THE 20th anniversary of 9/11 takes place in a few weeks. In that multiple atrocity, nearly 3000 lives were lost and more than 6000 people were injured. It led to the War on Terror, ousting the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and removing Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Both countries are now in chaos.
After 20 years, the American-led military mission in Afghanistan is finally ending. The UK’s contribution has been enormous. In all, more than 450 troops have been killed and more than 2000 injured.
For what? The UN reported in its Afghanistan Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict mid-year update 2021 that 1659 civilians had been killed this year and 3254 wounded. It said that’s a 47% increase compared with the same period last year. Women and children made up close to half of all civilian casualties in the first half of 2021.
Since 2001, the conflict may have cost more than 200,000 lives. More than 70,000 of those were civilians. Estimates suggest 360,000 Afghans have fled the fighting since January, with an additional 30,000 reportedly leaving the country every day.
READ MORE: David Pratt: Why Pakistan’s support for the Taliban could yet bite back
Nato says: “The Allies continue to support the ongoing Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process. They urge the Afghan government and the Taliban to fulfil their commitments to working towards a comprehensive peace agreement that puts an end to violence.”
Balderdash, and Nato knows it.
Why would the Taliban bother with a peace agreement? It controls 60% of the country and is making rapid advances in several cities. As things stand, it is on the brink of victory. This has already prompted two former UK defence ministers to call for British forces to return to military action in Afghanistan.
The War on Terror was botched from the start, and is still being botched. For example, the Taliban commander overseeing an assault on Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, was reportedly released from prison at the US’s request.
Mawlavi Talib was one of 5000 prisoners released last year to try to facilitate a peace deal. But what will a Taliban victory mean, both for the Afghan people, the majority of whom have known nothing except war, and for the wider world?
For Afghanistan, it will send the country back to a tribal wilderness, with the Islamists free to ply harsh Sharia laws to subdue the population. Any social progress made over the years is likely to be lost. Women who have begun to feature in Afghan public life will now be relegated back into obscurity.
Those who can escape these strict conditions will move to neighbouring countries. Many thousands are predicted to end up at the doorstep of Europe. For those unable or unwilling to escape, there will be retribution.
READ MORE: Alyn Smith: This is why we must help the Afghan people once we’ve gone
The Taliban, like ISIS, are firm believers in the Sharia, the laws based on hadith, supplementary doctrines compiled some 200 years after the Quran. These rules ensure that women have few or no rights, especially when it comes to marriage, divorce and other aspects of family law. It is these hadith, in conflict with Quranic values, that permit the killing of those who do not share their beliefs.
Despite these deplorable beliefs, the Taliban are considered heroes by some Muslims; pioneers who will pave the way to a khilafat, the idea of a Muslim state and a return to the Golden Age of Islam. But the idea of a khilafat – an Islamic state – is not in the Quran, and neither is a sultanate or a republic. The Quran sets out principles of Permanent Values and Absolute Laws; values, rights, obligations, justice and truth.
What it calls for is not a geographical Islamic State but the state of Islam – people and communities living in peace, harmony and security.
Should the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan, as now seems inevitable, some Muslims around the world will see this as a victory for Islam.
However, it could be a disaster for the west, for Britain – and for Scotland. With many young Muslims groomed for confrontation, the Taliban being in power will give additional motivation. The fault lines in society will grow wider. Let’s not forget a recent report from Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, that highlights mental health as an important issue in relation to terrorism and violent extremism.
It believes that, in addition to already-radicalised Islamists, Covid-19 will have been another stress factor for potentially vulnerable individuals. A Taliban victory in Afghanistan will be seen, by some, as a vindication of violence.
I find it so sad that the central teachings of the Quran are being lost. Its central message is that we should all work together as a united community with common values.
We should all remember how this conflict started, with terrorist groups in Afghanistan being given free rein to plan and launch attacks around the world. Osama bin Laden, apparently, watched 9/11 live on TV.
Is that the kind of Afghanistan we’re now leaving behind? A country that will once again be free to sponsor terrorism worldwide?
I rather think so.
The only way, in Scotland as elsewhere, is to confront these extremist ideas, by going back to the Quran’s true message of unity. We all need the same values to live in peace and security, whatever our religion, if we have one. Those values are not shared by the Taliban.
Paigham Mustafa has been researching, and studying the Quran since 1988 and spent more than two years writing his exposition, which was published in 2016. He is a speaker on the Open Mosque Durban (SA) worldwide seminar and a leading member of the Oxford Institute of British Islam (OIBI)
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