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The War in Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia,
by Alexandre Bennigsen and Chantai Lemercier-Quelquejay
The events in Iran and Afghanistan have not created a new situation but have served as a catalyst accelerating an existing situation in Soviet Islam and rendering it more dramatic and dangerous. Muslim socialism, fundamentalism or secularism have been introducted into central Asia through many different channels, i.e. through Soviet Muslims in Afghanistan, Afghans in the USSR, foreign Muslims residing in the Soviet Union, finally and especially through foreign radio broadcasts. Islam is no longer just an « ideology » in the USSR, it is increasingly becoming a political force. Realising this, the Soviet authorities have ceased to collaborate with Soviet muslin leaders and have revived a brutal form of anti-Islamic propaganda. Soviet Muslims have discovered by opening themselves to the outside Muslim world that resistance to « big brother » is possible, that Islamic fundamentalism seems younger and more dyna-mic than Marxism-Leninism and also that they belong to Dar-el-Islam, the community of 800 million believers against the infidels.