The Dilemma of Understanding and Unravelling the Taliban
30 July 2016By Al-Ikhwah Al-Mujahidun
After the martyrdom of the Taliban's leader – the esteemed Mullah Akhtar
Muhammad Mansour – American President Barack Obama stated that the 'killing'
of Mullah Mansour opened the doors for peace and he implicitly threatened the
Taliban with a similar fate should they continue in their refusal to join the
peace process.
The American Secretary of State Kerry reiterated this sentiment by stating
that the Taliban must learn from the 'killing' of their leader or they will
face the same fate.
Similarly the heads of Kabul regime – Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah –
bluntly threatened that the Taliban should lay down their weapons and join the
peace process or else meet a similar end.
The Taliban consider the ongoing struggle against the foreign occupation as a
religious obligation (Jihad) and are willing to face all kinds of hardship to
accomplish this. They consider any hardship in this struggle including being
tortured, injured, imprisoned or dying as means towards gaining their Lord's
pleasure. Death in this struggle amounts to martyrdom in their eyes. Martyrdom
is the same lofty status for which the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) prayed and
yearned. In numerous places of the Holy Quran Allah Almighty has described
martyrdom as a holy blessing. So much so that Allah Almighty declared in one
place to his creation that 'Do not call those killed in the path of Allah as
dead for they are not dead but living, yet you know not'. In another place He
Almighty states 'You should not think as dead who in the path of their Lord
have scattered their heads, for they are living and provided for by their
Lord'.
The death and imprisonment of the leaders of the Taliban Movement has a long
history, yet history shows that such befallings have never weakened this
Movement, but more often than not, has only strengthened their resolve.
The greatest failure of our enemies is that they have failed to understand the
psychology of the Taliban. For example several times they Americans and Kabul
officials have offered to give the Taliban a role in the government of
Afghanistan. Yet they truth is that the Taliban are not fighting for the seat
of power. If the aim of the Taliban was power then why would they have refused
American conditions?
They could have simply accepted the American proposals and today there would
have been no blacklists, no wanted posters, no terrorism charges, no
Guantanamo, no Bagram and Kandahar prisons and no drone strikes. Yet the truth
of the matter is that the Taliban's struggle is not for material gains.
Taliban consider their struggle as Jihad. They are willing to risk their life
and limb in this cause and a means to gaining their Lord's pleasure. And
what's more they congratulate each other for the difficulties faced in such a
struggle.
Is it not absurd then that one party yearns for martyrdom, raises their hands
five times a day for it, considers it as the greatest achievement possible, is
proud of it, always ponders on it and nostalgically reflects that so and so
was lucky because he gained martyrdom. Yet the other party then threatens it
with the same yearning (martyrdom) and barks at him that if you do not give up
your resolve then we will fulfill this yearning of yours.
If all the afflictions of the past decade and a half did not deter the Taliban
then it is unlikely that they will be cowered by threats of more drone
strikes. It is nigh time for the enemies of the Taliban to reflect on their
means and relinquish from their futile strategy.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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