Mojaddidi, Sibgatullah (1929-)

Sibgatullah Mojaddidi is a member of the well-established religious family of the Mojaddidis, known also as the Hazrats of Shorebazaar or the Hazrats of Qala-e-Jawad. As pirs (leaders of religious order) of the Naqshbandiyya mystic order, the Mojaddidis are respected and have followers mainly among the Pashtuns. The Khalqi government executed more than thirty Mojaddidis. Because of their conservative role in politics, the Mojaddidis had been at odds with the liberal intelligentsia and nationalists since the 1950s. Sibgatullah Mojaddidi taught at Habibiyya High school after he graduated from the University of al-Azhar in Cairo. In the early 1960s he spent three years in prison for his opposition to the government’s pro-Soviet stand. In 1979 he founded the National Front for the Rescue of Afghanistan, a small and moderate traditionalist resistance organization.