Taliban

Template:TOC-right The modern Taliban movement, or the Taleban Islamic Movement of Afghanistan (TIMA), took control of Afghanistan in 1994, imposing a strict Salafist rule, as or more conservative than the Wahhabi movement of Saudi Arabia. Both featured a "Department for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice." They argued they were creating a stable Islamic state that the leaders of the jihad against the Soviets could not create.

They connected a current Islamist trend with traditions of the Durrani Pashtun, whose traditional stronghold was Kandahar. The term can be translated as "seeker" or "student" of Islam. The traditional Taliban go back at least two centuries in Afghn history, to Ahmad Shah Durrani, a king who died in 1773 and established an Islamic identity. The classic Taliban had been a "loose Islamic civil service", returning to villages as teachers and religious leaders. They speak Pashtun, as opposed to Dari, the other major language of Afghanistan.

The modern Taliban movement unquestionably abrogated the human rights of citizens, especially women, and also provided sanctuary to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. They were ousted from power in the Afghanistan War (2001)-, but continued to fight as guerrillas even after the formation of an interim Afghan government. The question remains open if having a Taliban faction in a new coalition would increase stabilility.

TIMA takes power

The resurgent TIMA was made up principally of graduates of the Haqqania madrassa near Peshawar. That religious school's teachings drew from a 19th century Indian Muslim movement called Deobandism, which argued against modernization and believed that Muslims needed to live in the same way as the Prophet and his Companions.

Under Mullah Mohammad Omar, they advocated an Islamic revolution, under Sharia and without the foreign mujahedin. Most of their members were Pashtun that had fought the Soviets. Ma'soum Afghani said "Arabs fulfilled their role in Jihad in Afghanistan against Communism. We have relationships with some of them but not all of them are under our control or on our land. They live in Afghanistan as guests, but the land of Afghanistan will not be used against any other Islamic country."

In late 1994, Hashmat Ghani Azmadzai, leader of the Ahmadzai tribe, accepted what he considered a fair offer by the Taliban, to restore the king, hold a loya jirga (great council), and bring order to what was warlord anarchy. Supporting the Taliban, at this time, was seen as defending against enemies of the Pashtun. So did the Karzai family, who were the descendants of Ahmad Shah Durrani.

Another faction came from the Amadzai's brother Ashraf has served as Finance Minister in the interim administration, but some Dari-speaking factions see him, and his Afghan Mellat party, as an authoritarian who wants to "Pashtunize" the other ethnic groups: Tajiks, Pashtuns, Uzbeks, Hazaras, Turkmen, etc. See government evolution below.

Taking control

On 11 September 1996 the Taleban captured Jalalabad, the eastern city bordering Pakistan and on 27 September 1996 they captured Kabul, ousting the government. They captured former President Najibullah and his brother and killed them, hanging them from lamposts in the city center. As of the beginning of June 1997, the Taleban effectively controled two-thirds of the country.

Rule under the Taliban

There was a six-member ruling council in Kabul but ultimate authority for Taliban rule rested in the Taliban's inner Shura (Council), located in the southern city of Kandahar, and in Mullah Omar.

Taliban searched everywhere for acts practices they deemed inconsistent with the Qu'ran and Sunna. In an interview with Mullah Muhammad Hassan, "We cannot say this or that is permitted becasue it is allowed in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or Iran. We have studied many religious books and in all of them, the things we have prohibited are prohibited. So while we may say that what these countries do are their business, just as what we do is ours, we also say nothing they say or do allow them to escape from the basic fact: They are permitting things that are prohibited in Islam." It is worth noting that only three countries, all Islamic, ever gave the Taliban diplomatic recognition: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); the UAE later withdrew it.

On a personal basis, they required all men to grow beards of specified characteristics, and banned women from working outside the home, requiring them to wear the face and body cover of the chador. Gender restrictions interfered with the delivery of humanitarian and medical assistance to women and girls.

In October 1997 the Taliban changed the name of the country to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with Mullah Muhammad Omar, who had previously assumed the religious title of Emir of the Faithful, as head of state.

Civil war

The country was effectively partitioned between areas controlled by Pashtun and non-Pashtun forces, as the Taleban now controlled all the predominantly Pashtun areas of the country (as well as Herat and Kabul), while non-Pashtun organizations controlled the areas bordering on the Central Asian republics whose populations are ethnically non-Pashtun, such as Uzbeks and Tajiks. Reconstruction continued in Herat, Kandahar, and Ghazni, areas which were under firm Taliban control.

9-11, demands, and overthrow

Osama bin Laden had helped fund the Taliban take power, and turning him over to the West, in Mullah Omar's belief, would violate the tradition of protecting guests with no guarantees of western protection for his regime. According to a Time reporter, Omar said "Did we invite him in?" said Omar of bin Laden. "He was already here. But we don't know how to get rid of him or where to send him." Eventually, Omar decided to deny the recommendation of a 600-man body of senior clerics last Thursday to "encourage" bin Laden to leave Afghanistan "in his own free will" at a time and to a place of his choosing. Now, said the Taliban, Afghanistan is ready for a "showdown of might."

Government evolution

According to the Web-published Afghan Mirror, one of the well-known members of the Afghan Mellat party is Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and as stated before, it will prove hazardous to have someone like Ashraf Ghani underestimated. While Hamed Karzai nominated him to succeed Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the United Nations, a post won by Ban-Ki Moon, the Mirror claims he is "fascistic" and unable to operate in a multipolar country.

New coalition?

Unquestionably, Taliban units still are in active combat with Western forces and the Afghan government. A warning came from Mula Birather, leading at least 12 Taliban military groups in Afghanistan. There is an open issue, however, if the Taliban are monolithic.

While the Obama Administration has made Afghanistan the focus of new large-scale efforts against terrorism, John Mueller, Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University, argues that the Taliban was a reluctantly provided a home al Qaeda in the 1990s, violated agreements to refrain from issuing inflammatory statements and fomenting violence abroad, and then, with the 9-11 attacks where the Taliban had no official role, brought down the Taliban government. "Given the Taliban’s limited interest in issues outside the "AfPak" region, if they came to power again now, they would be highly unlikely to host provocative terrorist groups whose actions could lead to another outside intervention."

The Administration has suggested reaching out to "moderate Taliban." While Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the idea, others were dubious.Some analysts suggest no such thing exists outside fantasy. "Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality," "Where are the so-called moderate Taiban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" said Waheed Mozhdah, an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments. A different Taliban said this could not work in the presence of a planned troop surge. Mullah Abdul Salem Zaeef, who spent nearly four years in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, said a mostly American surge

...was likely to act as a magnet to foreign fighters...All the people were optimistic when Obama became president. I was a little optimistic that he would stop the war, but when he declared the strategy, especially sending more troops and sending a military man as the ambassador, these strategies are war strategies, not a peace strategy and it's increasing the problem..."The Saudis wanted to be the interpreter between the Taliban and the government and they did something, but increasing more troops is destroying this process...The problem is not between Taliban and Afghans, everything is possible by Afghans. The Taliban are sitting with them, I know that, they respect each other."

A western diplomat replied to Zaeef, that his claims of Taliban unity were "wishful thinking". He said: "There is plenty of empirical evidence that the insurgents are pulled in different directions and not all are prepared to drag the country into perpetual war."