کابل پرس

How fundamentalism is formed and nourished (Part Two)

Nima Idihaw — 2011-05-23T17:18:54Z

Beyond the borders of Afghanistan in the south and east, on the other side in Pakistan, the inhabitants are from ethnic Pashtun tribes and as a result of ethnic solidarity the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is freezone for ethnic Pashtuns to smuggle weapons, people, and opium with impunity. They can also move freely across the border of both countries when they want and settle freely. The openness of the border helps the tribes of the ethnic Pashtun and promotes electoral fraud, the import and export of fundamentalists and terrorists and weapons and drugs to either country as an ongoing free trade. In this case the majority of the Pashtuns in the southern and eastern provinces have two national identity cards; an Afghan one and a Pakistani one, thus they can easily vote on both sides of the border and can effect the balance of power through electoral fraud in their favor. Having two national identity cards is one of the reasons that make the southern and eastern Pashtuns disloyal to Afghanistan, as many members of the other ethnic groups within Afghanistan rightly claim.

In spite of central government's enormous fiscal allocations to the southern and eastern provinces, the outcomes have always been negligent. For example, the bias against provinces like Daikundi and Bamyan, (populated by Hazara peoples) means when the Karzai government allocates enormous financial support for the building of schools and hospitals in the southern and eastern provinces the extremists burn and destroy them, a complete waste of foreign aid on these provinces where a large number of fundamentalists exist. Instead, in other provinces where the people demand schools they are not allocated funds for they are not Pashtuns.

It does not mean these provinces should not receive reconstruction funds, but the inefficient way of dispersing funding to these provinces is a waste of time, energy and money. The government does not have civil education and literacy programs for these areas that could help change their mentality and lifestyle. Their mentality can only be changed through the positive promotion of successful role models in other provinces where the level of literacy is high. Unless the level of education grows in these provinces, any kind of investment can be considered futile.

The Karzai regime however, deliberately promotes the ideology of “Talibanism” among the people in general. Releasing Taliban war criminals from prisons, giving privileges to Taliban commanders are the incentives that encourage ordinary poor people to become part of the Taliban system itself.

As far as an entirely illiterate generation that does not know anything except killing, war and violence, this situation puts the entire country in a state of paucity, this sector of the community needs a long-term program to get accustomed to civilian life, not wartime, but the government has never had a long term program for them, instead it has used them in order to create chaos and uncertainty.The motive behind this strategy is to keep chaos and insecurity within the country in which a small group of people would have power in the form of ethnic sovreignty and govern the entire nation.

Evidence shows that the strength of tribalism and its inherent values has a direct link with the growth of terrorism in Afghanistan and since the Karzai regime has announced reconciliation with the Taliban based on Karzai's own (Pashtun) tribal values opposition voices can rightly claim he has sacrificed the nation for his own tribal values. Karzai's laws are based on “Pashtounwale” (Pashtun tribal law) and he has called them his “brothers”.

Political commentators say taking a weak position against the Taliban has weakened the pillars of the central government in Afghanistan; instead it has strengthened the position of the Taliban in that their unacceptable demands have worsened the security situation ever since this position was adopted.

Members of the Taliban who have not accepted demands from Karzai and his international allies do not yet have a clear idea of what it is they want exactly and what they will do if they will be given a voice in the government. This all began when the victims of the Taliban's tyrannical rule during the late 1990s did not accept their return to power, indeed those victims want them to be prosecuted for the crimes they committed against humanity ; massacres and atrocities against the Afghan people themselves.

Like many other Pashtun rulers before him, Hamid Karzai does the same; he creates a division between the ethnic groups of Afghanistan by supporting the Pashtun fundamentalists as a kind of weapon and leverage for his own political aims. People say Karzai deliberately keeps the Pashtuns illiterate in order to win their obedience. That he intends to keep Pashtun fundamentalists as allies and use them as a trump card in the bigger game with the Western powers, but what has happened instead is the growth of enmity and ethnic clashes among the ethnic groups of Afghanistan. The Pashtun intellectuals abroad have noted this fact with due regard.

The libido of fundamentalism relies on chaos and disorder, when there is no chaos and disorder no fundamentalism can exist. This has been proved throughout time. When there is light, clarity and education there are less people to listen to the fundamentalists' voice and the phenomena of fundamentalism disappears automatically.

Throughout the history of Pashtun rulers they have tried to paint a negative image of the other ethnic groups in comparison to the Pashtun tribes, in order to split the loyalties of all the ethnic groups of Afghanistan and govern by the “divide and rule” principle. A principle that rather than leading the country towards success instead nurtures conflicts, ethnic clashes and cultural retardation.

Part one | Part two

How fundamentalism is formed and nourished (Part One)

Nima Idihaw — 2011-05-19T19:52:13Z

The elimination of Osama Bin Laden has once more raised the question of how long the war on terror will continue in Afghanistan. The first reactions to his death by extremists was their retaliatory attacks on Hazaras in Quetta, Pakistan and then in Kandahar, Ghazni and Laghman in Afghanistan as a message to the Karzai government and its international allies.

At the same time, on the other side of the war against terror, continuous efforts are being made by the Karzai regime to shield and protect the Taliban from prosecution, the same Taliban forces who are affiliated with Al-Qaeeda and are still committing terrorist attacks in various regions of Afghanistan itself.

Afghanistan is a country where currently more than forty nations of the world are directly involved and remain without any real speculation about its future. Although recently a timeline was scheduled for the withdrawal of foreign troops these countries – Australia included- are unsure as to withdraw completely or to stay on in part for a longer period of assistance to Afghanistan. In this indefinite war, the situation is a crisis lacking intelligent rationale. The war as it was is still lacking vision without clear definitions as to an outcome and Afghanistan is still suffering uncertainty and insecurity; what happens in the future, nobody knows.

Target killing of Hazaras in Pakistan

The main obstacle ahead of the progress in Afghanistan is the continued existence of tribalism and the increasing growth of an ideology we now call “Talibanism” among the people in the southern and eastern provinces of the country. An ideology which is still promoted by the central government led by Hamid Karzai and a group of his Pashtun colleagues and associates.

In these provinces the Pashtuns make up the majority of the population and the number of them in comparison to the population of the whole country is considerable.

In these regions the rate of illiteracy is extremely high among the population and in average each family has five to eight children. As a result of the appalling lack of literacy there people have never been capable of adopting educational programs regarding birth control and population growth and because of illiteracy the people are strongly dependent on tribal knowledge and superstitions. They believe controlling population growth is against their tribal and religious values.

Because of tribalism the women in these provinces do not have access to education which means half of the population remains illiterate. The women in these provinces are being treated like objects or animals, possessions of men, mere chattels.

This lack of education is not only limited to young girls and women but also extends to male children as well who rarely get chances to go to school and as a result a majority of the population remains illiterate, generation after generation.

As a result of this high illiteracy rate, religion and tribal traditions have combined and produced a new interpretation of the religion itself in that are new strict rules and regulations regarding religious observance and those who do not comply are considered infidels, atheists or heathens and is punishable by death.

This dangerous combination of tribalism and religion has also caused misinterpretation of many religious rules in moderate Islam and thus a new radical and fundamental way of thinking about social issues is born in the mentality of the majority of people in these provinces.

Hence the definition of God for the people in the southern and eastern provinces is very different to the concept of God in any existent holy books. The extremists and their leaders in the southern and eastern provinces consider murder, theft, sexual harassment and expolitation of children, the cultivation of opium and addiction to narcotics,“honour killings”of women and the smuggling of weapons to be sanctioned by God.

Furthermore, the lack of industrial development due to high rates of illiteracy has caused poverty and thus impoverished people who dream of change have no way to realize their dreams of change except to imagine them as utopian fantasies. As they have been kept deprived of the very basic needs and the facilities for a civilised life, the only way to escape the harsh reality of their daily lives is to rely on illusions and dreams. That's how the number of these impoversished newly misled fundamentalists grows day by day in the south and east of the country. They blow themselves up – as suicide bombers- in order to go to what they believe is paradise – heaven- striving for an “immortal” life full of happiness and luxury that they did not achieve in the material world.

Taking advantage of this phenomenon of illiteracy, the fundamentalists inject their dogma into the minds of these illiterate people, injecting their own definition of God and religion and as a result many victims of this brainwashing are formally trained to become fundamentalists. The civilians find sympathy with the Taliban and give shelter to them as a result of the high number of civilian casualties as a result of the violence in these regions.

Industrial progress has not reached these areas and the legal economy has not yet been developed , leaving these regions poor and dependent on livestock and agricultural products. In comparison the rate of the illegal economy shows an enormous growth in two different phases; once in the second half of 1990s (During theTaliban's sovereignty) and then through 2000-2010. This illegal economy is based on growing and trafficking opium and weapons as well as human trafficking to the other side of the border.

The looting and pillaging of property owned by other ethnic groups – such as the Hazara- is being perpetrated by the tribes of the southern and eastern provinces. A clear example is the Kochi nomads' attacks against the Hazaras in peaceful districts of Behsood whereby they looted the Hazaras' personal wealth and land during 2007-2010.
And since 2008 the war has shifted to the northern and the central provinces by the tribes from the south and east.

To be continued …..

Part one | Part two