Jamiat Islami
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Jamiat-e-Islami, is an Islamic political party in Afghanistan along the line of the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. It is also known as just Jamiat. It means "Islamic society" and is the oldest Islamic political party in Afghanistan. During the Afghan Civil War Jamiat was one of the most powerful of the Mujahideen groups. It is strongest amongst ethnic Tajiks Since 1968 the official leader of Jamiat has been Burhanuddin Rabbani, although his actual power within the party has fluxed.
[edit] History
In 1979 Ahmed Shah Massoud, who had joined Jamiat as a university student, organised a Mujahideen group in the Panjshir Valley; fighting against the communist Government and their Soviet allies. This group would grow to control multiple provinces and include thousands of fighters. The Soviet Army launched a series of major offensives to attempt to destroy the Jamiat forces but were unable to engage the bulk of Massoud's forces. After the withdrawal of the Soviet troops in 1988, the Mujahideen groups continued to wear down the government forces; in 1992 the communist government collapsed entirely. Massoud's forces were among the first to enter Kabul. Beneath Massoud the principle military commanders were Mohammed Fahim, Bismillah Khan, Gul Haider and Baba Jalander.
Meanwhile, negoitiations between the leadership of various Mujahideen groups led to a tenative agreement to appoint Rabbani, who had spent the civil war in exile, as interim President. However disputes between Gulbudin Hekmatyar and the Jamiat leadership, combined with tensions between the other major Mujahideen factions soon led to a resumption of fighting within Kabul, leading to massive civilian casualties and destroying much of the city. Ultimately Jamiat retained control of Kabul, pushing back a coalition of Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, the primarily Hazara group Hizb-e-Wahdat and Abdul Rashid Dostum's Jumbish-i-Milli Islami.
By 1995 the Taliban, which had seized control of much of southern Afghanistan with comparative ease in the previous year, were advancing on Kabul. Massoud rejected Taliban demands that he surrender and in March launched a major offensive that would prove to be the Taliban's first major reversal and inflicted heavy casualties on their forces. However the Taliban regroup and allied with Dostum, which allowed them to launch another offensive in mid 1996. Jamiat lost control of the capital in September 1996.
Following the capture of Kabul the major Mujahideen factions put aside their previous feuds and formed the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, commonly known in the west as the Northern Alliance. Rabbani became political leader of the United Front, but most power lay with the Defence Minister, Massoud. Other Jamiat members, mostly proteges of Massoud, took up senior positions within the United Front Government; Yunus Qanuni served as Interior Minister and Dr Abdulluh was Foreign Minister. Throughout the United Front's existence Jamiat remained the most powerful faction, controlling around 10,000 of the alliance's 40,000 troops. Most observers also agree that Massoud's forces were the best trained and equipped of the United Front.
On the 9th of September 2001 Massoud was assassinated by a pair of suicide bombers. Immediately afterwards Taliban forces launched a major offensive against Jamiat positions. Mohammed Fahim was chosen to succeed Massoud as leader of Jamiat's military wing and the Taliban offensive was just repulsed. With extensive assistance from an American led coalition in October and November 2001 (see War in Afghanistan (2001–present)), United Front forces recaptured most of Afghanistan.
Since then, Jamiat appears to have split somewhat. The military/Massoud wing of the party, led by Fahim, Qanuni and Abdulluh dominated the Afghan Transitional Administration from which Rabbani was absent. Qanuni subequently formed the Afghanistan e Naween (New Afghanistan) party and has emerged as defacto leader of the opposition to President Hamid Karzai. By contrast, Rabbani and Jamiat have backed Karzai.
