As many as 15,000 Afghans have applied to settle in America under a refugee program designed to protect those that worked with American forces, media, aid agencies, and rights groups before the Taliban took power in 2021. With the suspension of America’s Refugee Admissions Program, however, they now face an uncertain future.

President Trump inherited from President Biden a dangerous situation in Afghanistan. Mr. Biden’s administration utterly failed to prevent the Taliban’s resurgence. The $7 billion in American  military equipment America left behind is both a security risk and a national embarrassment. 

Yet breaking promises to former allies, who, as contractors and interpreters, risked their lives to support the United States isn’t just un-American — it’s a gift to our enemies. Unlike asylum seekers with unverifiable pasts, these Afghans have clear, documented histories through their direct ties to American and forces of the North Atlantic Treaty. They have service records and personal testimonies that make their vetting far more efficient and reliable. 

By abandoning them now, America would be merely turning its back on those who risked everything. It would be reinforcing the narrative that America’s support is temporary and its partnership untrustworthy. That is diesel for recruitment campaigns and extremist narratives that have ignited across the region since the Taliban started enforcing its oppressive regime.  

After all, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to Iran, Sudan to Pakistan, a new radical alliance is emerging, threatening the stability of the free world, just as ISIS once did. Nowhere is this more evident than in the assault on women’s rights, now a rallying cause for extremists worldwide.

In Afghanistan, 1.4 million girls have been barred from school under Taliban rule. In Syria, Islamist groups are rewriting curricula to fit their radical agendas. And in my home country of Iraq, the legal marriage age has been lowered to nine, reviving the barbaric practice of child marriage. This strategy is deliberate, creating a far greater threat than any single terror attack by ensuring their ideology endures for generations.

Mr. Trump’s leadership proved decisive in dismantling ISIS. This time, though, military might possibly not be enough. Over 20 years of interventions claiming over 7,000 American lives and costing $8 trillion has left the nation weary of forever wars. 

And it’s clear from the Taliban’s rapid takeover that the fight against extremism requires an ideological offensive, built on partnerships with regional allies who can combat the roots of radical ideologies either through lived experience or by operating outside the parameters of Washington’s influence. 

History shows that refugees can help stabilize regions; Vietnamese exiles helped curb communist insurgencies and Iraqi and Syrian refugees exposed ISIS networks. Curbing entrenched ideological movements requires a different approach, like how South Africa’s apartheid would not have ended without the critical support of grassroots movements.

This is why Mr. Trump should keep Muslim allies close — both at home and abroad — if he wishes to effectively undermine the most extreme perversions of Islam. Earlier this month the Islamic world sent its strongest signal yet that it will not stand for the Taliban’s gender apartheid.

In Pakistan, the International Conference on Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities united Islamic scholars, political leaders, and activists, including Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, who delivered a scathing critique of the Taliban’s oppressive regime. 

Organized by Sheikh Mohammad al-Issa, the Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, the conference culminated with the historic Islamabad Declaration, a transformative faith-driven compact reframing girls’ education as both a religious obligation and a societal necessity. 

By dismantling extremist narratives that distort Islam to justify oppression, the Declaration boldly asserts such ideologies as fundamentally un-Islamic. Supported by nearly every Islamic sect — including the ultra-conservative Haqqani School which the Taliban claim to greatly respect — this initiative marked a powerful rejection of the Taliban’s draconian worldview.

The impact of this movement is already visible. For the first time, divisions within the Taliban ranks have emerged, with ministers now advocating for reopening high schools. The Taliban has even agreed to allow Afghan girls to study in Pakistan — an achievement that two decades of American military incursions could not accomplish.

Now is not the time for Mr. Trump to turn his back on the region. Instead, America would be better served by shifting from brute force and Washington diktats toward a sustainable Middle East strategy, one that prioritizes empowering efforts to combat extremism from within.

Let granting refuge to Afghan allies mark the beginning of a re-engagement — one that not only prevents the spread of extremism but also defeats it.