Opinion

Taliban, Terrorism and the Fears By Yinka Salaam

The truth many are mischievously refusing to acknowledge, deliberately hiding from saying or ignorantly unable to understand is that Taliban remains the only popularly elected government by the Afghans after the war; when they successfully sent away the defunct USSR. Taliban has with the “Mandate” of the people, of course not without the effort of the US that help imposed Taliban on other more organised, more humane, more popular and civilised group, such as the one led by Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani.

US decided to dump Taliban after using it to edge out the more popular and prominent group because of its perceived closeness to the universally renowned Muslim Brotherhood.

Having used Taliban to achieve its aim, US decided to remove it and replace it with sympathetic pro-West surrogates. Consequently, Taliban was unjustly removed by the George Bush jnr (the US) government under the guise of “Afghanistan is hiding Osama bn Laden who was alleged to be behind the 9/11 Twin Tower bombings, the charge Osama denied till death.

Taliban had to withdraw from Kabul to save the capital from ruin, but remained committed to reclaiming its mandate.

A Terrorists group?

Taliban is not a terrorist group but Freedom Fighters, resisting the imposition of imperialist forces in Afghanistan.

Taliban which later became the face of opposition and the liberation movement is more or less like Al Shabab in Somali and Hamas in Palestine. The victory of Al Shabab is also near in Somali. When that happens, similar sentiments would be advanced. The world hasn’t forgotten how Al Shabab was prevented from forming a government when it was obvious to the West it would establish a Shari’ah compliant system of government with its Shari’ah courts after dealing a big blow to the US army on his soil.

The world will not forget General Muhammad Farrah Aidid too soon. Gen Aidid was the leader of the Somali National Alliance (SNA), the organization that fought US forces in Mogadishu with such ferocity until he was assassinated by the US agents on August 2, 1996, in a tribal battle.

It is the same way the Western media has portrayed Hamas as terrorists group in Palestine rather than be regarded as Freedom Fighters which they truly are. This is the very reason Hamas enjoys the support of their people, despite the killngs by he Israeli army and the propaganda of the Western media.

US and Terrorist

After all, US does not negotiate with Terrorists

Of course, it doesn’t. That was why it eventually recognised Taliban and had been negotiating with Taliban in Qatar for some years now.

Because it accepted Taliban isn’t a terrorists group, US had series of meetings with Taliban before it (US) eventually withdrew. Remember Afghan authorities complained of being sidelined in the negotiation at a time.

US probably had to leave when the now ousted government refused to allow the proposed compromises; or perhaps, US has had a good deal and reconcile with its old ‘ally’ Taliban.

Now that Taliban has given as amnesty for all as well as declared freedom and protection of the fundamental human rights for men and women, including secular education for the girl-child, let’s hope a dawn will eventually be birthed in Afghanistan with tacit support of the US and other world powers, including Turkey.

The fact remains that Taliban was the only legal goverment popularly elected by the Afghans but which was unjustly overthrown by the US under the pretext of ‘housing’ Osama bn Laden.

It appears the (US) has achieved its aims and the hitherto imposed US-backed government has to be dispensed with, as usual.

Quoting Wikipedia about the profile of Burhanuddin Rabbani:

“Born in the Badakhshan Province, Burhanuddin Rabbani studied at Kabul University and worked there as a professor of Islamic theology. He formed the Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Society) at the university which attracted then – students Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud, both of whom would eventually become the two leading commanders of the Afghan Mujahideen in the Soviet –Afghan War from 1979. Rabbani was chosen to be the President of Afghanistan after the end of the former communist regime in 1992.

“Rabbani and his Islamic State of Afghanistan government was later forced into exile by the Taliban, and he then served as the political head of the Northern Alliance, an alliance of various political groups who fought against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

“After the Taliban government was toppled during Operation Enduring Freedom, Rabbani returned to Kabul and served briefly as President from November to 20 December 2001, when Hamid Karzai was chosen as his succeeding interim leader at the Bonn International Conference. In later years he became head of Afghanistan National Front (known in the media as United National Front), the largest political opposition to Karzai’s government.

“On 20 September 2011, Rabbani was assassinated by a suicide bomber entering his home in Kabul. As suggested by the Afghan parliament, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai gave him the title of “Martyr of Peace”. His son Salahuddin Rabbani was chosen in April 2012 to lead efforts to forge peace in Afghanistan with the Taliban”.

Thus, it’s my wish and prayer that Taliban would have learnt its lessons, hoping they will purge themselves of extremism, be accommodating of other Muslim groups as well as other interests groups and provide the desired good governance.

I also hope the Ummah shall not have a repeat of the misunderstanding that characterised the aftermath of the Afghanistan/USSR war where Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani with his students
Engr Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud among others; in addition to other groups and interests were either killed or sidelined, forging another enduring internal crisis.

After over 30 years of successive wars, let’s have enduring peace in Afghanistan. Let the Afghans solve their internal crisis and fix their issues by themselves.

May Allah guide Afghanistan at this volatile period to come out clean and unscathed afterwards.