The Demonization of Taliban: Letter to the Wall Street Journal
We are living in a world that chooses to show its "civility" by
condemning imaginary crimes by Muslims rather than the real crimes against
them.
By Khalid Baig
Posted: 4 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1422, 27 May 2001
Letter to Wall Street Journal in response to the article by its feature
editor, Tunku Varadarajan.
A man by the name of Tunku Varadarajan has tried, convicted, and
lambasted the Taliban for words they did not utter and acts they did not
perform.
Taliban's Roving Ambassador Syed Rahmatullah Hashmi spoke at many forums
during his recent visit. I was there when he spoke at the University of
Southern California. In fact the transcript of his talk is available for all
to read at our web site. (The Invisible Afghanistan:
http://www.albalagh.net/current_affairs/syed_hashmi.shtml)
The identification is only for the
purpose of granting exemption where it is due. Is that bad? Ask the
Hindu and Sikh community leader, Inder Singh Majboor, who said they
are happy with the ruling. [BBC]
When the world is destroying our future with
economic sanctions, then they have no right to worry about our past. I
called my headquarters, I asked them, why are they going to blow the
statues, and I talked to the head of the council of scholars of people, who
had actually decided this. He told me that UNESCO and an NGO from Sweden, or
from one of these Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden, one of these they
had actually come with a project of rebuilding the face of these statues,
which have worn by rain. The council of people told them to spend that money
in saving the lives of these children, instead of spending it to restore
these statues. And these guys said, 'No, this money is only for the
statues.' And the people were really pissed off. They said that, if you
don't care about our children, we are going to blow those statues. If you
were in such a situation what would you do? If your children are dying in
front of your eyes, and you are under sanctions, and then the same people
who have imposed sanctions are coming and building statues here? What would
you do?
This account was in fact confirmed by the careful rebuttal from State
Department spokesman Richard Boucher on March 20, 2001, who called the
allegations inaccurate and self-serving. He could not say that Hashmi was
lying and no such incident had taken place before the decision to destroy
the statues. Rather his defense was that although the NGO's had gone there
with the obscene idea of renovating statues in the midst of death, as Hashmi
said, but some other NGOs were also providing some money to the people!
Now Mr. Varadarajan is informing us that the offers of money for the
protection of the statues were made after the Taliban announced they would
destroy the un-Islamic idols. I would like to think that he is merely
confused about the later offers of money and ignorant of the original NGO
project. But his solemn assertions and air of certainty make one wonder
whether his confusion was elsewhere; that while his parents sent him to school
to become a lawyer, he got confused and instead became a liar.
The identification badges have been
compared with the Nazi tagging of Jews by a fierce propaganda machine.
It is a minor detail that the Hindus who had left Afghanistan during
the civil war came back after the Taliban take over, precisely because
of the peace and protection they provided.
After having destroyed the character and
credibility of the accused, Mr. Varadarajan then proceeds to convict him for
a conspiracy to commit genocide. Here again the truth is stranger than
fiction. Here is the real story. In Afghanistan, there are laws applicable
to Muslims only. The Ministry of Vice and Virtue is responsible for
enforcing those laws. As part of the enforcement, they have to catch the
violators and bring them to justice. As you can imagine, sometimes
non-Muslims, especially Hindus, since they are indistinguishable, get caught
unjustly. To avoid that the local Hindus discussed with the Taliban ways of
protecting them from such enforcement efforts. That was two years ago. Over
this period various proposals were discussed and finally they agreed on the
identification badge. The badge would mean that Ministry officials are not
to bother the wearer. The identification is only for the purpose of
granting exemption where it is due. Is that bad? Ask the Hindu and Sikh
community leader in Afghanistan, Inder Singh Majboor, who said they are
happy with the ruling. [BBC].
The identification badges have been compared with the Nazi tagging of
Jews by a fierce propaganda machine as is done in this article. It is a
minor detail that the Hindus who had left Afghanistan during the civil war
came back after the Taliban take over, precisely because of the peace and
protection they provided. The propaganda machine has been looking very hard
for any incident that could be termed as "persecution" and has not been able
to find any. If one Hindu had been maltreated by the Taliban that would have
been headline news.
So much for the tyranny of the Taliban. On the other hand there are
some real problem areas in the world today.
Perhaps Mr. Varadarajan knows about a country by the name of Israel where
the occupation army requires the Palestinians to carry identification cards
that identify their religion for the purpose of persecution. By law non-Jews
are second-class citizens in that country.
The identity cards mark one's nationality as Jewish or Arab and are thus
used as a basis to discriminate, writes an American Jewish student in
Tikkun, a progressive Jewish journal. Similarly the Palestinian car license
plates are required to be a distinct color so police can shoot them easily.
His humanity forces Mr. Varadarajan to think of ways to protect the 500
Hindus who are happily living in Kabul. Perhaps he knows about a country by
the name of India that has so far killed 60,000 Kashmiris for the crime of
being Muslim and demanding self-determination.
Or is he the Citizen of a World, which chooses to show its "civility" by
condemning imaginary crimes by Muslims rather than the real crimes against
them.
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