Logiques transfrontalières et salafisme globalisé : l'État islamique en Afghanistan

In 2014, groups claiming to be part of the Islamic State were reported in several Afghan provinces, particularly Helmand and along the Afghan-Pakistan border. How is one to understand the emergence of this organization in Afghanistan? Is the affiliation of these groups fundamentally symbolic or do they amount to an extension of the Iraqi-Syrian movement? On the basis of interviews conducted in Kabul and Jalalabad in August and September 2015 with Afghans presently or formerly living in districts controlled by the Islamic state, we offer an initial interpretation of this phenomenon. In Afghanistan, more than three decades of civil war have transformed the Afghan religious field into a social and ideological terrain favorable to the establishment of jihadist Salafism. What’s more, the perverse effects of Afghan and Pakistani policies in the country’s eastern border regions have allowed the movement to establish itself on the Afghan-Pakistan border. In the end, the emergence of groups claiming to follow the Islamic State in Afghanistan is not an extension of the Iraqi model but rather a sign that a new social and political revolution is underway.