Author: Ahmed Rashid
Pages: 274
Publisher: Yale University Press
The ruling Taliban movement in Afghanistan has been frequently in the media limelight for all the wrong reasons. Even before the terrorist attacks of September 11th, they had already gained notoriety for, amongst other things, the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha statues, strict restrictions on women, compulsory dress and grooming codes, banning of all forms of entertainment, and giving refuge to the alleged terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden.
The events surrounding September 11th have put the Taliban at the center of the most recent "Great Game" being played by major players in the world today. Even as the United States demands that the Taliban surrender Bin Laden, appearing in no mood for negotiations, the Taliban are becoming increasingly stubborn by the day.
Amid the growing concerns over an imminent war, it is important that we try to understand the motivating factors behind the Taliban and their place in the modern world. This is a mighty task because most of the books that have been written on Taliban are works that cannot be considered unbiased. While it has its share of flaws and biases, Ahmed Rashid's "Taliban -Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia," offers a clear, concise and incisive look into a movement whose name is on everyone's lips these days even though very few happen to understand them.
In April 1992, the communist regime of President Najibullah in Afghanistan fell to the advancing mujahideen (fighters) who, in 1989, managed to rout the occupying Soviet armies. After the mujahideen took over Kabul, the Afghan capital, Najibullah sought shelter in a UN compound. There was tremendous hope among all Muslims that after years of fighting, peace and normalcy would finally return to Afghanistan. Those hopes, however, never materialized and the country again fell into a bloody civil war. In just one year as many as 10,000 civilians were killed when President Burhaddin Rabbani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's forces, once friends and comrades in arms against the Communists, turned their guns on each other. The country was again plunged into chaos and anarchy. Warlords and bandits acted with impunity and rape, looting and abduction became the order of the day.
It was during this time of continuing chaos that a movement emerged, a movement now known as the Taliban, originally comprising students of religious schools who, as refugees, studied at Pakistani madrassas (religious schools) during the war with the Soviets. Their leader then, as he is now, was a one-eyed religious scholar named Mullah Mohammed Omar, who lost that eye fighting the Russians. Legend has it that he gained initial prominence by rescuing two teenage girls from a commander who had abducted and raped them. Omar organized a group of around 30 Talibs (students) armed with only 16 rifles. They managed to free the girls and then hanged the commander from the barrel of a tank. In another telling of the story, Omar and his Talibs freed a young boy from two commanders who wanted to sodomize him.
Soon Omar acquired a Robin Hood-like image and citizens began to turn to him for the settlement of disputes. His prestige increased because he asked for no reward or credit from those he helped, only demanding that they follow him in setting up a just Islamic system. According to the author, the increasingly popular Omar and his band of followers soon caught the eye of the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI (Inter Services Intelligence). With the active support of the then Bhutto government and the ISI, the Taliban began capturing town after town until they finally occupied Kabul. During this time, Saudi Arabia also gave monetary help to the Taliban. What followed is well known.
The author says that Taliban quickly got out from under Pakistani influence and began to act on their own, imposing strict interpretations of Shar'iah laws, shutting down girls' schools and barring women from holding jobs - including those employed in hospitals. Men were forced to grow beards and women were ordered to wear a head to toe burkha. Movies, television, videos, music and dance were all banned. When a reporter asked a Taliban leader what Afghans should do for entertainment, a Taliban leader reportedly said, "Of course, we realize that people need some entertainment but they can go to the parks and see the flowers, and from this they will learn about Islam." According to Rashid, the members of the Taliban "divest Islam of all its legacies except theology - Islamic philosophy, science, arts, aesthetics and mysticism are ignored." Even in theology they are not well versed, asserts Rashid.
"The Taliban are poorly tutored in Islamic and Afghan history, knowledge of the Shari'ah [Islamic law] and the Koran and the political and theoretical developments in the Muslim world during the twentieth century," writes Rashid. "While Islamic radicalism in the twentieth century has a long history of scholarly writing and debate, the Taliban have no such historical perspective or tradition ... Their exposure to the radical Islamic debate around the world is minimal, their sense of their own history is even less."
Exploring another important facet in the making of Taliban, Rashid covers the role of oil in the region. For a long time it has been the desire of international companies to build a pipeline from the Caspian oil-producing region (home to Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and several other small nations) to serve potentially massive markets in South Asia. The route would go directly through Afghanistan. Rashid also explains in detail the very confusing U.S. policy, which was driven by oil companies taking precedence over human rights. "Policy was not being driven by politicians and diplomats," he writes, "but by the secretive oil companies and intelligence services of the regional states."
Topics covered in the book include the Taliban and the drug trade, the bin Laden connection, turf wars by rival oil companies, and the Shia-Sunni conflict.
Despite what seems to be personal contempt for the Taliban, Rashid also does carry a sense of empathy for them. He considers them to be a part of peace process in the future and offers suggestions in this regard. Quoting Ferdinand Braudel he writes, "Perhaps it has been the destiny of Islam to attract and use the primitive peoples who surround and cross its territory, but then fall prey to their violent power. Ultimately order is restored and wounds are healed. The successful primitive warrior is tamed by all-powerful urban life in Islam."
Then he questions, "Following this Muslim tradition, could the Taliban also change their policies and absorb Afghanistan's rich ethnic and cultural diversity to become the country's legitimate rulers?"
The answer, according to Rashid, is that, "In their present form that is unlikely."
But then again only Allah knows best.
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