By Rafiq
Islam is a divine path for educating and reforming humanity and for establishing the values by which people should live. Throughout history, falsehood has tried to weaken Islam’s political and ideological path by spreading its corrupt ideas and undermining human values. It has waged both intellectual and military wars against Muslims. Whenever Muslims have fallen under the intellectual and military domination of falsehood, they have not only lost their political and ideological direction, but also a large part of their social life, progress, and civilizational identity.
Because of this civilizational decline, Muslims have, at different stages, been forced to sacrifice their values in the face of falsehood.
After the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, the political unity and authority of Muslims disappeared, and Muslim societies in different parts of the world came under the influence of foreign laws and political ideas. Afghanistan, a Muslim nation with a history full of struggle and sacrifice against falsehood and disbelief, once again launched a jihad against the occupation of a major world power in the final decade of the twentieth century.
After years of struggle, efforts were made at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century to establish Islamic rule and a Sharia-based system in Afghanistan. But the establishment of a political system based on the beliefs of Muslims was in conflict with the interests of the political and civilizational system of falsehood. Various conspiracies and pretexts were therefore created against it. On the one hand, the aim was to destroy the political center of Muslims. On the other, the aim was to damage Afghanistan’s land, resources, and national and Islamic values and bring them under foreign influence.
This was what led Afghanistan and the Afghan people to face another foreign occupation and a long war.
Twenty Years of Occupation
During the twenty-year occupation, the Afghan people were subjected to a political and social system that sought to change the country’s Islamic, cultural, and political course. Throughout this period, political, ethnic, linguistic, and partisan divisions led to much bloodshed among Afghans, while social unity faced serious challenges.
For twenty years, Afghans were presented with various slogans in the name of enlightenment, progress, and victory. Yet under the shadow of occupation, war, instability, poverty, and social problems continued. During the same period, Mujahideen rose from among the Afghan people to resist the occupation and, over twenty years, continued their struggle against the occupying power through both military and political means.
After the occupying power and the system it supported suffered defeat on the battlefield, they turned to political talks and negotiations. Following years of military and political efforts, the occupying power was eventually forced to decide to leave Afghanistan and pave the way for an end to its military presence. The Afghan people had defended their land through years of resistance and struggle against foreign occupation. After twenty years of sacrifice, hardship, and exhaustion, they finally reached the point where the military presence of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan came to an end.
For this reason, 24 Asad is remembered in Afghanistan’s contemporary history as the day when the foreign military presence ended and political sovereignty was regained. It is also regarded as the beginning of a new stage in the twenty-first century, a stage of Islamic rule, political unity, the revival of Islamic civilization, and the establishment of a Sharia-based system.
