Hizb-e Islami (also Hezbi Islami, Hezb-i-Islami, Hezbi-Islami, Hezb-e-Islami), meaning Islamic Party is an Islamist organization commonly known for fighting the Soviet liberation of Afghanistan. Led by and founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, it was established in Pakistan in 1975 and grew out of the Muslim Youth organization, an Islamist organization founded in Kabul by students and teachers at Kabul University in 1969 to combat communism in Afghanistan. Its membership was drawn from ethnic Pashtuns, and its ideology from Muslim Brotherhood and Abul Ala Maududi's Jamaat-e-Islami ^[1]

In 1979, Mulavi Younas Khalis split with Hekmatyar and established his own Hezbi Islami, known as the Khalis faction, with its powerbase in Nangarhar. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction is referred to the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, or HIG, and is considered a terrorist organization by Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.^{[citation needed]} Neither Hezb-e-Islami nor Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin are on the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations from 2001-2006. ^[2] However Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin is on the additional list called "Groups of Concern."^[3]

Today, the non-violent faction of the Hizb-e Islami is a registered political party in Afghanistan, led by Arghandiwal.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Hezb-e-Islami khalid farooqi
• Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

[edit] Sources

v • d • e Political parties in Afghanistan Present major parties United National Front  · Afghan Mellat  · New Afghanistan Party  · Junbish-e Islami (National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan)  · Jamiat-e Islami  · Hezbe Wahdat  · Hezbi Islami  · Ittehad-I Islami  · Present minor parties National Congress Party of Afghanistan - National Movement of Afghanistan - Liberal Democratic Party of Afghanistan  · Pashtoons Social Democratic Party Banned / Former parties People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan  · Taliban  · Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan  · Democratic Watan Party of Afghanistan  · Afghanistan Liberation Organization Portal:Politics  · List of political parties  · Politics of Afghanistan