By
Mehdi J Hakimi
26 Oct 2020
The Afghan
peace process entered a pivotal phase with the start of the long-awaited
intra-Afghan negotiations in Doha on September 12. Shortly after the talks
commenced, however, the process was stalled due to disagreements over the
procedural rules for the negotiations.
One of the
two main points of divergence concerned the Taliban’s insistence on a
particular Islamic jurisprudence – the Hanafi fiqh – as the sole religious
basis for the negotiations. (The other issue revolved around whether or not the
US-Taliban accord should form the overarching foundation, or the “mother deal,”
underlying the intra-Afghan talks.)
Taliban delegates shake hands during the intra-Afghan talks in Doha,
Qatar on September 12, 2020 [Ibraheem al Omari/Reuters]
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While the
Hanafi jurisprudence is practised by most Sunni Muslims in the country, the
Taliban’s obdurate stance would de facto exclude millions of other Afghans who
are Shia Muslims or members of other religious minorities.
By
contrast, the Afghan government proposed to rely on the Hanafi jurisprudence by
default while also respecting the religious liberty of Shia Muslims and other
Afghans. The government’s position largely reflects the Afghan constitution
which underscores the centrality of Islam – rather than a particular Islamic
jurisprudence – in governance and virtually all aspects of Afghan life. The
Taliban, of course, dismiss the current constitution as un-Islamic.
These
preliminary disputes, while frustrating, help lay bare the contours of the
Taliban’s real vision for Afghanistan. For a long time, the group’s default
answer to questions regarding their approach to governance, from elections and
judicial philosophy to free speech and women’s rights, consisted of a
well-rehearsed and vague notion – an “inclusive Islamic” emirate.
That
vagueness, however, is slowly dissipating.
The
Taliban’s oft-repeated inclusivity, concerning religious matters for a start,
appears to have certain caveats. The Islamic emirate’s intransigent refusal to
recognise the religious liberty of Shia Muslims and other minority groups sends
an ominous signal to millions of Afghans who have long worried about what life
under the Taliban, as part of a power-sharing arrangement, may resemble.
The
Taliban’s parochial view of Islam is particularly instructive against the
historical backdrop of their persecution of ethnic and religious minorities.
One of the most notorious atrocities in Afghanistan’s 40-year conflict, to give
but one example, was the Taliban’s massacre in Mazar-i Sharif in 1998 of
thousands of Hazara civilians – targeted because of their ethnicity and
religion (Hazaras are mostly Shia Muslims). During the mass killing, the
Taliban presented three options to the Hazaras: “become Sunnis, leave
Afghanistan, or risk being killed”.
The Hazaras
and other minority groups have faced these grim choices for centuries in
Afghanistan. Sikhs and Hindus are leaving the country in droves. Afghanistan’s
sole Jew, meanwhile, lives an uncertain and precarious life.
Afghans
often pride themselves on the strong solidarity and cohesion between Sunni and
Shia in the country. That is certainly true considering the scale of religious
sectarian violence in the broader region. The Taliban’s rhetoric and actions,
however, jeopardise that cherished sense of Afghan unity.
Moreover,
the Taliban’s lingering disdain for Shia bears an eerie resemblance to the
ideology behind the continued targeted attacks against Shia and Hazaras claimed
by (relatively nascent) terrorist groups such as ISIL (ISIS), and their
affiliates, in Afghanistan. While the Taliban and ISIL may generally view each
other as foes, when it comes to targeting ethnic and religious minorities,
there are concerns about their strategic collaboration.
Investigations
of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan must comprehensively
examine the conduct of groups like the Taliban, ISIL and al-Qaeda, including
their organisational policies and official pronouncements which may evince
persecutory intent on, inter alia, ethnic and religious grounds.
The
Taliban’s exclusionary vision is not merely confined to the rejection of other
Afghans’ religious freedoms. Rather, it seems to pervade their entire ideology
and, hence, modus operandi. A closer scrutiny of life in Taliban-controlled
areas as well as the composition of their Doha delegation – the Islamic
emirate’s public relations opportunity before global audiences – reveals
further exceptions to their concept of inclusivity.
Notwithstanding
repeated claims that they support women’s rights, for instance, the Taliban has
continued to attack girls’ schools. Also, women and young people, while
comprising most of the country’s population, are conspicuously missing from the
Taliban’s negotiating team. Moreover, despite Afghanistan’s rich pluralism and
cultural mosaic, there is extremely little ethnic, religious, linguistic,
cultural and professional diversity within their ranks. This absence speaks
volumes. It tells us, through calibrated action rather than hollow rhetoric,
who is actually welcome in the Taliban’s emirate.
The blatant
inconsistency between the Taliban’s mantra of inclusion and praxis of
exclusion, this early in the intra-Afghan talks, should not be a surprise. The
Taliban has already reneged on its counterterrorism pledges to the United
States by continuing to operate closely with al-Qaeda.
The Islamic
emirate’s recurring duplicity, however, must serve as a reminder of the perils
of hastily taking a leap of faith towards the Taliban. A lasting peace, after
all, is possible only through a genuinely inclusive process – not through one
masquerading as such.
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Mehdi J
Hakimi, An expert on Afghan law, he was the former Chair of the Law Department
at the American University of Afghanistan. Hakimi has managed global legal
reform initiatives sponsored by the US Department of State. He has advised
international organisations, governments, elite academic and research
institutions, and global law firms on, inter alia, the Afghan legal system.
Original
Headline: The false inclusivity of the Taliban’s emirate
Source: The Al-Jazeera
URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/hypocrisy-taliban’s-inclusion-shia-muslims/d/124262
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