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Erdogan, Ghannouchi ties with Hekmatyar show Islamists’ links with warlords
Staff writer
Al Arabiya English
Friday, 9 June 2017
(Last Update: Friday, 9 June 2017 KSA 22:50 - GMT 19:50)
A list designating 59 individuals and 12 organizations linked to Qatar as terrorists came to light on Friday that showed the firm way GCC countries are dealing with the seriousness of violent Islamist groups that have strong ties between them wherever they are based.
Observers of the current tensions with Qatar have taken the list as a show of force from major Arab powers in strictly dealing with the Islamist group who have spawned numerous extremist and terrorist organizations across the region over the years.
An old photo showing Turkey and Tunisia’s Islamist leaders sitting at the feet of former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has resurfaced in recent days, reigniting a debate of the Muslim Brotherhood’s deep ties with internationally designated extremists accused of committing war crimes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Founder of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda Party Rached Ghannouchi, were pictured sitting by Hekmatyar in an undated photo now making the rounds on social media.
ANALYSIS: Question marks arise over Qatar’s ties with the Muslim Brotherhood
The picture has undoubtedly exposed the deep history between today’s Islamists and the past’s war lords, who convinced Arab and Islamic youth to join the jihadi fighting in Afghanistan in resisting the Soviets, and threw them into battles that were not there’s to begin with in exchange for wealth and future influence.
“The picture shows the returning of history of the terrorist and extremist scene, which began in the late seventies and began the process of mobilizing young people to the extreme and radical fronts,” Egyptian writer Mohammed Attiyah said.
The Muslim Brotherhood and its leaders have had strong relationships with the most extremist organizations, including figures like Hekmatyar. Such ties have existed for many years and still continue to play a role in the revival of the Brotherhood’s presence in many parts of the world, especially in Egypt where they took sides organizing against the state.
Origins of the ‘Butcher of Kabul’ rooted in Sayyid Qutb’s ideology
Hekmatyar is an Islamist warlord accused of numerous atrocities who lead the Hezb-e-Islami, Afghanistan’s second largest militant group.
While he known as one of seven anti-Soviet faction chiefs who fought in the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s, he is perhaps remembered mostly for his role in Afghanistan’s deadly civil war during the 1990s, when his group clashed violently with other factions in their attempt to control Kabul. In the process, he gained the title of the “Butcher of Kabul”.
The US state department designated him as a terrorist in 2003, accusing him of taking a deadly role in supporting attacks by al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Under a peace deal, Hekmatyar returned to Afghanistan. “We should commit to open a new door and forget the past,” he told Afghanis upon his return. But both Afghanis and human rights organizations believe Hekmatyar should be held accountable for his deadly past.
Despite his return, his was not removed from the international lists of terrorists.
Patricia Gossman, a senior researcher of Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan said Hekmatyar, like other warlords, does not feel accountable for what he has done in the past and should be held liable for war crimes.
More than just exporting the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology to Afghanistan, Hekmatyar specifically identifies a lot of his own principles from one of the founders of the Islamist group, Sayyid Qutb.
Qutb’s Islamist legacy has left a devastating outcome in the region, most notably through the creation of al-Qaeda. His brother, Mohammed Qutb, later on became a follower was Ayman Zawahiri, who went on to become a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Zawahiri later mentored Osama bin Laden and is currently the leading member of al-Qaeda.
During the past week, at least eight countries from the Arab and Muslim world severed ties with the state of Qatar for an aggressive foreign policy that saw it support terrorist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Qatar then sought protection from two non-Arab states - Turkey and Iran – in what is considered both “tragic and comical”. Erdogan has approved legislation on deploying Turkish troops in Qatar, which represents an illegal action of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) charter should Doha accept them.
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