You know the word ‘Taliban’ literally means ‘students.’ That is, not scholars. They tried to implement Shari’a best they knew how, but really they didn’t have any of the etiquettes and didn’t know that it’s not something they could force on the people in the first place. My beloved sheikh could tell you that… he tells me almost every time I bring it up…
But really the “secular” influence was specifically the tribal culture which is predominant in Afghanistan. They took some religion and mixed it with culture. This is why some things happen in Afghanistan (like selling a daughter to pay a debt!!) that are just very wicked and against Islam–they are cultural practices.
Afghanistan as a country has really had it rough though. People don’t understand this when they look at Afghanistan, I think, and why life is like it is there. There are real problems with warlords and poverty, the people impoverished, famine and drought so no foods, large adult population being killed in the Soviet invasion in the 80’s, and then the Taliban trying to take control later. It’s a sad story but really Islam is not to blame.
FWIW, I am not anti-Islam. I am against the way some people misuse it to dominate and demean women.
I realize that the Koran is interpreted differently by different factions within Islam, and I certainly don’t accept that radical Islamist rantings are representative of true Islam.
A few years ago I ran an Internet forum that wasn’t particularly a religion forum, but it did attract a strong somewhat fundamentalist Xian following. Mostly Protestant. Mostly Southern Baptist. They were extremenly anti-Islam and said such horrible things, believing that all Muslims were in on a world-wide plot to topple the West. they talked about Islam deserving to be blasted off the face of the Earth. I tried to get a little reality injected into the discussion, but they would have none of that. They refused to believe, even, that Muslims worship the God of Abraham, instead beleiving that they worship Allah, who they think is a pagan god or gods. I honestly can’t remember what the supposed history of the name Allah was all about. It was ridiculous. I had to shut the forum down.
Islam has many Xian enemies. Catholics aren’t them.
I think you probably know that, and that’s why you’re posting on these forums.
It would be better, I think, if Muslims admit that the radical Muslims are misusing their religion, rather than blaming outside, non-Muslims forces for this bad behavior. It’s more truthful, and would go a long way in gaining deserved respect and acceptance from the rest of the world.
If Catholics went around blaming the secular world for the priests’ bad behavior, Catholics would rightly be looked down on. A few Catholics tried that tactic. It looked ridiculous and it died a quick death.
The priests were wrong. The people who covered-up for them were wrong.
They were in a position of power, and they misused it. It wasn’t Catholic teaching or law to do this, but it certainly wasn’t secular law or custom to do this either. They were guilty of a crime and they sinned. That’s it. There’s no need to cover it up or pass the blame to the secular world.
Islam should do the same. Most religious people live in the world, not apart from it. You can’t use your religion (even creating law) to abuse other people and then blame the secular world for it.
Isn’t religion supposed to temper secular things? Isn’t it supposed to make you a better person?
