Movement for Justice to defend their interests.

“The tension has always existed. It hampered the formation of a unified state in Afghanistan. War can take on the appearance of interethnic confrontation. The civil war has been going on for years, but it will grow even bigger. scale, ”predicts Machitidze.

This can lead to the emergence of new extremist organizations or the revitalization of existing ones. ISIS can grow, just like other groups, and furthermore, the Taliban lacks a strong leader. There are tensions between Salahuddin Rabbani, chairman of one of Afghanistan’s most influential parties, the Islamic Society, and Atta Mohammad Nur, former governor of Balkh province.

In short, as the Taliban movement dominates the global conversation, members of Al Qaeda continue to be active through their models of international guerrilla warfare with different cells and the development of the so-called Islamic State proposed by ISIS, despite its recent stumbles, is it maintains it through military conquests in the chaotic region.

The power of the Taliban

The word “Taliban” is Pashtun and means “pupils, researchers or students”. But the movement, founded in the early 1990s and originating in Islamic schools in Pakistan, has been waging a military-terrorist campaign against the Democratic Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for decades.

According to NATO estimates, the Taliban currently numbers around 85,000 combatants, more than ever. Euronews claims, based on information provided by experts, that the Taliban are funded by Saudi Arabia; its aim is a strict form of Sunni Islamism with the strict application of Islamic law. This includes public executions and virtually no rights for women, who must be fully veiled and not work. They reject elections and democratic structures, he said.

The most prominent name in the resistance against the Taliban was Mujahedin leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, also known as the “Lion of Panshir”. In his native country, the Panshir valley, Massoud – together with the elders of the local tribe – had fought against the Soviet occupying forces.

In the spring of 2001, Massoud was in the European Parliament in Brussels and asked for help from the international community for Afghanistan. He criticized the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, also for their “very bad interpretation of Islam”.

On September 9, 2001, Massoud was killed by a bomb in Takha, Afghanistan, by two men disguised as journalists. Two days after Massoud’s assassination, Al-Qaeda, allied with the Taliban, carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.

The Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, with its leader Osama bin Laden, operated from areas controlled by the Taliban. The head of state of the Taliban emirate was Mullah Omar, born in 1960, who refused to extradite Osama bin Laden.

Taliban leaders have become accessible and equal international negotiators in places like Moscow, Beijing, Qatar and Tehran. Today it is not just an alliance of armed hill tribes, which once stood up to the Soviets, but a collective name or umbrella under which international terrorism has rallied. In the Central Asian region (i.e. the former Soviet republics), the most dangerous are the Uzbek MIO, the Tajiks Kamarog and Vahdat, the Kazakhs of Almaty, the Kyrgyz of Bishkek and about 30 ‘other groups.