"Their [Afghans'] only view of America often is taken from Hollywood movies and some reality television programs that make my eyebrows go up."
-Tom Cassilly of Political Science

Before teachers at James Caldwell High School and Grover Cleveland Middle School in Caldwell attempted to discuss the war in Afghanistan with their students, they went to school with Tom Cassilly.

An adjunct professor of political science at Montclair State for more than 20 years, Cassilly explained the roots of Afghan society to the social studies teachers at separate daylong sessions.

Cassilly, who is teaching American foreign policy and politics of the Middle East at the University this semester, instructs not just from theory but from life experiences he gained in his 24 years as a Foreign Service officer. Among his assignments, Cassilly was stationed in Mashad, Iran, near the border of Afghanistan. He retired from the Foreign Service after contracting an illness while on assignment in Africa, and in 1976 he earned a doctorate in political science from Columbia University.

He recently discussed how he came to know so much about Afghanistan and why he believes it does not have a strong future.

Q: How did you serve in the Foreign Service?
A: I was a diplomat. I started out as vice consulate in Martinique, then I served in Korea and Iran. After that I spent four years in the State Department. Then I went to Paris and to three French-speaking countries in tropical Africa.

Q: How did you become a Foreign Service officer?
A: It struck me while I was serving in World War II that I wanted to do something to bring countries closer and perhaps avoid future wars. I don't know whether I did a good job because there have been a lot of wars since then. I was drawn to the excitement of living abroad. Tourists just stay at the Hilton and run through a country. But when you're living in a country, you get around and you get to know the people. It was a rewarding career.

Q: What is your specific area of expertise?
A: The Middle East. In addition to the two years I spent in Iran, last summer I visited Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The summer before, I attended seminars at the University of Ankara in Turkey and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. So I keep up with what's going on in the Middle East.

Q: How did you come to teach local social studies teachers about Afghanistan?
A: Kevin Barnes, principal of Grover Cleveland, called the University after he heard I worked with teachers at the high school. Since then I have also visited Ramapo College, and I appeared on a local television program in Union County with an Afghan woman. We answered calls from the public about the Middle East.

Q: What is the Afghan people's greatest misconception of Americans?
A: Their only view of America often is taken from Hollywood movies and some reality television programs that make my eyebrows go up. They think this is a licentious, decadent society. They also think this is a country without religion, when in fact, the number of people who practice some form of faith in the United States is much higher than in Western Europe.

Q: What are our greatest misconceptions of the Afghan people?
A: We have "received" ideas about Islam. The narrow, puritanical Islam carried out by the Taliban is completely different from the wide-open Islam I've encountered. The Taliban is not Islam. While stationed in Mashad, 50 miles from Afghanistan, I took a three-week bus trip over the border. We traveled through Mazar-e-Shariff, Bamian, Kabul, Jalalabad and the Khyber Pass to Pakistan. It was an extraordinary experience, like going into another world. None of the roads are paved. It's barren, but there's a savage beauty. I was the only non-Muslim on the bus, and five times a day the bus stopped so they could pray. One guy asked me why I wasn't praying. I told him I was a Christian, and he asked, "Don’t Christians pray?" So the next time they all bowed to Mecca I went down and prayed, too.

Q: Why do you think Afghanistan's future will not be strong?
A: It's artificial. Afghanistan was created as a buffer state. There really are no Afghan people. It may be written on passports, but the Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks are loyal to their own ethnic groups. The Pashtuns are much closer to their tribal brothers in Pakistan than to the other tribes that exist in their own country. And they all speak different languages.

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