Islamic Fundamentalists Are Known as Taliban - Essay Example

Taliban - Islamic Fundamentalists As Earth becomes an increasingly global society, human beings have the unique opportunity to redefine themselves asa single human race, a reality verified by science, and to see the world as a series of interconnected burrows and neighborhoods, upheld by the increasingly global economy and the technological communicative ease of the internet, rather than as a planet of closed societies. Unfortunately, human beings also have the tendency to see change as the enemy, as a threat to their identity and their survival, and they rail against it. With the twenty-first century, the world has witnessed a rise in fear on all sides of the globe, one that pits humans against humans, country against country, and religion against religion. From a NATO perspective, the Cold War has given way to the War on Terror (Baylis & Smith 2005). Today, developed countries fear terrorist attacks from Islamic fundamentalists, while many in the Middle East fear amoral, mindless consumerism and even bellicose, forcible takeovers spawned from developed countries. A phenomenon emerged from Afghanistan appeared on the world stage in the mid 1990s introducing yet another new term (like fatwa a few decades back) to world journalism: Taliban (Brenda and James 2004, pg. 1). The word itself comes from talib, or student in Arabic, but in the West it took on the connotation of an extremist, fundamentalist, violent transnational terrorist group of young Muslim fanatics. They were initially a response against the local criminals in Afghanistan after the extraction of Soviet troops and the conquest of American-and-Pakistani-supported mujahedeens over the Soviet-supported Afghani administration in Kabul in 1992 (Ahmad 2006). It was formed by a small number of Islamic priests who belonged to Pakhtuns, the dominant ethnic group both of Southern Afghanistan and Northern Pakistan. Based in Kandahar in South-Western Afghanistan, the Taliban increased critical support from Pakistan's influential intelligences, whose incentive was in part to stabilize the trucking routes to Central Asia. With that assistance, the Taliban transformed some early Robin Hood-like actions in opposition to the warlords into a messianic goal to transform all Afghanistan in line with a particularly fundamentalist Islamic vision. The Taliban were a major force in Afghan politics. There were neither tribal chiefs nor members of the royal families who once held sway. Mostly belonging to one ethnic group, male and young, narrowly minded trained in Pakistan's religious seminaries and burning with a desire to impose southern towns of Afghanistan before capturing Kabul in the late 1990s and established a harsh and uneasy control over most of the countries (Brenda and James 2004). As they were predominantly Pukhtun in their ethnic background and they tended to target non-Pukhtuns the latter remained rebellious especially in Northern areas. The official orders of the Taliban against women - they should be covered in public, immediately return to their homes and leave their jobs - and the total banning of television convinced the world that here was a primitive form of Islamic fundamentalism which the Iranian variety appear benign (Brenda and James 2004, pg. 134). It sent shivers down the spine of the rich elite in neighbouring Pakistan in case the Taliban germs spread south (pg. 135). By the late 1990s although the killings continued Afghanistan had an uneasy truce punctuated by acts of violence and anarchy. But a civil society and government structure were still far from forming. Relations with outsiders remained prickly. There was a constant friction with United Nations agencies as the Taliban, with little idea of modern statehood, interfered with their running until many packed up and left Kabul in exasperation (pg. 138). The moment that the Twin Towers in New York fell, Islam and terrorism became inextricably linked. As an example, there was the sensationalized reporting of the aid worker John McClintock, a convert to Islam, as the 'Tartan Taliban'. Islam itself was inaccurately portrayed as an intrinsically violent belief system which advocated acts of aggression against non-believers and the mistreatment of women (Ahmad 2006). The country of Afghanistan has been the landscape for conflict between developed countries since the Cold War. It is not lost in irony that the Soviet Union, being the first to invade Afghanistan in 1979, was forced out ten years later by the guerrilla tactics of the muhajidin-local fighters or volunteers from abroad who later would be labeled "Muslim extremists," and that these extremists were initially called "freedom fighters" by the Reagan administration (Baylis & Smith 2005).. Now they are called "terrorists" by the present US administration, which hails from the same political party as that of Reagan. Furthermore, the victory of the muhajidin was greatly due to the enormous amount of military aid they received from the U.S. Funneled through Pakistan's interservices intelligence, this aid totaled US$ 2.8 billion (Baylis & Smith 2005). Washington, working together with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, also financed and transported anti-communist fundamentalist Muslim groups to Afghanistan to participate in the anti-Soviet jihad (Angelo 2003, pg. 105). In fact, this is how a youthful Osama bin Laden came to Afghanistan. He later described himself in these terms within the conflict in Afghanistan: "To counter these atheistic Russians, the Saudi Arabians chose me as their representative in Afghanistan", adding that his first camp was located where the anti-Soviet jihad volunteers were trained by Pakistani and American officers. The weapons for his soldier were also supplied by the Americans while the financing for his group came from the Saudis (Gareau 2004, pg. 193). A short while later, the Taliban fought off the Soviet invaders and became such a military force that they were able to impose their collective will onto the entire nation of Afghanistan, which had already been torn apart by civil war, invasion, and anarchy (Brenda and James 2004, pg. 141). Washington saw this coup by the Taliban as a way of controlling Iran and as a step toward securing the prized land route for United States petroleum companies who were anxiously waiting for their chance to build a pipeline of oil and gas reserves out of central Asia. At the time, the Taliban were seen as a possible means for this land route that would "link the central Asian states to the international markets through Afghanistan rather than Iran" (Geraldo & Trinkunas, pg. 130). The Taliban were, then, seen as a positive force in Afghanistan. All of this changed the moment that Washington determined that al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attack. At that moment, Washington demanded that the Taliban government capture Osama bin Laden immediately "as well as all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in Afghanistan" (Geraldo & Trinkunas, pg. 135). When the Taliban refused, on Sunday, October 7, Washington launched the war with a massive air attack- cruise missiles, carrier based aircraft, and land based bombers. Obviously outgunned, the Taliban government agreed to Washington's demands that bin Laden at least be captured and set before an international tribunal if Washington would cease aggression. Worldwide, it was generally agreed that the US had a right to respond to 9/11, but it was universally agreed that the US had the right to wage war. In fact, serious questions have been raised as to whether any of the attacks by Washington satisfy just war theory, because it is by no means clear that the US exhausted all non-belligerent means of ceasing the conflict (Gareau 2004, pg. 195). What did justify this warfare, then, in the minds of the US Clearly, they were motivated by a fear for their survival, a fear of further attacks, and a desire for revenge against this "Other" that unjustly attacked them on their own turf. The US thus demonstrated that it was determined to protect its nation against terrorism, "not only by police measures-interpreting the determination to protect the nation as actions undertaken to constrain and apprehend transnational criminals- but also by actually waging war against governments" (Geraldo & Trinkunas, pg. 145). This role of the aggressor was adopted despite the fact that police measures have been shown to be much more effective in curbing terrorism than waging war. These police measures, which have also been adopted by all countries that fear targeting by terrorist groups, include increased security at airports and on airplanes as well as non-combative foreign policy measures. The use of war has been shown to do little more than exacerbate poor conditions in the victim country as well as "increasing the hatred that can result against the perceived aggressor, as has been demonstrated in the recent war against Iraq" (Geraldo & Trinkunas, pg. 146). In the process of globalization, it seems that strangers no longer exist in a faraway land, but rather are no further away than one's backyard. Strangers in the form of immigrants (legal and illegal) and refugees "call into question established spatial images of domesticity versus anarchy and chaos, giving rise to intense desires for order and stability and an easily identifiable community" (Baylis and Smith 2005, pg. 85). The Taliban have violated two basic tenets of Islam in a manner calculated to cause offense in and outside the country: their discrimination against women and the physical beating that they sometimes administer is against the spirit of Islam. Recall the gentleness and kindness of the Prophet where women were concerned. His famous saying that heaven is under the feet of the mother sums up the attitude of Islam to women. Secondly, the harshness of the Taliban to the minorities is also against the spirit of Islam which encourages tolerance. It has to be remembered that the minorities in Afghanistan are Muslim. There are too many cases of non-Pukhtuns being not only discriminated against but treated with violence. This implies a straight-forward ethnic response rather than a religious one although it may come under the guise of religion. Because they are young, only educated in a certain kind of religious seminary, from one ethnic background and they have had virtually no experience in government the Taliban have had little time to reflect on the broader and larger issues of state politics. Even when ousted from power in Kabul they will not disappear from the face of the earth because they will return to their earlier tribal villages and continue to remain advocates of their brand of Islam. References: Lutz, James M., and Brenda J. Lutz. 2004, Global Terrorism. London: Routledge. ISBN: 0415700507 Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan, A Modern History: Monarchy, Despotism or Democracy. The Problems of Governance in the Muslim Tradition. London. Tauris, 2003, p.105. J. Geraldo & H. Trinkunas, "Transnational Crime" in A. Collins(ed) Contemporary Security Studies Baylis, John &Smith, Steve (eds.), 2005, "Terrorism and Globalization", The Globalization of World Politics, Chapter 21 Frederick Gareau, 2004, State Terrorism and the United States: From Counterinsurgency to the War on Terror. Clarity Press, pg. 201 Ahmad British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September 11 Journal article by Fauzia Ahmad; Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 32, 2006. , Fauzia (2006). "British Muslim Perceptions and Opinions on News Coverage of September 11". Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. (32) Available at: http://www.questia.com/PM.qsta=o&d=5015778416. Read More