The Taliban’s ugly head has reappeared. It has returned to occupy the front pages of newspapers to propagate its extremist thinking and terrorist approach as it presents its latest contributions to humanity, mercy and tolerance by killing two South Korean hostages who were part of a relief group working in Afghanistan. All this is taking place amid a suspicious, startling and frightening Arab and Islamic silence, apart from a very small number of dignitaries.
When the offensive cartoons of the Prophet (PBUH) were published, large numbers of people in the Muslim world reacted to it by orchestrating demonstrations and symposiums. The same thing happened when the Israeli butcher Ariel Sharon violated Al Aqsa mosque. These crimes (and they are indeed crimes) deserve the conspicuous and immense reactions that they received, since they are against a divine religion, namely, Islam.
However, silence is inconceivable when there is an abominable crime that is being perpetrated by villains “in the name of” Islam. So why are Muslims staying quiet about this whilst the damage it is causing is the same?
Perhaps this shameful dualism reveals the ideological tragedy that exists in the world and the inability to deal with “evil” as an entity irrespective of its source. Consequently, it should be attacked and renounced and not met by silence that is equivalent to its acceptance.
It is no secret that the current US administration has been seized by an outcast ideological group, namely, the neoconservatives that propagate excuses and reasons to go to war and devastate countries such as Iraq. However, it is clear that in the Muslim world, there is a so-called group of “old conservatives” that still believes in the necessity of isolating “pure” Islam from the rest of the world and that coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims cannot be achieved. Consequently, the “Taliban” along with its savage ideology continues to see itself as heroic, noble and adhering to the religious texts. They have memorized the material but have failed to understand it!
To continue dealing with the Taliban movement and the like who are putting forward their “pure” Islam is shameful and an offence to the Islamic religion and its Prophet (PBUH). Furthermore, to not take serious action to completely reject the Taliban ideology and what has resulted from it in one form or another would mean approving this barbaric trend. The Taliban chapters will never close and if the Taliban does leave the arena, other movements would emerge as long as the issue has still not been settled decisively.
A candid question to the self: Does the “Taliban” represent the religion that we belong to or the Muslim world itself? We await the daring and necessary answer.