Here is translation of a short interview Brzezinski gave in 1998 to French newsmagazine Nouvel Observateur.
Back in those years, that is before 9/11, some informations about Islamism were not so difficult to find, nor was Brzezinski shy to speak about them...
(translation is mine)
(I put this in US subforum because this is basically about US history)
Le Nouvel Observateur — Former CIA Director Robert Gates asserts in his Memories that US secret services began helping Afghan Mujahideens 6 months before Soviet intervention. At that time, you were President Carter's advisor for security ; therefore you played a role in this. Do you confirm?
Zbigniew Brzezinski — Yes. According to official history, CIA help to Mujahideens started 1980, that is after the Soviet army had invaded Afghanistan on 1979/12/24. But reality, until now secret, is very different: it's July 3rd 1979 that President Carter signed first order about clandestine help to opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. On that day, I wrote a note to the president where I explained that in my view, that help would trigger a Soviet military intervention.
N. O. — In spite of that risk, you were in favor of that covert action. But you may even have wished this Soviet entry into war, and maybe you aimed at triggering it?
Z. B. — Not quite. We did not pushed the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would do so.
N. O. — When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting they wanted to struggle against secret ingerence by the USA in Afghanistan, nobody believed them. Still, there was truth in it... Do you regret anything now?
Z. B. — Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. Its consequence was to draw the Russians in the Afghan trap and you want me to express regrets? On the day the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote President Carter to the effect of: "We now have an opportunity to give the USSR its Vietnam war". Indeed, Moscow had to pursue during almost ten years a war that the regime could not bear, a conflict that demoralized then triggered the explosion of the Soviet empire.
N. O. — Don't you regret either to have favorized Islamist integrism, to have given weapons and advice to future terrorists?
Z. B. — What is more important in regard to world history? The Talibans, or the collapse of the Soviet empire? A few Islamist hotheads, or liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?
N. O. — “A few hotheads”? But it is widely said that Islamic fundamentalism is now a global threat.
Z. Brzezinski. — Bollocks! They say the West should have a global policy towards Islamism. That is stupid: there is no global Islamism. Let's look at Islam in a rational rather than a demagogic or emotional way. It's the first world religion with 1.5 billion faithfuls. But what does fundamentalist Saudi Arabia, moderate Morocco, militarist Pakistan, pro-Western Egypt of secularized Central Asia have in common? Nothing more than what unites the countries of Christendom...