Kan det spirende demokrati i Afghanistan regne med støtte fra de unge, veluddannede afghanere? Det er langt fra sikkert, mener Borhan Osman fra Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN)). Mange unge er faktisk stærkt imod demokrati og imod f.eks valg. Osman peger på en radikalisering af de unge og fremhæver nedenfor nogle af de konklusioner, han er kommet til, og deres betydning for lørdagens præsidentvalgrunde.
Last September, in Faizabad, Badakhshan province, local imams and ulama were discussing ways to encourage people to participate in the upcoming elections. After three ulama had delivered their speeches, one young man rose and started arguing against the general notion of the seminar.
Five more youth backed him as the debate intensified, and all of a sudden, the clerics found themselves in a tough theological debate over the legitimacy of elections in Islam. The young men called them “deviants” and “government puppets”.
Finally, the policemen in charge of protecting the event intervened and arrested three of the men for sabotaging the seminar.
The ‘saboteurs’ turned out to be activists of a pan-Islamist radical group, Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), members of which proudly claimed credit for the disturbance (for previous reporting on the group, see here and here).
“One of our boys told the truth in the face of the government’s mullahs, saying: Election is a system of kufr [infidelity] and promoting it is haram [religiously prohibited],” one of the local HT leaders told AAN.
In several other provinces the author visited doing radicalisation research last autumn, HT members repeated the same stance about democracy in general and elections in particular.
The diatribe against democracy and modern electoral politics is a well-known characteristic of the ideology of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The pan-Islamist group that was founded by a Palestinian jurist mid last century and is active in many Muslim and Western countries, has taken up campaigning in Afghanistan in recent years.
It is difficult to say how many members the movement has here, but they have become increasingly visible, with activists systematically preaching against elections; some were arrested for anti-election propaganda in the run up to the 2009 presidential election.
Now, however, the party is also making inroads among reasonably educated Afghan youth and students, focusing on recruiting them by campaigning to establish a global caliphate through non-violent means.
Its publications are becoming quite ‘fashionable’ among young Afghans who speak about HT ideology, for example, on university campuses.
HT’s stark demonisation of electoral politics might be limited in influence; however, general disbelief in elections among Afghan youth with religious tendencies is wider.
These young Afghans are chiefly urban and educated (most rural and less- or un-educated young people tend to be politically inactive).
Læs mere
http://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/afghan-youth-for-democracy-not-all-of-them
