On Thursday, 5 December 2019, Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies- Herat office organized the launching ceremony for the Farsi translation of the book ‘Islamic State’ by Abdul Bari Atwan. The book is translated into Farsi language by Hussain Ehsani, Researcher at the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies. The program was attended by university lecturers, political experts, civil society activists and media.
At first, Hussain Ehsani, the translator of this book, briefly introduced the book through a video call. He noted that the advent of religious groups such as Hezbollah of Lebanon and Al-Qaeda has challenged the security issue in the Middle East, though most of these groups have transformed security studies from traditional to transitional.
He continued his speech to elaborate on local, regional and international factors on the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and extremism in the Middle East, especially in the Muslim world. In his remarks, Mr. Ehsani mentioned effectiveness of the Islamic State book. He said that, the translation of this book will help readers gain a better and clearer understanding of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
After that, Dr. Azizullah Kazemi, criticized the book in three cases (the book’s advantages, translation and ISIL propaganda). Mr Kazemi stated that disagreements between religions and also Salafism were the important factors that led extremism and extremist groups to emerge in the region and in Muslim communities.
Mr. Ahmad Ershad Khatibi was the last speaker of this Program. In his remarks, he noted that the author of the book has an ideological and sometimes theological views to this book and was influenced by the Saudi government’s views. He also stated that the author had only paid to one cause of the emergence of ISIL and had actually taken a one-dimensional view of the issue.
Mr. Khatibi also spoke about differences between the Abbasi State and the Islamic State, and said that the only similarity between these two groups was the color of flag. Mr. Khatibi criticized the name of Islamic State over the book and quoting former U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, he said, “the Islamic State is neither state nor Islamic, citing Clinton”.