Taliban, Islam, and Secular Forces

By Nadia Khan 

After 8 years of guerrilla warfare with Taliban , US authorities are partially confirming that they had failed to secure Afghanistan from the Taliban and turning themselves to table-talks, as proposed by US-staunch ally, Hamid Karzai. Likewise the success of Pakistani Taliban in Swat through Maulana Soofi Muhammad's Tehreek e Nifaz e Shariat e Muhammadi, paved the way for their greater influence in FATA and adjoining Pak-Afghan tribal region in coming years.

The basic demands of Taliban are as under:

1. establishment of a Vice & virtue department that ensure five times prayer daily and all business shall be closed during prayer times
2. speedy trial for all crimes and Islamic mode of punishments like stone-to-death for rapist & so on
3. speedy justice for all social crimes like drinking liquors, utilising opium such as lashes to drinkers
4. Segregation of male & females in educational institutions, work place & so on, especially Taliban feels that women are not needed at work places
5. men and women have to follow Islamic dress code such as veil (observance of Hijab) for females and beard for males
6. deduction of Zakat & its proper disbursement to poor's unlike in our current system where Zakat fund is used for political bribery
7. ensure that Islamic culture shall rule above all eastern or western cultures

Either liked or not but above "˜demands of Taliban,' predominantly, are the tents of Islam. Five times prayer is mandatory and likewise Zakat deductions are main teachings of Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) after reciting Kalimah. Many hadiths are available in Bukhari or Muslim that talk about the necessity of five times prayer as mandatory. Speedy trial and social justice form the main ingredient of ruling methods during Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) era and soon after him during Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddiq (RA) and Hazrat Umer (RA) successive govts and later Khulfa's too. Regarding veil or purdah, all Muslim scholars unanimously agreed to it that it is mandatory for Muslim women even the most modern Islamic scholar of our time Maududi, he has been criticised by many other religious scholars due to his modern thinking out of strict religious interpretations, is strong supporter of veil and main advocate of covering the face rather than Arab scholars who are lenient in allowing to open woman's face beside covering herself fully.

Secular or progressive forces in Pakistan , now dominate the ruling class since over a decade such as PPP, ANP, MQM, Women's Right Associations, or West-supported NGOs are allergic to the word Islam or Shariah. That's how you could find mere propaganda against Islamic forces, and in today scenario mostly against Taliban, is basically the hidden hatred against Islam and its system of governance for which Taliban is termed as a symbol. Prayers, month of Ramazan, Hijab or beard, Jihad and Islamic system of punishment are considered as symbol of past and often termed as barbaric by Musharraf. These progressive forces, when define Islam as a religion of peace; indicate that there will not be any requirement of prayers, fasting, Zakat, hijab observance, Jihad and Islamic penal code. The new term of "Progressive Muslim" is ideally a person who doesn't practice the basic requirements of Shariah. Within this context, non-Islamic culture is promoted with no respect to basic Islamic norms such as dance parties like the recent incident in Karachi on Valentine's Day showed no respect for prayers and secular political leaders such as Altaf Hussain raised their voices against Taliban.

Beside, mixing Afghan culture with Islamic teaching & its strict enforcement, banning women education and destroying Buddha's mountain-statue, Taliban, though a group of students, had captured 90 percent of Afghanistan in 2001 from long-fighting warlords and as per United Nations reports the cultivation of Opium was at its lowest during Taliban regime. Now Taliban has to re think their strategy by adding all religious forces within their fold and set out a balanced approach especially for womens' education & work, dress code for man and healthy cultural activities for all.