Systematic Oppression Of Shia Muslims By The Taliban - Interview With An Expert
Taliban's Apartheid Rule
As a widely known fact, during current Taliban's rule over Afghanistan since 31 August 2021 only one ethnicity, namely the Pashtun ethnicity, is ruling in Afghanistan. The Taliban leadership is Pashtun-only. Nonetheless the Taliban keep asserting that they already have formed an all-inclusive government. Either the Taliban are ignorant about the definition of all-inclusive, namely including people of all ethnicities of Afghanistan, and therefore including Hazara, Uzbek and Tajik leaders to their now all-Pashtun government. Or the Taliban pretend to be ignorant about its definition. But being familiar with the mindset of the Taliban, it seems very clear that the Taliban receive their orders from Pakistan, and there in particular from the ISI.
The affirmations of the Taliban are no more than lies and deception of the public. A bunch of old and well-nourished Pashtun men from two or three tribes as depicted in the picture of Taliban leaders below is clearly not an all-inclusive government:
Taliban and the oppression of Shia Afghans
To not digress in this topic, the discussion is brought to religion. In a country where there are 20-30 percent Shia Muslims, it can also be said that the current government in Afghanistan consists of Wahabi and Deobandi followers only, which is an extremist terrorist view. The kind of Islam that the Taliban follow is extremist Wahabism, which by ordinary Muslims, Shia and Sunni Muslims, isn't even called Islam. Furthermore, not only is the government in Afghanistan not represented by Shia Afghans, but even worse than that. Shia Afghans are persecuted and discriminated against by the Taliban.
This article abstains from mentioning and documenting the executions and tortures of Shia Afghans by Taliban fighters, which are documented thoroughly by human rights organizations.
There are two recent discriminatory measures against Shia Afghans by the Taliban worth mentioning here. Those measures took place in the Month of Ramadan, in April 2023 and are described below:
1) On 12 April 2023 reports were published that the Taliban rejected the request of Shia scholars to teach Jafari jurisprudence in universities. Ja'fari Fiqh is the name for Jurisprudence of Shia Muslims. The Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban group has rejected the request of the Shia Ulema Council of Afghanistan to teach Jafari jurisprudence in the country’s universities. The pretext for this discriminatory rule was given by the Taliban. The Taliban justified their discriminatory law through the pretext that an inclusion of Ja'fari jurisprudence in the curriculum of the universities of this country would cause other religions in Afghanistan to raise similar demands.
The document of the Taliban was published online:
2) The Taliban announced in several Provinces and cities with significant Shia inhabitants that Eid al-Fitr, the Holiday of Breaking the Fast, that Shia Afghans were not allowed to hold Eid prayers a day later, which was mandatory according to Jafari Fiqh. Instead the law was carried out in Balkh, Ghazni and other places that Shia Afghans had to follow the Taliban orders in holding Eid prayers.
Shafaqna Afghanistan published several articles for that law on several occasions:
Meeting of anti-Taliban politicians, scholars and activists in Vienna on April 2023
Following the inner Afghan-meeting around Ahmad Massoud, leader of the famous Resistance Front, in Vienna on the end of April 2023, Shaykh Zekriya Mashkur, an Afghan Shia scholar, gave several statements on the discrimination of Shia Afghans under Taliban oppressive rule.
The last press conference in Vienna declaring the strategic aims of that meeting took place together with Ahmad Massoud.
A short excerpt of Kabuli's statement can be seen in the following video:
A translation of Kabuli's interview to Shia website Shafaqna Afghanistan is given below:
Publication time: May 2, 2023
Mashkur Kabuli in an interview with Shafqna: The control of Shiites by the Taliban is an illusion / The Taliban are trying to implement religious and scientific apartheid
Shafqna Afghanistan - In the year 2003, Jafari jurisprudence was recognized in the Afghan constitution alongside Hanafi jurisprudence, and Shiites were subject to their religion in matters of personal status and other issues. However, after the Taliban returned to power, they treated the Shiites, who make up 30 percent of Afghanistan's 40 million population, as a minority and violated their rights.
The Taliban banned the teaching of Jafari jurisprudence in Bamyan University in the month of Joza last year and announced reasons such as: "A single system must have a single quorum and a single law.", "All Islamic countries also have a single university quorum." Creating conflict between Sunni and Shia students in Bamyan University", "Creating expenses for the university by establishing separate classes", "Lack of professional professors" etc., responded negatively to the appeals of the Shia Ulema Council. And this council expressed regret for the response of the Taliban and promised to follow up with the high-ranking authorities of the Taliban government.
The reasons of the Taliban originate from the logic of the Khawarij
Mashkur Kabuli, a religious scholar and an expert on Afghanistan issues, in a conversation with Shafqana Afghanistan news agency, said: The reasons of the Taliban for rejecting the teaching of Jafari jurisprudence in Bamyan University, basically stem from the logic of the Taliban, which considers the truth to be exclusive to one reading and the followers of one religion and other Islamic religions. declares it absolutely invalid. This thinking is "Khawarij and Taliban logic".
In response to the reasons given by the Taliban, Kabuli said: The Faculty of Jurisprudence and Law and the Jafari Department of Jurisprudence in Bamyan have existed since the past, had experience, had academic staff, and there had been no conflict between students in these years. The establishment of this department in Bamyan is based on the basic rights that were given to the citizens of Afghanistan, especially the followers of the two official religions of the country, Hanafi and Jafari.
He also added: The previous constitution was approved with the presence of more than 2,000 lawyers, prominent Shiite and Sunni scholars and representatives of Afghan political parties, ethnic groups, and currents, and one of the requirements of that law was that Shia's personal status based on the courts related to him should be taken seriously. should be taken and Jafari jurisprudence training should be developed in the educational system, which was done at least in Bamiyan.
The Taliban's ignorance of global and regional laws
An expert on Afghanistan's political issues regarding the Taliban's argument that "a single system must have a single quorum" said: This argument basically imposes an educational system, a kind of cultural, scientific and religious apartheid to eliminate other languages, cultures, civilizations, values and religions. It is different.
He added: The Taliban's behavior in this field is to make the educational system one-sided, one-ethnic and one-syllabic. Those who are familiar with the legal systems of the region and the world, and even those who have basic knowledge of legal systems and the basics of law, understand that there are many laws and systems in many countries of the world, especially in countries that are federal and religions. They have many languages and cultures. There are no single installers. Countries such as America, Germany, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE and even Pakistan, which is the birthplace and origin of Taliban thinking.
Regarding the existence of numerous nisabs in the Islamic countries of the region, Kabuli said: The fact that the Taliban claim that many nisabs are the same in other countries also shows the illiteracy and lack of awareness of the Taliban. For example, in neighboring and regional countries such as Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, fair and free education is available for all religions, from beginning to specialty and university.
In Iran as well, where the Taliban always lie that Sunnis have problems because of the humiliation of the Shias, religious jurisprudence, religious jurisprudence, and philosophy of religions are taught in seminaries and universities up to the highest educational levels, and Shia and Sunni Muslim students, as well as non-Muslim students. They study freely in these scientific centers from all over the world. Therefore, the claim that in the Islamic world or in countries like Iran, the nisabs are the same, is an "absolute lie".
The Taliban's behavior towards the Shiites has historical roots
Mashkur Kabuli, who has a close relationship with Ahmad Shah Massoud's family, revealed for the first time the historical and secret conversation between Mullah Muhammad Omar, the former leader of the Taliban, and Ahmad Shah Massoud, the commander of the resistance forces, and said: Mullah Omar is one of his preconditions for peace and interaction with Masoud. had proposed "exclusion of Shiites from the political system".
The former leader of the Taliban asked Masoud to stay away from the Shiites and not allow any Shiites to enter the government structure, and if the Shiites insist on their positions, they should be expelled from Afghanistan.
He further added: "Unfortunately, this conversation shows the depth of the hostility of the Taliban and the Taliban leadership towards Shi'ism, Shi'ism and the identity of the Jafari religion."
Kabuli said: The depth of Taliban hatred towards the Jafari religion is not new and undeniable. During the past 25 years, the Taliban have confirmed their enmity with Shiites and the Shiite religion by carrying out suicide operations against Shiite mosques, Hussainiyyas, universities and stadiums. One day, Mullah Niazi, as the spokesman of the Taliban and as the governor of the Taliban in Balkh, had said in the media and through loudspeakers in the streets that Shiites should either become Sunnis and Muslims or leave Afghanistan.
He stated: The second Taliban is more hypocritical than the first Taliban. The first Taliban expressed their spirituality openly and more formally, but the second Taliban, unfortunately, based on the advice of Westerners and some intelligence services, have assumed a very complex state of hypocrisy.
Afghanistan's political expert says that increasing the control of Shiites by the Taliban is an illusion and says: Today, Afghan Shiites are living in the age of communication. The Shiites of Afghanistan have given blood and have been able to be an active and serious part of the political, cultural, scientific and economic system of Afghanistan during the last 40 years. Controlling, controlling and transforming the cultural, religious, social and political identity of Shiites is a false fantasy. If the Taliban could not implement this in the previous period, they will not be successful in the current period either.
The role of the Council of Scholars is more than issuing a statement
Regarding the duties of the Shia Ulema Council towards the Shiites of Afghanistan, Mashkur Kabuli clarified: We expect more than the Ulema Council to be satisfied with a statement.
He added: Interaction is a two-way process. Unfortunately, the interaction of Shia institutions with the Taliban has been one-sided and this type of interaction has only been done by our friends. Of course, the result of this type of interaction was only humiliation. We saw how some Taliban soldiers entered the meeting of the Shia Ulema Council and humiliated our elders and religious scholars. It got to the point where our colleagues, instead of taking action to prevent the repetition of these behaviors by the Taliban, thanked and appreciated the aggressive and insolent soldiers.
Referring to the lack of active presence of Shiites in the Taliban government, Kabuli stated: If three people are present as deputy ministers in the Taliban organization, without qualification, without authority and without funds, before they are the representatives and defenders of Shiites, we must accept that these The figures introduced by intelligence services for intelligence purposes, including Pakistan's ISI, and both themselves and Afghan Shiites know this well.
Elders of the Shiite religion should support the Shiites of Afghanistan
An Afghan expert and religious scholar regarding the expectation of the Afghan Shiites from the elders of the Jafari religion said: Our expectation is that, naturally, the Islamic Republic will be in the position of Umm al-Qarai of the Islamic world and the seminaries of Qom and Najaf and other seminaries and great authorities of Taqlid, just like Palestine and They defend the oppressed of Syria and Iraq and do not withhold their help from the Muslims of Afghanistan, especially the Shiites. Our expectation is that, as always, they will use their material, spiritual, political support and all the tools they have to make the Taliban accountable and to convince the Taliban to a path of constructive talks to form an inclusive nationally elected government.
He added: If the Taliban are established, they will be far more dangerous than the first Taliban, and Shiites will suffer in Afghanistan and at the regional level.
Link to the original source in Farsi: https://af.shafaqna.com/FA/560468
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