In Chapter 3, Mamdani provides an in-depth analysis of how the US-backed Afghan jihad of the 1980s transformed global political Islam, fueled terrorism, and deeply destabilized both Afghanistan and Pakistan, with long-lasting implications across the Muslim world. Mamdani begins with Eqbal Ahmad’s recollection of President Reagan praising Afghan mujahideen as “the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers” (119). This symbolic moment marks the US strategy to weaponize radical political Islam against the Soviet Union. Following its defeat in Vietnam and setbacks in Nicaragua and Iran, the US viewed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan as an opportunity for strategic “payback” (124). Under Reagan, this turned into the largest CIA paramilitary operation since Vietnam, with Afghanistan becoming the bloodiest Cold War battleground.

The 1979 Iranian Revolution altered American perceptions of political Islam. Previously, political Islam had been seen as a bulwark against secular nationalism (as with support for Islamists in Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia), but the Iranian Revolution revealed a variant that was both anti-Communist and anti-American. The US reacted by deepening alliances with secular authoritarian regimes like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, even supporting Iraq’s use of chemical weapons against Iran. Mamdani reveals that US aid to Afghan rebels actually began before the Soviet invasion, intended to provoke Soviet military involvement.