Afghanistan’s Religious Landscape: Politicising the Sacred

This policy brief discusses the gradual and heavy politicization of religion during Afghanistan’s thirty years of war. A number of new and distinct types of political movements – which can be characterized broadly as “fundamentalists”, “Islamists” and “neo-fundamentalists” – has emerged to challenge traditional expressions of Islam. This has transformed the religious landscape in Afghanistan, which as a result, is more variegated than ever before. The different attitudes of these new currents to questions of religious authority, political process, and the Afghan state building project need to be carefully distinguished and are therefore analyzed.

Download: