Americans find it difficult to differentiate between the ideologies of Taliban and
Al Qaeda. And since English is one of
the most commonly understood language in the west, the literature available in this language becomes hallowed, even though there may be a lot of misconceptions of the writer.
Taliban's main objective was to establish Afghanistan's identity as a Moslem nation that upholds traditional and cultural values. These values differ vastly from the values of the West and other regions of the world. The fact remains that Taliban existed before the arrival of Osama bin Laden on the scene, however, it came on radar only after the raid on Afghanistan.
If Taliban had not given refuge to Osama bin Laden, the World would have been only too happy to turn a blind eye on the genocides, and the so called inhuman treatments meted out to the people in Afghanistan. As things stand, Osama bin Laden sought refuge from Taliban, and the rest is history.
Cold war, rather the end of it, and subsequent economic hardships led more people in the region towards religion, and many of these were young, who could not fathom the depth of cryptically written holy books or the uneducated old who could only blame the modern culture for their woes. For them,
following the course in the Koran was possibly a way to salvation, which is why they dedicated all their efforts singularly towards that objective. In fact, there was no other route before them. The world, of course, had conveniently forgotten them. No reporter from west had any inkling of genocides, nor was any human rights activist aware of any violation of human rights. Post the attack, however, there is enormous amount of such data being bombarded by media, making skeptics wonder if it is not some war propaganda, aimed at justifying the interference with the sovereignty of another nation, or creating a dislike towards a clan that was not all that bad.
There were indeed some good things about Taliban. For one, they did not run a terrorist outfit – which is what Al Qaeda did, and so did Ku Klux Clan. There were no “jihadis” in Taliban, even though they staunchly opposed western lifestyle. They did not allow poppy cultivation, even though it could have fetched them and their countrymen ample money from the other parts of the world. This is because they were following the words in Koran – verbatim.
In contrast, the west or the
English-speaking world to be more precise, becomes concerned about genocides only when their interests are involved. Therefore, a political asylum to Idi Amin by Saudi Arabia doesn’t warrant the same treatment as the political asylum to Osama bin Laden by Taliban. Can we have a uniform code of conduct for everybody please?
And while these guardians of world go around advocating peace, they also develop weapons that the world can use for wars. In fact, their economies are highly dependent on sales of war related technologies and weapons. So it is unlikely that peace is indeed high on their priority list.
Unfortunately, Obama and his aides, though comparatively new to the scene, are merely following the footsteps of their predecessors, instead of differentiating between war propaganda and the facts. It is time to think intelligently otherwise, the world will have another fanatic group to handle. It is also time to treat Taliban with respect as in all probability, they were only doing what according to their interpretation Koran bade them to do. Every religion, after all, is good. It is the interpreter who lends it personal hues, based on personal experiences, which may not necessarily be good or right.