Cynthia Fuchs Review
24/02/2010
"I'll carry my weapon as long as the Americans are here. It will stay on my shoulder. When the non-believers go home, then I'll put down my weapon. I can't give up my weapon without that." Just 18 years old, Fazul is a passionate new recruit to Hezb-i-Islami, an Islamist organization who helped to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan during the 1980s. Fazul is both extraordinary and typical of today's fighters, determined to defend their sovereignty. "It is the duty for all Afghans," says Cmdr. Mirwais, a former millionaire businessman who turned to jihad after the U.S. invasion, "because the foreign and nonbeliever countries have attacked us. They are getting rid of our religious and cultural values."
Both men have agreed to speak with Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, who last fall spent 10 days in northern Afghanistan with Hezb-i-Islami's "Central Group," an organization with ties to both Al Qaeda and the Taliban. His experiences comprise Frontline: Behind Taliban Lines, premiering this week on PBS and online. Quraishi explains at the start the risks involved: "I was thinking, 'I was going to meet a group of Taliban.' This was the time in which I came myself to enemy."
https://www.popmatters.com/121369-frontline-behind-taliban-lines-2496170542.html
