By demanding peace talks under the Sharia, the Taliban have repudiated the otherwise religiously loaded constitution of 1973. However, they cannot present an implementable model of governance for a complex and diverse society like Pakistan.
The basic ingredients of their model are force and coercion, which go against basic human instincts. The two recent Taliban models of Sharia – in Afghanistan from 1995 to 2001, and Swat in 2008-2009 – show what kind of system they want to implement in the name of Islam.
In Afghanistan, they systematically annihilated the already faint formal institutions and did not even spare the traditional and non-formal ones. In the name of quick and efficient delivery of justice, they created the worst type of authoritarian system devoid of any institutional framework, let alone due process. The goal was neither social justice nor welfare. For instance, a certain Afghan citizen said to a local Taliban commander that most businesses had been destroyed or closed down during their rule, and women had been stopped for working. “Shouldn’t the Islamic emirate arrange food for my starving family?” he asked. The Taliban commander replied: “Can you recite the Kalimah?”
Taliban vigil squads beat up women in the streets and even dragged them out of their houses saying there were smoke billowing form their houses in the morning in the month of Ramzan. In the name of quick justice, both in Afghanistan and in Swat, their local commanders (mostly illiterate) were acting as magistrates, police and judges without any checks and balances. Most of their actions were motivated by personal vengeance. The public flogging of a girl in Swat is a glaring example of such personalized brutal order which knew no accountability and no system of remedy.
[quote]Some Taliban commanders became millionaires overnight[/quote]
Claiming to be holy warriors chosen to implement divine order on earth, they are subject to no worldly accountability for their deeds to any earthly institute. All their actions are justified in the name of Allah and Islam.
They consider welfare and development in this world as waywardness that can distract one from devotion and preparation for the other world. So they hold no responsibility towards the masses for their welfare and wellbeing in this world. Their only responsibility is to manage the faith of the individual.
However, this does not apply to the rulers and power wielders in their emirate. It is still fresh in the memories of Swati people that every meal of the self-claimed defenders of faith was a sort of festivity while the common fellow Muslims were subjected to starvation due to their violence and curfews. Some of the Taliban commanders became millionaires overnight.
In the quest for ushering Islamic system, they go back in history, repudiating the phenomenon of social, political and scientific developments over time. If they are questioned, they declare you outside the pale of Islam. A small state like Denmark has ensured social justice and welfare for its citizens without waging a global crusade. But you cannot dare to compare their system of governance with one run by infidels. They dismiss any dissenting views, means of communication, art and culture as well as modern institutional frameworks that can expose their hollowness and designs of global domination.
In their global venture of world homogenization, their first target is the Muslim population, to establish their power base to take on the non-Muslim world. This strategy has sandwiched the Muslim population between these global Jihadists and the Western countries. They need fractured societies and weak states as local bases for their global mission and therefore, the society and the state become their first targets. In short term, a state might consider the use of religion as beneficial, like a steroid that can improve the potency of its writ, but it is harmful in the long run. The Taliban’s basic objective is the annihilation of the state. They do not believe in the state as an entity, and do not value borders. It is the state that becomes the major hurdle in their goal of global domination. And such threats of global jihad create fears among the non-Muslim world that further isolate Muslims and make them vulnerable.
The jihadists exploit Muslims and their religious sentiments for their global venture of domination at the cost of diversity, individuality, basic human rights, freedom and world peace. They can ensure beard for every Muslim, but not bread.
The basic ingredients of their model are force and coercion, which go against basic human instincts. The two recent Taliban models of Sharia – in Afghanistan from 1995 to 2001, and Swat in 2008-2009 – show what kind of system they want to implement in the name of Islam.
In Afghanistan, they systematically annihilated the already faint formal institutions and did not even spare the traditional and non-formal ones. In the name of quick and efficient delivery of justice, they created the worst type of authoritarian system devoid of any institutional framework, let alone due process. The goal was neither social justice nor welfare. For instance, a certain Afghan citizen said to a local Taliban commander that most businesses had been destroyed or closed down during their rule, and women had been stopped for working. “Shouldn’t the Islamic emirate arrange food for my starving family?” he asked. The Taliban commander replied: “Can you recite the Kalimah?”
Taliban vigil squads beat up women in the streets and even dragged them out of their houses saying there were smoke billowing form their houses in the morning in the month of Ramzan. In the name of quick justice, both in Afghanistan and in Swat, their local commanders (mostly illiterate) were acting as magistrates, police and judges without any checks and balances. Most of their actions were motivated by personal vengeance. The public flogging of a girl in Swat is a glaring example of such personalized brutal order which knew no accountability and no system of remedy.
[quote]Some Taliban commanders became millionaires overnight[/quote]
Claiming to be holy warriors chosen to implement divine order on earth, they are subject to no worldly accountability for their deeds to any earthly institute. All their actions are justified in the name of Allah and Islam.
They consider welfare and development in this world as waywardness that can distract one from devotion and preparation for the other world. So they hold no responsibility towards the masses for their welfare and wellbeing in this world. Their only responsibility is to manage the faith of the individual.
However, this does not apply to the rulers and power wielders in their emirate. It is still fresh in the memories of Swati people that every meal of the self-claimed defenders of faith was a sort of festivity while the common fellow Muslims were subjected to starvation due to their violence and curfews. Some of the Taliban commanders became millionaires overnight.
In the quest for ushering Islamic system, they go back in history, repudiating the phenomenon of social, political and scientific developments over time. If they are questioned, they declare you outside the pale of Islam. A small state like Denmark has ensured social justice and welfare for its citizens without waging a global crusade. But you cannot dare to compare their system of governance with one run by infidels. They dismiss any dissenting views, means of communication, art and culture as well as modern institutional frameworks that can expose their hollowness and designs of global domination.
In their global venture of world homogenization, their first target is the Muslim population, to establish their power base to take on the non-Muslim world. This strategy has sandwiched the Muslim population between these global Jihadists and the Western countries. They need fractured societies and weak states as local bases for their global mission and therefore, the society and the state become their first targets. In short term, a state might consider the use of religion as beneficial, like a steroid that can improve the potency of its writ, but it is harmful in the long run. The Taliban’s basic objective is the annihilation of the state. They do not believe in the state as an entity, and do not value borders. It is the state that becomes the major hurdle in their goal of global domination. And such threats of global jihad create fears among the non-Muslim world that further isolate Muslims and make them vulnerable.
The jihadists exploit Muslims and their religious sentiments for their global venture of domination at the cost of diversity, individuality, basic human rights, freedom and world peace. They can ensure beard for every Muslim, but not bread.