Comments on: Reading Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashi…

By: Conrad Barwa

Conrad Barwa — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:16:18 +0000

Tagging this post ‘Muslim-on-Muslim violence’ since the Kabul victims of Taliban indifference were probably all Muslims.

To be more specific, I think disproportionately most of the victims were women; since it was closing of access to schools for girls and in particular the decline in healthcare access, especially to hospitals and maternal care that affected women, in some cases with fatal consequences. Ideologically, the Taliban were so keen to prevent any significant mobility for women or inter-gender mixing that it was difficult to deliver these services to women.

By: sa.c

sa.c — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:45:08 +0000

that however, is not to downplay their persecution (which is and has been very real).

By: sa.c

sa.c — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:43:44 +0000

I don’t have numbers (and wouldn’t know where to find them), but personal anecdotes indicate that there was quite a significant community there after the Taliban takeover as well. Hindu’s were not always viewed as being “too different” (Hindu Pashtuns have always existed, as a minority though, – I’ve heard most fled for India in 1947 and no longer identify as Pashtun/Pathan in India) and thus had had some common ethnic-tribal ground with the all Pashtun Taliban. Sikhs on the other hand are most likely an old established merchant community who retained their own Punjabi language (obviously fluent in others though). I’m told that the 2001 war has also contributed greatly to the almost-disappearance of both of these communities – no safety.

By: pi.info

pi.info — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:52:08 +0000

This brand of Islam appeals to some in the West and throughout the Muslim world, sometimes dressed up as 'Dawah.' The Taliban provide a good case study of the results.

By: johnpi

johnpi — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:18:20 +0000

Also the Taliban were keen to take concubines too. Rashid writes about the Taliban taking a lot of Shia Hazara women after massacres in Hazara areas back to Pashtun areas in the south of the country.

Mullah Omar even threw one of his battle commanders in jail after his wife complained about all the concubines he brought back with him.

By: johnpi

johnpi — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:14:33 +0000

Ismailis and Jews too. Afghanistan was a vibrant multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. But at some point during the Taliban takeover between ‘94 and 2000 a lot of those populations left and became international refugees because the taliban bore down so hard on them. Non-Muslims lives were worth little and their property was targeted for looting.

I don’t know how much of those populations were still left in ‘98.

By: sa.c

sa.c — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:30:55 +0000

Not necessarily all Muslims. There are (or perhaps a better term is “were” until very recently) ages-old communities of Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan who likely suffered under the Taliban too.