Reddit mentions of Confessions of a Mullah Warrior

I'm getting out of my comfort zone, and I'd absolutely recommend the "Cultural and Political History" book I mentioned above and a fantastic memoir called Confessions of a Mullah Warrior. Both are great and very readable.

The Saudis did and do what they do best, which is supply lots and lots of money and extremist clerics.

Prior to the 1980s, Islam in Central Asia and Afghanistan was quite moderate, incorporating a lot of the cultural heritage of the region and somewhat discounting the exact text of the Qu'ran in favor of Fiqh, the centuries of debate and jurisprudence that were built on top of early Islam.


With the Soviet invasion and subsequent war, millions of Afghans fled to Pakistan. In the massive refugee camps, Saudi Arabia set up hundreds of madrassas staffed by Wahabi clerics and their fundamentalist and violent views.

Beyond Wahabism, these madrassas were breeding grounds for the various mujahideen groups, who would recruit and bring young men and boys back across the border to fight the Soviets. In addition to all of this, Saudi Arabia would provide funding for various mujahideen groups, most notably Hizb-i-Islami, one of the most repressive.

As with anything, there were good madrassas devoted to peace and learning. The problem is that there were a tremendous amount that were madrassas in name only, focusing on war and intolerance instead of religion.


Iran supported a number of mujahideen groups and later the Northern Alliance. Generally speaking, they supported the various Hazara militas (most Hazaras are Shia Muslims, like Iranians) and ethnically Tajik militias (Tajiks are Persian and speak Persian). Iran was another supporter of the northern alliance and a major blunder of the US invasion in 2001 was labeling Iran as part of the “axis of evil” and pushing it out of Afghanistan as much as possible instead of courting it for help against the Taliban and long-term support to counter Pakistani influence.


Of course I didn’t (and the OP didn’t) mention Uzbekistan, which was critical in arming and supporting Dostum’s Uzbek and Turkmen mujahideen group, Junbish-i-Milli. That group, while never the largest, was one of the best armed and trained, playing a crucial role for decades.