Al-Marsad Newspaper: The writer, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, revealed in his article titled (How to deal with the Taliban) on the “Middle East” website the best way to deal with the Taliban movement that rules Afghanistan.
Al-Rashed began an article: “One of the Taliban’s government officials says, ‘Even if you drop a nuclear bomb on us, we will not allow women to study and work. We have to believe him literally, because the man means what he says: bombing it back to the stone age has already failed, because the Taliban’ herself would like to live in the stone age.
And he continued: Globally, anger and condemnation for the actions of the “Taliban” are increasing, and it has been expressed by Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, which have denounced the decision to prevent girls from studying and working . International forums have been dominated by calls for tougher measures against the movement.
The Taliban will not comply
He added: In my opinion, all the proposed remedies, from blocking aid to military force, will not be successful, because the “Taliban” will not obey. These are the “Taliban” then and now. The solution is to pay attention to educating the “Taliban”, its leaders and employees, about moderate Islam.
And he continued: “The Taliban” are a problem in themselves, and will need a long cultural discussion to qualify it. Now, the world has to live with it and know it well. This group is not a government in the modern sense, and it is not a terrorist like al-Qaeda, which is made up of multiple nationalities and does not recognize borders. The Taliban have no external plans and do not aspire to change the world. Most of them are from a tribe that lives outside the era and doesn’t care much for what’s outside its borders, at least until now. She had a short marriage with Al-Qaeda, which introduced her to different military experiences and political views, and brought her great trouble.
Old tribal ideas
And he added: “The Taliban” bring old local tribal ideas. Americans discovered this after two decades of unsuccessful attempts to domesticate the group. The United States has tried to establish a modern Afghan civilian system, and it has cost them a lot, but they have not been able to protect it. Twenty years later, he has convinced himself that he can defeat organizations like “Al Qaeda” and “ISIS” in any confrontation, but he won’t be able to put an end to the “Taliban”. That is why the Americans inserted the first clause of the Doha agreement, for the Taliban to undertake not to allow any group hostile to the United States, including al-Qaeda, to operate on the territory of Afghanistan. The deal did not include the formula for governance or community management.
He continued: The strength of the “Taliban” comes from the strength of its tribe, the Pashtuns, in the face of its competitors from other local components, the Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks. This does not detract from external support for the “Taliban”, which reaches all wartime fighting forces. A quick look at the map is enough to understand the roots and intricacies of the local political geography, whereby Afghanistan has historically been a corridor for armies and an arena for the struggle of powers and empires. It borders with China, Iran, Pakistan and the countries of the former Soviet Union. A closed, landlocked, and resource-poor country, with a population of forty million, and an area twice the size of a country like Germany.
Educate and spread the concept of moderate Islam
And he continued: The weapon of economic starvation will not work on the “Taliban”, and neither the Marine Corps nor the nuclear weapon will discourage them. The Taliban are a religiously and socially extremist movement, and the most powerful weapon capable of changing it is education and the diffusion of the concept of moderate Islam, with all the means that can reach their eyes and ears.
He stressed that: their leaders are from an older generation and their military are from a younger generation, they live isolated from the world and are convinced that they are right and the world is wrong. Many Muslim societies have been shut down and developed with programs of gradual awareness and involvement in the modern world. The Taliban remained in a difficult situation due to past wars. Of its first ruler, Mullah Omar, we have heard of it and only a few have seen it. He had a faded photo, in which he was secretly photographed, because photography is considered prohibited and the author is punished for it.
Islamic awareness
He stressed: “Today we see the positions of the Taliban reflecting the differences within them, and it seems that the militants have finally won.” Some of its leaders, who have lived abroad, in Pakistan and Qatar, and returned to Kabul, are less severe, including the emirate’s spokesman, who did not find a convincing answer to the “CNN” interlocutor when asked with disapproval: how does he prevent Afghan women from studying while leaving his daughters to study in Doha?
He concluded his article by saying: Addressing extremist and radical ideology in Afghanistan requires cooperation with successful program owners in Islamic education. This does not mean that it is a free ticket to seek the help of political groups, such as the “Muslim Brotherhood”, which appear to Western governments to be a civilian group. Indeed, the Brotherhood is somewhat similar, but the danger lies in its political design, as it established the religious state ideology from which organizations such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS emerged, and is capable of turning the Taliban in another Al-Qaeda.
