Author: Pamela Constable
Publication: Washington Post
Date: May 22, 2001
Identity Labels Would Distinguish
Hindus From Muslims
Afghanistan's Islamic rulers decreed
today that all non-Muslims must wear distinctive marks on their clothing
to set them apart from the country's Muslim majority.
Religious groups and several foreign
governments immediately condemned the order by the ruling Taliban movement,
and some observers compared it to the Nazis' treatment of European Jews
six decades ago. Under Nazi rule, Jews in Germany, Poland and Austria were
forced to wear yellow Stars of David to distinguish them from the rest
of society.
The United States called the decree
"the latest in a long list of outrageous repressions" by the Taliban. "Forcing
social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatizes
and isolates those groups and can never, never be justified," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.
Non-Muslims make up a tiny proportion
of Afghanistan's 17 million people. The largest group, the Afghan Hindu
community, are estimated to number only about 500. But the decree appeared
to reflect the Taliban's continuing efforts to impose its harsh interpretation
of Islam on the 95 percent of Afghanistan that it controls.
Maulawi Abdul Wali, chief of the
Taliban's powerful religious police, said the order had been issued after
a fatwa, or religious decree, was handed down by Islamic scholars, according
to a broadcast by the Taliban-controlled Voice of Shariat radio that was
monitored by news services.
"The [scholars] issued a fatwa that
the non-Muslim population of the country should have a distinctive mark
such as a piece of cloth attached to their pockets so they should be differentiated
from others," Wali was quoted as saying.
The Taliban decree reportedly also
said that non-Muslims will be given three days to leave any housing they
share with Muslims, and that they must follow the dictates of Islamic law
or face punishment. Wali, the religious police minister, said the order
would be implemented soon, according to an Associated Press report.
While gradually consolidating control
over Afghanistan since the mid-1990s, the Taliban has frequently drawn
sharp criticism from abroad for the rules imposed by its leaders in the
name of Islam. Women are barred from work and school and may not leave
home unless veiled from head to foot; men are required to wear long beards
and pray in mosques fives times a day.
But the movement had so far allowed
the country's religious minorities to live and worship unmolested. If the
Taliban is now preparing to crack down on religious minorities, it would
be another indication that the regime, isolated by international financial
sanctions and accused of fomenting Islamic terrorism, is becoming even
more conservative and prepared to defy world opinion.
Two months ago, the Taliban shocked
the world by demolishing two famous, centuries-old carvings of Buddha in
the name of Islamic purity, despite international appeals not to destroy
revered symbols of another ancient religion. Last week, the Taliban religious
police raided and shut down a hospital run by an Italian charity, complaining
that male and female staff members were mingling in the facility.
In India, a Hindu-majority country,
reports had circulated since Monday that the Taliban would require Afghan
Hindus to wear yellow clothing. Indian government officials said the order
was further proof that the Taliban is ideologically "backward" and deserves
world condemnation.
"We absolutely deplore such orders,"
said Raminder Singh Jassal, chief spokesman for India's Foreign Ministry.
"This is further evidence of the backward and unacceptable ideological
underpinnings of the Taliban and justifies actions that the international
community have taken in imposing sanctions against the Taliban."
India's Catholic Conference of Bishops
also denounced the religious decree, saying it "goes against fundamental
human rights and must be opposed by all those who believe in protection
of human rights and dignity."
In recent years, war and persecution
have driven the vast majority of religious minorities out of Afghanistan.
But Hindus and Sikhs interviewed in Kabul two months ago said they were
treated with respect by the Taliban and allowed to worship freely, as long
as they did not display religious icons and idols of which the Taliban
disapprove.
Masood Khalili, the Delhi-based
envoy of the Afghan government deposed when the Taliban captured Kabul
in 1996, said in an interview that the Taliban decree "indicates their
zero tolerance in relation to other religions. It is a very uncivilized
and un-Islamic decree."
But Munawaar Hasan, general secretary
of Jamaat-e-Islami, a major Islamic political party in neighboring Pakistan,
told the AP that the move seems aimed to give protection to Hindus. "The
Taliban should win praise for this step," he said. "Providing protection
to religious minorities is a must in any Islamic country and this step
seems in line with this concept."
