What occurred in Afghanistan was not a simple modification of government. A puppet state responsible for spreading subversion in the region was overthrown.
After the Taliban named an interim federal government that was considered rather questionable inside Afghanistan and did not precisely please the nation’s Eurasian neighbors, I asked Dr. Ejaz Akram, Professor of Faith & World Politics at the National Defense University in Islamabad, for a comprehensive analysis. He sent me an amazing, unique essay that is a need to read for both East and West, presented here in a slightly edited version however with its mighty punch undamaged. Dr. Ejaz carries the necessary authority to not just map the local chessboard however to recommend to the Taliban the exemplary courses to recover Afghanistan after four decades of imposed war (P.E.)
On the need for an “all inclusive government”
Envision if the French revolutionaries were asked to maintain the elements of the kingdom of Louis XVI while forming the brand-new republic to keep it all ‘inclusive’.
Envision that the American revolutionaries were asked to keep the British loyalists as a part of the new American republic to keep it all inclusive.
Imagine that the Bolsheviks were asked to keep the Czarist loyalists in the government to keep everything inclusive.
Imagine that Chairman Mao was asked to keep the Kuomintang as a part of his new set up to keep things all inclusive.
Think Of that Imam Khomeini was asked to keep the aspects of Reza Shah’s client state to keep the new Iranian government all inclusive.
Picture that Erdogan was asked quickly after the coup to keep the Gulen movement undamaged to keep the Turkish government all inclusive.
Imagine that the Saudis are asked to give due representation to a quarter of its Shi’ite population to keep the Kingdom all inclusive.
Picture that India’s Modi is asked to provide full citizenship rights to Muslims, Sikhs and other minorities to keep RSS-India all inclusive.
If all of the above can not be, then what logic is the so-called global community practicing when asking the Taliban to keep those who aided and abetted the utterly unjustified foreign occupation as a part of their federal government to keep things all inclusive?
What occurred in Afghanistan was not a mere modification of government. A puppet state accountable for eliminating their own people and spreading subversion in the area was overthrown. Any talk of federal government comes after the state development is complete. To keep the elements of the Ancien Regime is to keep the fifth writers alive who can undo their half-century long struggle to keep foreign guideline out. It is like asking a surgeon not to remove all the malignant tissue from a cancer client as it may be available in useful later.
A state is one group that needs to have a monopoly on the genuine use of violence. All other groups have to be deactivated and disbanded. After the state is formed and all groups subscribe to a creed that is shared by all, just then a federal government can be formed by a larger group of individuals who will show peoples’ perceptiveness and beliefs and worths. If that federal government does not do that individuals will not consider it legitimate and the state will stage a coup and send home the federal government.
That state’s authenticity comes from a concept to which the population of that nation subscribes through their primitive socio-religious moorings. This common denominator in Afghanistan is none other than Muslim beliefs and worths. Despite the fact that the Taliban’s overwhelming force are Pashtun (which indicates they practice Pashtunwali code and its understanding of Hanafi Sunni Shariah), non-Pashtun Afghans are all Muslims too. So, their common denominator still remains Islam.
Therefore, for the Taliban to firmly insist that their guideline ought to be developed on Islamic concepts is rooted in sound reasoning. To expect that the Afghans will subscribe to Swedish liberalism is a musing. Ashraf Ghani was prepared to decrease that silly course, but the Taliban are too wise to do the exact same.
Bear in mind that the Taliban took control of the whole nation without a battle. The so-called Afghan National Army dissolved so quickly and hugged the Taliban fighters and lots of even joined them. If popular opinion is not behind a resistance movement, it can never prosper.
This is the proof of Taliban’s inclusion. Unlike the Bolsheviks, the French revolutionaries, the American revolutionaries, the Saudis, the Iranians and numerous others who butchered their challengers on their path to power, the Taliban gave basic amnesty to all. Who has more grace in their hearts, the progenitors of the modern republics or the Taliban? We have actually never seen such a phenomenon in recent human history. If this is not addition, then what is?
The factor the “worldwide neighborhood”, as in a gang of Western nations gone rogue, is screaming and stressing over an Islamic system for Afghanistan is due to the fact that of their regular and historical bias versus Islam and Muslims. From crusades to colonialism, in the West’s imagination, Islam is the supreme boogeyman. Edward Said illustrated that quite well in his popular classic, Orientalism. The modern Islamophobia industry is another evidence of the West’s unproven hatred of Islam. One would just hope that the Chinese and Russian political systems do not enable their judgment elite to decrease that course, or else the long-term effects for both these superpowers may not be pleasant. So far, their state media are toeing the Western reasoning of inclusivism, comparable to their pro-America positions in the aftermath of 9/11, without much reflection as to who was ideal and who was wrong. We have faith that these two political systems will make better judgments this time around.
Another absurd proposal by the “August” worldwide community is that the Taliban must meet the guarantees they made overnight. This resembles asking a newborn baby to begin running immediately right after being born. For anyone who understands the ABC of statecraft ought to know that it is not possible. Initially the state has to be combined. This will take a couple of months.
The interim established must not consist of aspects of the Ancien Program who were on the payroll of the enemy they fought for twenty long years. Then a variety of cross-ethnic elements in the nation should be recruited who sign up for the common denominator of beliefs and worths that the state is expected to be a vanguard of. This is addition and this will yield legitimacy of the state in the eyes of its individuals.
When the state is consolidated, a federal government ought to be formed in accordance to Islamic principles. Islam is neutral to the type of federal government. It only firmly insists that no matter the type of the federal government, the outcome needs to be justice. Whether it is a kingdom, a city-state, a democracy or any other kind, the outcome needs to be justice.
The Quran also suggests that justice is not equality. Equality is offering everyone the very same; justice is giving whomever their due. Quran is kitab-al-insaf (book of justice) and not kitab-al-masawat (book of equality).
After the period of state consolidation, government formation should be achieved on the principle of meritocracy, and not multi-party democracy, in which worldwide capitalists will turn democrats into their woman of the streets and rip off individuals. Sincere and qualified people from all ethnic backgrounds need to be selected, then trained and after that run the federal government.
However that stage comes after the state development process in which it must never be forgotten that community which had a hard time and compromised enormously to throw out the immigrants need to have more say in matters of state development, compared to those who sided with the oppressor to kill their own people and their neighbors. This prevails sense, which is beyond the IQ of the “international community”.
A message to the Taliban
I extend my congratulations to the ghazis of the Emirates of Afghanistan and offer prayers of acknowledgement for those mujahideen who became martyrs in their jihad versus the oppressive, atrocious and cruel federal governments of the U.S. and its Western allies. In 2 centuries of humiliation against the Muslim world, you buried the British, Bolsheviks and Yankees in your mountains along with their empires.
The difficulties you have actually suffered and the sacrifices you have rendered for the millat have produced a character in you that is worth taking pride in. Now that you have effectively beat the foreign profession, lots more requires to be done. The world is already recommending you to adopt an instructions which will be dreadful for you in the long run. As a scholar who recognizes with the West and East Asia, as well as the numerous understandings of Islam within the Islamic civilization, maybe I remain in a position to make some humble tips that may show helpful in charting out your future.
Firstly, the sword from your right-hand man can now move into your left hand, and you will need to grab the pen in your right-hand man.
Your military resistance period is now over, however you still require to protect and establish your country. While your enemies are still preparing to bomb you, their kinetic efforts will be supplemented by a naughty hybrid war, for which you may not be fully prepared. Without the power of understanding, this hybrid war can not be won.
Your decades-long steadfastness comes from the concept of istiqamat (one of the nine concepts of Pashtunwali). You were tortured, incarcerated and killed, however the opponent might neither purchase you out with money, nor might they bludgeon you into submission over the last twenty years. This reveals that you have basirat (capability to see beyond the evident facades and false promises).
These are essential aspects of character, which are required prerequisites of an ethically and spiritually upright leadership in statecraft. Basirat comes from tazkiyya-i-nafs (cleaning of the soul), which in turn originates from austerity and being strict with yourself and generous with others. This too, you proved after you gave general amnesty to all who combated versus you, despite the fact that it would have been perfectly Islamic to require retribution as was done by the Nuremberg trials performed by the victors of WWII.
Remember that movements start with terrific spirit which subsides over time because the adherents recede into their convenience zones, end up being complacent and are lastly gotten rid of by the forces of evil that always lurk behind the shadows. Afghanistan will soon become one of the world’s richest countries under your leadership. Ensure that your individuals’ requirements are met and they have moderate success, or else excessive riches will make your population fat, lazy and coward like the Gulf Arabs.
The last big wave of Western oppression concerned Afghanistan after 9/11. This wave will take about 2-4 more years to lastly subside and subside completely. When it wanes, like a tsunami it will take numerous undesirable bad things from your community also. Although you do not wish to change your neighbors, a lot of us are currently beginning to be changed by your victory. The Kashmiri movement, the Khalistan self-reliance movement, the Palestine movement, and the movement against corruption in Pakistan are already drawing inspiration from your victory against forces of oppression.
Islam does not accommodate nonreligious liberal political philosophy, from the womb of which the modern democratic fraud was born. Steer clear of it. Modernist Muslims will tell you that the principle of Shura is democracy. It is not. Shura is not Western design democracy, however a system of assessment prevalent at all tiers of society, from the world of the household to the state. Usage that at every level, as you have during your resistance years.
How to handle the big powers
The federal governments of Western nations were your opponents. They occupied you, spilled your blood, and destroyed regional peace. You may forgive them, but do not forget. It is best to do aggressive diplomacy at the minute, but under no situations need to you deal with them with clemency. They do not deserve it. Starve if you have to, however do not accept these forces. Apply the law of Pashtunwali and Shariah in dealing with them.
You say that Pakistan is your 2nd house. If you form your government according to Islamic principles, it will ultimately end up being a part of your very first house. Afghanistan is not a country. It is a territory that comprises many nations. Pakistan is not a nation either. It is a union of 4 big citizenships and a couple of smaller sized ones. It too happened in the name of Islamic worths but its corrupt and westernized elites forgot the original mission. So many Pashtuns, Hazaras and Tajiks came to Pakistan successively through numerous wars and made it their house. You can too, not as a refugee, but as confederated person.
Both Afghanistan and Pakistan have actually learnt that on matters of defense and diplomacy, both need to be on the same page, or else there will constantly be problem. If we do incorporate defense and foreign policy, the financial control of your resources can remain in the Afghan hands just as the economic control of Pakistani resources might remain in the Pakistani hands.
This will just work for the brief run. However since you are landlocked, you need to have access to the Pakistani territory in such a way that Pakistan does not need access to your territory. Nevertheless, because trade with landlocked Central Asia is critical, you can enable access to Pakistan to have access to Central Asia through which a one-sided dependence will become co-dependency, which will be much better for both countries. Moreover, think about the following very crucial point.
Afghanistan is around 653,000 sq km, out of which arable land is just a little less than 12%, amounting to 78,360 sq km. One sq km has 247 acres. In the U.S. one acre feeds about 1-2 individuals. In Afghanistan, if one acre fed 10-15 people, then you can only feed less than 2 million people out of a population of around 38 million. The other 36 million need to be fed from Pakistan, due to the fact that it is the most affordable source of surplus wheat. Pakistan’s 882,000 sq km has more than 40 percent arable land and it produces surplus wheat and rice.
You require Pakistan for your access to the sea, food security and building up a modern-day defense ability. If you keep practicing Afghan nationalism, and Pakistan likewise keeps practicing Uncle Tom’s backward ideologies from the bygone days of European enlightenment, both will remain enemies. Pakistan will stay bad and you will starve to death. By the time you dig your resources and sell them for food and building facilities, you will keep indebting the Afghan people.
Pair up and collaborate with Pakistan’s numerous sectors, other than your politics. If you promise your politics with Pakistan, we will let you down. Until a totally awake political elite comes into life in Pakistan, you ought to stay away. If and when it happens, then incorporate with Pakistan as carefully as possible.
You are more than likely to produce an Iran-type of social area in the beginning. However make sure not to follow the Saudi design, since it is entirely un-Islamic. Remember, Muslim women have led armies of males in our history. We produced female scholars prior to any other civilization could do so. We even produced female sultanas previously anywhere else.
However, considering that the last half a century, Afghanistan saw no peace, and females’s predicament, comparable to males was focused on survival only. So, your existing policy relating to females in Afghanistan is realistic enough for a conservative, warn-torn Pashtun society.
Others do not share the exact same outlook. Adhere to Islamic injunctions and protect your women. Disallow man-hating feminist ideologies to protect the family. There should be enough liberty for our women. Our wellbeing depends on the wellness of our mothers, sisters, daughters and wives. Withstand all pressure from abroad on this account and slowly re-engineer society in which ladies will be modest but completely participating in our civilizational and national lives.
From the viewpoint of food security, review the Islamic position on population control. Household size now should be smaller sized than the days of war. In 2 generations, workable population size in Afghanistan should be below 20 million, as when it comes to Pakistan, which ought to drop from 220 million to 150 million.
Keep in mind: a complementary essay will deal with Islamic economics, finance, the role of the Afghan Central Bank and the limitations of Western capitalism.