HVK Archives: Taliban's interpretation of Islam draws flak
Taliban's interpretation of Islam draws flak - The Asian Age
Parwez Hafeez
()
30 April 1997
Title : Taliban's interpretation of Islam draws flak
Author : Parwez Hafeez
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : April 30, 1997
The Taliban surely know the art of keeping themselves perpetually in the news. As
soon as they burst upon the war-ravaged horizon of Afghanistan in late 1994, they
made headlines by notching up incredible victories against some Mujahideen
factions. By capturing one third of the turbulent country within five months of
their emergence from the seminaries of Baluchistan and NWFP, these
students-turned-soldiers compelled the world to sit up and take notice. When they
conquered Charasyab, the stronghold of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the formidable
Pushtoon warlord, they certainly astounded the world. And by making the
annexation of Kabul last year look like a cakewalk, they made history.
Since the conquest of Kabul, however, the Taliban have been in the news for all
the wrong reasons. First, the brutal manner in which they executed Najibullah and
his brother after the fall of Kabul sent shockwaves all around. Thereafter these
brave but bigoted young men went almost berserk in their zeal to impose an Islamic
rule in the country.
In their endeavour to turn the clock back, they began judging the piety of a man
by the length of his beard and that of a woman by the length of her veil. As it
usually happens in such cases, women became the main victim of their zeal. Their
rights to learn and earn were forcibly snatched away. Then they were forced to
remain within the four-walls of their homes. To discourage them from venturing
out, humiliating punishment were meted out, sometimes for travelling without an
escort and sometimes for travelling with one.
So far the world has been watching with disdain the imposition of retrogressive
measures by the Taliban and doing nothing because it was rightly considered an
internal matter of the Afghan people. But with their recent announcement that
they would destroy the ancient statues of Buddha situated in Bamyan province, once
they conquer it, the Taliban have certainly outraged the sensibilities of the
entire world.
The reason that the Taliban gave for arriving at this crazy decision was: "These
statues are un-Islamic and, therefore, we will have to destroy them." They may
well be. But that does not give them a divine right to raze them. Islam,
contrary to the warped mindset of these semi-literate youth who are ruling Kabul
today, does not sanction the destruction of other people's gods or places of
worship. Even during war, the Muslims are not supposed to violate the sanctity of
the places of worship of their non-Muslim adversaries.
These magnificent Buddhist architectural relics, dating back to the time of
Kanishka, have survived centuries of Muslim rule in the predominantly Muslim
Afghanistan. The Taliban should realise why any earlier ruler in the past did not
try to remove these "un-Islamic" symbols from the soil of Afghanistan. Not even
Nadir Shah Durrani, considered as the father of the modern Afghanistan, ever tried
to raze them. Were the earlier monarchs lesser Muslims than the Taliban? They
were not. They did not contemplate the destruction of the Buddhist structures
because they were guided not by fanatic devotion but by the true tolerant spirit
of Islam. They knew that the presence of the ancient Buddhist relies in their
land was testimony of the traditional Afghan magnanimity.
The Taliban do not appear to realise that their fanatic decision may lead to the
destruction of one of the world's valuable religio-cultural-architectural heritage
and the resultant loss will not only be of the Buddhists but also of Afghanistan.
Despite remaining firmly entrenched in the capital Kabul for the past seven
months, the Taliban have failed to secure international recognition. If any thing,
there has been closing of ranks amongst several neighbouring nations against them.
A few months ago, countries of as divergent political and ideological hues as
Iran, China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan and Turkmenistan came
together on one platform for the sole purpose of containing the dramatically rapid
progress of the Taliban. All these countries have their own reasons to be alarmed
at the phenomenal rise of the militant brand of Sunni Islam that the Taliban have
been vigorously imposing on their doorstep.
The Taliban leaders themselves are no less responsible for the highly hostile
international response that many of their actions and policy decisions, following
the annexation of Kabul, have evoked. Instead of devoting all their energies and
resources on rebuilding the besieged-for-years and bombed-out capital city, the
Taliban plunged themselves into trivialities which they obviously thought were a
matter of top priority, like raiding residences, destroying television sets and
confiscating music cassettes from vehicles.
Instead of utilising the enormous womanpower for rebuilding the shattered
infrastructure of essential services like power, water, health, child welfare and
education, as the Iranians had done after the termination of the eight-year long
war with Iraq, the Taliban locked up their women. A recent Unicef report has
described Afghanistan as a nation of widows. The number of the war and civil
war-widows and their children run into hundreds of thousands. The lopsided
directive of the Taliban has prevented these able-bodied destitute Afghan women
who have lost the bread-winners of their families from earning their livelihood
because the former consider it un-Islamic.
This is, however, far from true. Islam has never prohibited women from either
acquiring education or taking up a job. Today millions of women are working in
Muslim countries like Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Kuwait.
Allowing women to work in schools, hospitals and offices is not un-Islamic:
forcing them to either beg or starve definitely is. Actually, most of the
stringent rules that the Taliban have promulgated are not so much inspired by
Islam as prompted by the centuries-old harsh tribal and patriarchal practices and
customs prevailing in the Afghan society.
Just as the presence of the inanimate Buddhist structures in Banyam pose no threat
to Islam. But the continuous fratricide has definitely dealt a severe blow to the
image, reputation and strength of the great faith. If the Taliban are so keen on
removing the vestiges of all un-Islamic practices, the first thing they must
immediately stop is the spilling of the blood of Muslims by the Muslims.
Not unexpectedly, the Buddhists all over the world, have been anguished and one
can even understand the concern that the Sri Lankan government has expressed over
the fate of the sacred icons. What, however, came as an amusing surprise was the
vociferous protest by the Sangh Parivar against the Taliban threat. The BJP and
the, VHP flayed the government of India for not taking any measure to restrain the
Taliban from carrying out their threat. One marvels at their naivete, When the
Union government could not stop a band of its own zealots from razing a place of
worship, how can it be, expected to exercise its authority over the citizens of
another independent and sovereign country? And is it not sheer hypocrisy that
today the BJP hear bleeding at the mere prospect of the destruction of a
1500-year-old religious structure but the party had displayed no such sentiments
when it had savagely demolished a mere 400-year-old place of worship at Ayodhya in
1992? It ill behoves one group of fanatics to deplore another.
Postscript: After I filed this column news trickled in that better sense
prevailed and the Taliban made a categorical announcement that the statues of the
Buddha will not be razed. Obviously the Taliban changed their, mind in deference
to the international opinion. The Babri Masjid could also have survived if only
the BJP had shown similar respect to Parliament, judiciary or, at least, to the
sentiments of 150 million Muslims and millions of fair-minded non-Muslims in this
country.
(Parwez Hafeez is a writer and columnist)
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