“The Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan. … American operatives went about the Muslim world recruiting for the jihad in Afghanistan, because the U.S. saw it as an opportunity to mobilize the Muslim world against communism. That opportunity was exploited by recruiting mujahideen in Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, and Palestine. From everywhere they came. They received training from the CIA. They received arms from the CIA. … the notion of jihad as ‘just struggle’ had not existed in the Muslim world since the tenth century until the United States revived it …”

aus: Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire. Interviews with David Barsamian. Cambridge, Mass.: South End 2000, S.44

Abb.: Hamja Ahsan: Documenta fried chicken, Detail, documenta15, 2022.

 

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