By Ahmed Wali Mujib
ISLAMABAD, 28 Oct 2025: The politics of religion in Afghanistan once had its roots across the border. From the halls of power in Islamabad to the decision-making rooms of Rawalpindi, religion was seen as a weapon that could shake the throne of Kabul.
From Sardar Dawood Khan to Ashraf Ghani’s democratic
government, Pakistan always tried the same tactic to exert its influence in
Afghanistan: the religious card.
In the 1970s, when Sardar Dawood Khan deposed Zahir Shah and
established the Republic of Afghanistan, relations between the two countries
were initially normal.
But when Dawood Khan revived the ‘Pashtunistan demand’,
Pakistan opened an ideological front against him.
Students of Kabul University who were religious in nature
were organized and these students later came to be known as the ‘Islamic
Movement of Afghanistan’.
Pakistan spread the narrative of declaring Kabul of that
time ‘anti-Islam’ and thus religion became the most powerful political weapon
in Afghan politics.
When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan in 1979,
Pakistan, along with the United States and Saudi Arabia, organized the Afghan
resistance, providing weapons, training, and financial support to the
mujahideen.
Training camps were established near Peshawar and Quetta,
where thousands of young people were trained in guerrilla warfare, and the
ideology of jihad was cultivated through madrassas.
Fatwas were no longer simply religious, but had become a
political tool, and this narrative changed the intellectual direction of the
entire region.
Pakistan had another advantage during this period because
thousands of Afghan students came to Pakistan for religious education.
The madrassas here, which were often heavily influenced by
the state, promoted the same angle of thought on Afghanistan as Islamabad.
Some madrassas also issued fatwas that were in line with
state policy, and thus the religious narrative gradually became the spokesman
for Pakistan’s political interests.
But now things are changing rapidly.
Not only have thousands of new madrassas been established in
Afghanistan, but their educational standards are also better than those in
Pakistan.
Afghan students are now studying in their own country
instead of coming to Pakistan.
Moreover, a new intellectual shift is emerging, signs of
which were found in the recent visit of the Afghan Foreign Minister to India.
It is now possible that Afghan students will head to India
to pursue religious studies, where institutions like Darul Uloom Deoband,
Nadwat Ulema, Lucknow and Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur will provide them with a
different intellectual angle.
Perhaps this is the moment when not only fatwas but also the geography of religious interpretation will probably change – from Islamabad to Kabul and then perhaps from Kabul to Delhi.
The Taliban, once considered close allies of Pakistan, are
now pursuing their own independent policies.
They have understood Islamabad's plans well and now
prioritize their national interest.
Pakistani policymakers are worried that the same religious
narrative that was once their biggest weapon may now rise up against them.
Pakistan is currently facing a severe internal security crisis.
The terrorist organization Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has become the biggest challenge for the government.
Islamabad maintains that the TTP leadership and fighters are
present in Afghanistan, while the Kabul government denies this allegation.
Most of the TTP leaders hail from the same tribal areas of
Pakistan that were once active in the Afghan jihad and these people are
graduates of Pakistani madrassas.
But now they do not accept the fatwas of the same madrassas
that forbade taking up arms against the state.
The TTP leadership considers the Afghan Taliban emir to be
their ‘Amir-ul-Mu’minin’.
Although the Afghan Taliban emir has not yet issued any
fatwa against Pakistan that talks about jihad against the state, the question
is, if such a fatwa were to emerge tomorrow from Kabul, Kandahar or Paktia,
just as it used to come from Pakistani madrassas against Afghanistan, what
would be the impact?
The card that Pakistan once played is now in the hands of
the Afghan Taliban.
Afghanistan’s history has once again returned to its own circle.
The power that was once under the control of Islamabad is now issuing its own interpretation of religion from the streets of Kabul.
The source of the fatwa has changed, and this change has
reshaped the political and intellectual balance of the entire region.
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