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 I'm well aware that there a different interpretations of Islam much
like how the Christians (Protestants, Catholics etc) have different
interpretations of the Bible, Jews (Orthodox, Zionist etc) have
different (extreme) interpretations of the Torah etc. What I'm trying to
get across in my post, with which I'm sure you'll agree, is that Islam,
as revealed by God and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) can never
be reformed. It can never be changed. Islam was perfected by God and
thus cannot be improved. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said
"Beware of extremism in your religion." True Islam is the middle way
between excess and neglect, between zealotry and apathy.
Yes agreed we should therefore naturally take the middle path, but this has no bearing on what is going on today. If you're a devout practicing Muslim with or without a beard, pray 5 times a day and speak out on the oppression and injustices in the world today, then you're immediately ostracised as an extremist. All this BS of suicide bombers and terrorists is food for the ignorant and brainwashed. Anyone can remotely detonate a bomb and blame it on some innocent person who is already in shreds. We need to begin to think outside of the box (television), quite literally, and take a more holisitic approach. The reason the Ummah is split today is because there aren't enough Muslims with real faith in Islam. If there were, there'd be more grassroots movements, organisations, Muslims with power and influence around the world that would fund these movements and effectively guarantee safety and protection to all Muslims and like minded Non-Muslims.
According to a revision of one government’s counter terrorism strategy, an Islamic extremist is defined as someone who advocates a caliphate; promotes Sharia law, believes in armed resistance anywhere in the world, specifically in Palestine; believes that homosexuality is sinful or banned in Islam; or fails to condemn the killing of British forces illegally occupying Iraq and Afghanistan. That definition makes many people and like minded pacifists all Islamic extremists. Is a person who prays 5 times a day an extremely better Muslim (more extreme) than one that prays zero times a day? What we have to understand is that Extremism is now a loaded propaganda term used by many extreme Governments to demonize those who oppose its foreign policy, to justify occupation/colonialization, and nothing to do with religion or terrorism.
Which part of the Glorious Quran condemns Flogging for adulterers, or condemns people for protecting their property and land from external agression? Without using the term heretical (referring to beliefs in conflict with the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church), what interpretations of Islam do you feel the Taliban are in conflict with? The Taliban follow the true Islam, live under proper Sharia Law and practice the true Sunnah, they are a revival of the true authentic Islam and they will reject all forms of materialism, westernism etc.
If we step back a little while, the Taliban had insipred many Muslims to the right path. They had even begun to create the foundations for a genuine Islamic community - ruled by Shariah and Shariah only - as they had begun to encourage Muslims to migrate to Afghanistan to help in the revival of Islam, and in the construction of what many hoped would one day become a new Khilafah.
Those in the West who disliked Islam and who had worldly plans of their own for the world thus came to consider the Taliban a threat, and so began a campaign against them, using the power of the Western Media - which was in their control, directly or indirectly - to try and discredit the Taliban, in the eyes of both Muslims and non-Muslims, and using, as they often did, the services of the many tame and "moderate" Muslims who believed that imitation of the western way of life was "a good thing" and that "Islam needed modernizing". In addition, the so-called leaders of many Western nations began agitating for sanctions against the Taliban, with some advocating direct intervention by the mis-named "United Nations". This campaign, by the enemies of Islam, culminated in the invasion of Afghanistan and in the installation of a sympathetic puppet regime.
The people of Pakistan are responsible for the decisions the Government take as they elect them. The Pakistan Government are ultimately responsible for running the country, if they feel that a peace deal with the Taliban are in the interests of the country, then that is a decision that has to be made. Afterall, these are the same people who have to tolerate hellfire missiles advocated by the governemt itself, yet the Taliban are the ones who offered to stand by the Army to protect the homeland from a potential Indian invasion. The real enemy is anything but the Taliban. Instead of advocating the condemnation of a people that are actually on your side, one should actually be focussing their condemnation and disapproval to the slaughtering of Muslims in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan etc by the "real" threat, the insidious, stealthy threat that is actually succeeding in wiping out the Muslims off the face of this earth. Peace.
Ahmed
Do you agree with the brother's statements or think he is wrong?
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Readers have left 15 comments.
Asfand Yar Qazi:
Two questions:
1) If the Taliban followed the true Shar'iah, why did they treat women as second-class citizens? Specifically, why did they stop them going to school, and stop them working? Yes, I know Allah has given women the role of looking after the home, and they should embrace this great honour, but that means anything that will help their home flourish, including being educated and educating the children, and working part-time to supplement the income so that hardship is reduced and the community can benefit from their experience, wisdom and creativity.
2) If the Taliban followed the true Shar'iah, why did Allah Almighty allow their state to be destroyed? Allah promises victory to the believers - um..... so, He, like, broke his promise? Or perhaps they were doing something wrong...
In my opinion, the Taliban practiced the punishments of Islam brilliantly. As a result, crime and drug production was obliterated. Mashallah, their punishment system is what the future Islamic Khaliphate will follow.
But they failed to create hope for the people. The punishments were often applied to the wrong people - a proper Islamic judicial system should make sure that no more than 1% or 2% of people subjected to capital punishment are wrongly done so. That requires proper courts and procedures. They did not encourage innovation within the boundaries of the Shar'iah - artistically, scientifically or business-wise. They didn't let their critics speak out, which created the impression that they could not justify their views.
Yes, I agree the Taliban got certain parts of the Shar'iah implemented much better than most - but I repeat - why did Allah Almighty, who promises power in the land to those who obey Him, and protection from His enemies, not protect them and keep them in power?
Interested to hear other view-points on the matter.
Q:
Never is a powerful word - neither the early Israelites nor Christians imagined that their faiths would reform. But they did about 1000 years after their foundation.
Is our faith as immutable as we imagine or do we truthfully change it step by step each day?
Haseeb:
^ A thoughtful and well written article, well done Ahmed...food for thought for those who like to jump on the bandwagon of rabid condemnation as inspired by the neo-con pressa and it's supporters...
Mitsubishi:
yes brother Ahmed i think true to your words most individuals just will not accept reality,
slaughter of muslims in is not unacceptable in Isalm even i know that but the average academic will be in denial,
only because time has moved on and they have their own version of living where Islam has to fit,
underlying threat from mordernity is very real we must fight it so we save ourselves from ourself,
lots don't like Taliban we have to fight them also, peacefully
Mitsubishi:
sorry typing to fast, what i meant to say on above comment, you can not let them murder muslims anywhere
it's against our religion
Commando:
If the Taliban are correct then why are they fighting and slaughtering innocents in bomb attacks in mainland Pakistan? Should we celebrate everytime theres a bomb that goes off as a sign of 'true islam'.
Im sorry but I dont buy it. Look at the Sharia in North Nigeria, they dont go out and maim and kill the mainly christian population. What gives the Taliban the right to fight agains the country that raised it and fed it. Is a Muslim fighting for the Pakistan Army any worse than a Muslim fighting for the Taliban or any connected groups? Well yes accoeding to Hizbut Tahrir and Deobandi(s), and the Taliban.
Beware of the Khawarijs, the ones who call other Muslims kuffar, while living in the same country, (which is Islamic).
wendymann:
"The people of Pakistan are responsible for the decisions the Government take as they elect them."
simplistic politics .
the fact is if you are talking taliban you are doing the job of the neo con agenda for the afghanistan - pakistan nations that has been long written and pursued by the uk and usa.
the issue is to focus on the realpolitk behind the european cultural imperialism that is driving in the media the "new american century" that the uk has decided to piggy-back.
dont defend the taliban through selsctive rose tinted specs. they did some good they did some bad.
currently the usa-uk are doing bad towards the peoples of pakistan, afghanistan as they have for iraq and the palestinians. it is a matter of self interest economics - the taliban are the excuse since bin laden - al qaeda are dead .. for the new colonization of that part of the strategically important world.
Imran Karim:
Prior to the invasion of Afghanistan, the Americans were trying for years to secure a deal to build a huge oil pipeline in its northern areas to exploit the huge reserves in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The demonisation of the Taliban, scaring people about "fundamentalist" Islam and the media over-emphasis of womens rights (by those who were behind the world slave trade!) was a smokescreen to access the oil, just as the belated stories they peddled about Saddam Hussein after they had finished using him for fighting Iran.
So Afghanistan was more about reducing their exposure to the Middle East and securing oil for the American economic strategists. And as a by-poruct, it was about demonising Islam and Muslims for the Neo-cons and Zionists to help them brainwash the masses to pave their way for their ultimate aim of destroying Palestine.
The puppet 'President' Hamid Karzai lived in the USA previously working as an oil consultant for El Segundo, California where he advised them on how to negotiate with the Taliban to secure the oil pipeline.
As for the Taliban implementing Islam, all forms of worship are about the intention behind the action. If through compulsion, someone holds a gun to your head and forces you to pray, it doesnt mean anything if your heart and your mind is not behind it with genuine intention.
Locking up women preventing them from education and work, physically forcing men to go the mosque to pray and keep a beard, destroying historic relics which are sacred to other religions, and applying Sharia pubishments without proper regard for the Sharia standards of evidence is not the best Islam in my view.
Taliban gained support from the people because they were the best alternative. But, in my view, they were nowhere near perfect.
Imran Karim:
Idealism has to be balanced with political reality.
If the Pakistani government supports the Taliban outright, besides the majority opposition from those Pakistani who oppose the ways of the Taliban, it wont be long before the gungho cowboys from the Wild West bomb the country back to the stone age and withdraw all ecnomic aid that Pakistan is currently surviving on. Obama has already stated his view to shift focus on Pakistan.
Its much more complicated so decisions by the Pakistani government need to be made delicately. its a shame the country is run by a completely inexperienced dimwit of a politician with a personal financial agenda.
The people of Pakistan are no more responsible for his decisions than the 1.8million Muslims in the UK are responsible for Blair deciding to invade Iraq.
Mitsubishi:
Never is a powerful word - neither the early Israelites nor Christians imagined that their faiths would reform. But they did about 1000 years after their foundation.
Is our faith as immutable as we imagine or do we truthfully change it step by step each day? — Qyes brother these people are on the route of doing exactly that, living in the west all your life, where else do these values come from, they don't know what they doing, islam can not be diluted
Ahmed:
It's great to see others being inquisitive and questioning things they're unsure about. God commands people to think and inquire. It is fascism, racism, communism, imperialism, all by-products of Darwinism, and other atheist ideologies that encourage people not to think, and to do what they are told without question. These ideologies are the real enemies that need to be exterminated. People who don't think will never come anywhere near the truth, following their whims and desires, merrily continuing on in their contumacy thus leading lives rife with deception and error. By thinking, man can understand the reason for the creation of the world, and the reason for his own existence.
That is why God calls on all people, by means of his messengers and books, to consider their own creation and that of the whole universe: "Have they not reflected within themselves? God did not create the heavens and the earth and everything between them except with truth and for a fixed term. Yet many people reject the meeting with their Lord". (The Holy Quran,30:8). Enemies of religion, however, make multitudes of unfounded allegations to turn people away from religion, even going so far as to claim that religion prevents people from thinking. On the contrary, religion actually commands people to think, ponder and seek knowledge as a means to acquire the truth.
Some great questions above and I concur with most, however I should add a few points to clear any misconceptions. The Taliban’s Sharia Law has nothing to do with Afghan culture. Most of the Muslims in Afghanistan belong to the Hanafi school of thought, the most tolerant group of Sunni Islam. The so-called "Extremist Taliban", who allegedly mistreat their women and deny them education, is a phenomenon arising out of the war with the USSR, armed and financed by the CIA and the Pakistani ISI. The Afghan communists are the hired tools and relics of the Soviet Union. They don't operate in accordance with Islamic Sharia, but operate in accordance with the directives of "advisors" from Moscow, and carry out massacres against their own people.
The real Taliban are actually highly patriotic, pro-Pakistani, anti-Indian regime who will sacrifice their lives in the interests of Pakistan. Unfortunately, this group is heavily infiltrated with foreign agents working for Indian RAW, Israeli Mossad and American CIA. During interrogation, many arrested militants confessed that they were working for Indian RAW. Some of the killed militants were found to be non-circumcised. Some militants are known to be using equipment far superior to the Pakistani Army's standard issue. Equipment used in illegal FM radio channels were traced to Indian factories. RDX used in the Marriot Hotel attack in Islamabad was provided to these imposters by Indian RAW officials from Afghanistan's Sarobi cell (aka safe house of RAW).
God will grant those who obey him, inheritance (of power) in the land, however the promise of God of help and victory is not unconditional. It is rather a binding contract between two parties, and the reward is stipulated upon completing the terms of the contract. Consider the following narration from Sahih Muslim: "A party from my Ummah will not cease being established upon the Truth. They will not be harmed by those who abandon them nor differ with them, until the order of God comes to pass and they are like this".
Many have fought in Afghanistan, the British were defeated in 1842, the USSR in 1989 contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Empire and now the astonishing thing today is that NATO and the coalition seem to have learnt nothing, neither from their own experience nor from the Russian experience. If these countries and their superpower leaders are unable to consolidate in Iraq and Afghanistan in the face of individuals and small groups from amongst the Muslims, those who do not even have a fraction of the power at their disposal unlike their enemies, individuals and groups that are not even a state and do not have the resources of a state in terms of manpower or weapons, then how can these tiny groups, being no match in the face of such brutal firepower, put up such fierce resistance and subsequently emerge victorious, happy and glorious?
Pakistan's military and civilian ruling elites aught to salvage some national dignity fit for a nuclear sovereign state that it rightly is amidst all this self-fulfilling BS. It's time the military stopped acting as a mercenary force for foreign powers. The price Pakistani's are paying is simply too high, socially and politically. The Pakistan Government aught to sever the US romance forthwith and the surrender-for-dollars programme before it destroys Pakistan from within. Peace.
Commando:
Ahmed, if Pakistan was stable then the US would never require its support.
It is unbelievable the amount of agencies working at ground level, adding to the confusion. Brother everyone can claim that the Taliban is Islamic, but the real losers here are the innocents of SWAT and Mingora etc..
Jones:
The Taliban are half-baked students of Shariah. They implement some things and do other things in the most bizarre manner. Such as education for women and confining women to the home by force. In Islam this is actualy alien, even at the time of the Prophet, women played an important role and education was not banned for them.
I think the Taliban need to re-asses their ways and seek real scholarly support and advice as the try to win back musilm land.
A:
I think the muslim world does indeed have much to learn from the West, how to create a peaceful and an orderly society where there is mutual respect and freedom of expression for all (if you don't believe me, try it once in ANY muslim country). Any affinity I had with the Taliban has withered away long ago after seeing the indiscriminate executions. Many muslims support the taliban...until they have to live under their barbaric "rule". Right, off to pick my daughter up from school, at least that's one thing I wouldn't need to do under the Taliban. Every cloud....
Haseeb:
The Pakistani leadershp both civilian and military is ultimately responsible for this disaster, because it is acting as an instrument of U.S. policy.When the U.S. says 'jump' , Zardari asks 'how high?'.
The roots of this problem lie in the events immediatley after the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by U.S./Nato.After 2001 Musharraf provided 'unstinting' support for the U.S. and started military operations in FATA and NWFP, and allowed the CIA and FBI a free hand across the state, this inflamed the Taliban and Pashtun tribes who reacted against this aggression, leading to an escalation and the situation we see today, blaming the Taliban and Pashtun tribes is easy and precisely the type of opinion that the U.S. abd it's allies want to generate in Pakistan to force it to fight a war against it's own people, that most people rightly abhor and are against.
Pakistan needs to replace it's debased and hypoctite rulers with a sincere leadership based on Islam, that will stop support for the so called 'war on terror' and sever military and strategic co-operation with the U.S. on this, only then will peace and stability return.
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