Javanmard
03-27-2001, 08:34 AM
Following is a very good article on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan:-
Taliban Slaughtering Cows to Hide Embarrassment?
Afghanistan, March 23, 2001 [ 10:44 ]
By ANWAR IQBAL, Afghan News Network
KABUL(AFGHAN-NETWORK) -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia
slaughtered cows this week after demolishing the country's ancient Buddhist
statues, claiming the "idol-smashing" brought much-needed rains. Many have
questioned whether the destruction of the statues is an act of atonement or
a crude attempt to hide embarrassment.
The Taliban is not just the most unpredictable regime in the world, it is
also the clumsiest. The militia group has never done anything with finesse
and refinement. When teenagers in Kabul tried to copy the Titanic hair
style, they did not offer an alternative for their youth to follow. Instead
they went around beating the teenagers and putting the barbers in jail.
When people trimmed their beards against the Taliban injunction, they made
them crawl on their bellies. When women resisted their head-to-toe veils,
Taliban forces blackened their faces. And when visiting soccer players from
Pakistan came to an Afghan stadium in shorts to play a match, the entire
team was arrested.
A prostitute arrested for soliciting clients was hanged in public. The
amputation of limbs and flogging for minor offenses are so common that they
no longer make a news.
As people started losing interest in the Taliban's unique style of rule,
the group earlier this month came up with something that stunned the whole
world; the destruction of thousands of Buddhist relics across Afghanistan.
The reason: the statues could have encouraged idol-worshipping, an act
prohibited in Islam.
It mattered little to Taliban leaders that none of the 55 Muslim nations
agreed with their interpretation of Islam. They paid no attention to appeals
from almost every nation and international organization to spare the
statues. Even a delegation of Islamic scholars, sent by the 55-nation
Organization of Islamic Conference to save the statues, failed to have any
impact on the Taliban.
"I wonder where do they get their knowledge of Islam from and how do they
interpret Islamic laws," says Prof. Anis Ahmad of Pakistan's Islamic
University. An expert on the Koran, Ahmad says the Taliban's interpretation
of the Muslim holy book baffles him.
The grand mufti of Egypt, Nasr Farid Wasel, reminded the Taliban that
although Muslims have been ruling Afghanistan for more than a thousand
years, no Islamic ruler ever found these 1,500 years old statues offensive
to his faith.
"But the Taliban are nothing if they are not stubborn," says Amin Tarzi,
an Afghan scholar at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in
California. "They feed off the people's illiteracy and lack of knowledge of
traditional Islamic teachings."
Although now presenting themselves as scholars of Islamic law and
jurisprudence, Taliban are students of Muslim religious seminaries called
madrisas who could not complete their education because of the war.
They appeared on the scene in 1994, when the Mujahideen rulers who had
replaced the pro-Soviet communist regime, failed to restore peace to
Afghanistan.
Since they moved quickly and restored peace to the areas under their
control, not just the Afghans but some other governments also welcomed them.
Although only three governments, those of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the
United Arab Emirates recognized them, others regarded them as a welcome
change in a country suffering under more than 20 years of war and civil
strife.
It took the international community some time to realize that its hopes
were false. The Taliban had further darkened a night already heavy with
tyranny and suffering.
I think this is a very accurate article, in that it shows the Taliban in the proper light.....
Taliban Slaughtering Cows to Hide Embarrassment?
Afghanistan, March 23, 2001 [ 10:44 ]
By ANWAR IQBAL, Afghan News Network
KABUL(AFGHAN-NETWORK) -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia
slaughtered cows this week after demolishing the country's ancient Buddhist
statues, claiming the "idol-smashing" brought much-needed rains. Many have
questioned whether the destruction of the statues is an act of atonement or
a crude attempt to hide embarrassment.
The Taliban is not just the most unpredictable regime in the world, it is
also the clumsiest. The militia group has never done anything with finesse
and refinement. When teenagers in Kabul tried to copy the Titanic hair
style, they did not offer an alternative for their youth to follow. Instead
they went around beating the teenagers and putting the barbers in jail.
When people trimmed their beards against the Taliban injunction, they made
them crawl on their bellies. When women resisted their head-to-toe veils,
Taliban forces blackened their faces. And when visiting soccer players from
Pakistan came to an Afghan stadium in shorts to play a match, the entire
team was arrested.
A prostitute arrested for soliciting clients was hanged in public. The
amputation of limbs and flogging for minor offenses are so common that they
no longer make a news.
As people started losing interest in the Taliban's unique style of rule,
the group earlier this month came up with something that stunned the whole
world; the destruction of thousands of Buddhist relics across Afghanistan.
The reason: the statues could have encouraged idol-worshipping, an act
prohibited in Islam.
It mattered little to Taliban leaders that none of the 55 Muslim nations
agreed with their interpretation of Islam. They paid no attention to appeals
from almost every nation and international organization to spare the
statues. Even a delegation of Islamic scholars, sent by the 55-nation
Organization of Islamic Conference to save the statues, failed to have any
impact on the Taliban.
"I wonder where do they get their knowledge of Islam from and how do they
interpret Islamic laws," says Prof. Anis Ahmad of Pakistan's Islamic
University. An expert on the Koran, Ahmad says the Taliban's interpretation
of the Muslim holy book baffles him.
The grand mufti of Egypt, Nasr Farid Wasel, reminded the Taliban that
although Muslims have been ruling Afghanistan for more than a thousand
years, no Islamic ruler ever found these 1,500 years old statues offensive
to his faith.
"But the Taliban are nothing if they are not stubborn," says Amin Tarzi,
an Afghan scholar at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in
California. "They feed off the people's illiteracy and lack of knowledge of
traditional Islamic teachings."
Although now presenting themselves as scholars of Islamic law and
jurisprudence, Taliban are students of Muslim religious seminaries called
madrisas who could not complete their education because of the war.
They appeared on the scene in 1994, when the Mujahideen rulers who had
replaced the pro-Soviet communist regime, failed to restore peace to
Afghanistan.
Since they moved quickly and restored peace to the areas under their
control, not just the Afghans but some other governments also welcomed them.
Although only three governments, those of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the
United Arab Emirates recognized them, others regarded them as a welcome
change in a country suffering under more than 20 years of war and civil
strife.
It took the international community some time to realize that its hopes
were false. The Taliban had further darkened a night already heavy with
tyranny and suffering.
I think this is a very accurate article, in that it shows the Taliban in the proper light.....