Hezb-e-Islami (also ''Hezb-e Islami'', ''Hezb-i-Islami'', ''Hezbi-Islami'', ''Hezbi Islami''),
lit. Islamic Party,
was an
Islamist organization that was commonly known for fighting the
Communist Government of Afghanistan and their close ally the Soviet Union. Founded and led by
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, it was established in
Afghanistan in 1975.
It grew out of the
Muslim Youth organization, an
Islamist organization founded in
Kabul by students and teachers at
Kabul University in 1969 to combat
communism in Afghanistan.
Its membership was drawn from ethnic
Pashtuns
Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically re ...
, and its ideology from the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
and
Abul Ala Maududi's Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami ( ur, ) () is an Islamic movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamic theologian and socio-political philosopher, Syed Abul Ala Maududi.van der Veer P. and Munshi S. (eds.''Media, War, and Terrorism: Responses fro ...
.
Another source describes it as having splintered away from
Burhanuddin Rabbani's original Islamist party,
Jamiat-e Islami, in 1976, after Hekmatyar found that group too moderate and willing to compromise with others.
In 1979,
Mulavi Younas Khalis split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami, known as the
Khalis faction, with its power base in
Nangarhar.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction is since then referred to as the
Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, or HIG.
Sources
External links
Sedra, Mark. "The Taliban still larger than life" ''Asia Times Online'', 2004-03-11.
*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20170305012604/http://www.dia.mil/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=43BWsnvesZc%3d&tabid=7068&portalid=27&mid=14146 Declassified October 8, 2002 Reportby
DIA
{{Political parties in Afghanistan
Anti-Soviet factions in the Soviet–Afghan War
Islamic political parties in Afghanistan
Islamic organizations established in 1975
Political parties established in 1975
1975 establishments in Afghanistan