Taming the Taliban

IN his book Taliban, Ahmed Rashid, a renowned Pakistani journalist, writes about his conversation with Mullah Wakil, an aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, in 1996 in Kandahar. Wakil gave an insight into the Taliban movement, explaining that one of its objectives was to "live a life like the Prophet lived 1400 years ago." The Taliban wanted to recreate the time of the Prophet in order to relive that way of life, he claimed.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the same Taliban is pushing that ideal to its logical conclusion. But then again, they are not the first in history to take things too far. The Khmer Rouge once wanted to recreate Cambodia and sent everyone to the countryside.
The idea was to abolish money, private property and religion. They killed anyone they could find wearing glasses. Spectacles were the symbol of decadence. They could threaten the revolution.
Not to say, every revolution comes to change the world, and it starts with an idea. The Chinese Cultural Revolution aimed at destroying counterrevolutionary values and symbols. Class conflict was the driving force of the French revoltution. Creation of a classless society was the goal of communist and socialist revolutions.
So, it's only natural that the Taliban should also have an idea, since what they are trying to do is bring about a revolutionary change in the world. That idea is to denounce the infidels, their system, practice and influence.
Education, employment and sports for women are forbidden to start with. Movies, television, videos, music, and dancing are also banned.
Some of the proscriptions might sound silly. People can't hang pictures in their homes, clap during sports events, fly kites, or possess drawings, paintings, stuffed animals and dolls. Men are required to wear regulation beard extending farther than a fist clamped at the base of their chin. Lobster, wine, nailpolish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogues and christmas cards are obviously scorned.
But this is how the Taliban would prefer to live in the world created by them. It may have a ring of contradiction to it, but they don't mind killing for that life, not to say they don't even mind dying for it. They are ready to go back 14 centuries if that's what it takes.
And, they made a showdown of that determination from the very first day they had carved out a swathe of influence in Swat, once a popular tourist destination in Pakistan.
All the women vanished from the streets and offices. Girl schools were blown up, and bodies of dancing girls were dumped on a public square. The music stores were shut down and the barber shops displayed signs announcing that un-Islamic cuts or shavings were not available.
That world inexorably collides with ours. Our world promotes faith in living, whereas the Taliban promotes living in faith. In their frenzy, they are ready to turn the clock back to the sixth century, where this life is merely a preamble for the next.
During their conversation, there was one other thing Wakil said to Rashid. The sharia didn't allow politics or political parties. "That is why we give no salaries to officials or soldiers, just food, clothes, shoes and weapons," he added.
What else can they give? Endless flogging, chopping of hands and stoning to death, according to many. In fact, it's like the Day of Judgment every day under the Taliban, any deviation from the sharia is dealt with urgent hands, adulterers abolished, fornicators finished, music lovers mauled, drunkards destroyed, shavers shamed, man measured by the length of his beard, woman by the length of her veil.
Of course, our world has its flaws. It's also driven by some kind of a frenzy, extreme on life as the Taliban is on faith. In fact, the Taliban frenzy is an outcome of our frenzy, a by product of our excesses, the children of strifes smothered by inordinate greed and cruelty unleashed on them.
Toady, if they are insisting on returning to ancient days it's because they see it as an improvement over the dark ages in which they were condemned to live.
So, if the fierce faith of the Taliban bothers us, our frivolous life bothers them just as bad. Two diverse worlds have become impervious to each other, each spiteful of the extremes of another. The Taliban has transformed faith into tyranny. We have transformed tyranny into faith.
In the past, revolutions came to take this world forward. They promised to do so by bringing men closer to each other. Liberty, fraternity and equality were the catchwords.
For argument's sake let us believe the Taliban will bring us closer to God. Let us say it will work if they reverse the world. But will that bring us closer to each other? More than flogging, stoning and chopping, that should be our biggest concern.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a columnist for The Daily Star. Email: [email protected].