The rather splendidly named fighting season in Afghanistan is almost over. The relative calm of winter, as the Taliban retreat south, will provide a chance to rethink what increasingly appears like a lost, or fast losing, cause. The murder this week of a Christian AID worker in Kabul is only one in a lengthening line of indicators that the west is having its already weak grip on the country unpicked. To begin this process of rethinking, the Observer’s Jason Burke, who has spent much of the last couple of years in Afghanistan has written an article based on original reporting and interviews, criticising the US and its allies for misreading their Taliban opponents:
“The first error was thinking that the Taliban are somehow not “Afghan.” Speaking to Prospect in October, David Miliband, the foreign secretary, spoke of the west’s mission to “help the Afghan people defeat the Taliban.” In Berlin in July 2008, Barack Obama said that “the Afghan people need our troops… to defeat the Taliban.” This is a dogma that has been entrenched since 2001. It forgets that the Taliban are part of Afghanistan, not an outside scourge.”
We are also lucky enough to have a related piece on what to do next in Afghanistan, from CNN terrorism analyst and fellow at the New America Project, Peter Bergen. He quotes a source describing Nato operations in the south of the country as “mowing the lawn”—”every year, Nato forces go in and clear out Taliban sanctuaries, only to have to go back the following year and cut back the new growth.” Bergen’s piece gently disagrees with Burke’s contention that the Taliban are fundamentally an Afghan phenomneon, arguing that “the Taliban are not simply an Afghan movement. They are supported by a growing cast of foreign fighters, including Arabs, Uzbeks, Punjabi Pakistanis, and even Europeans.” He then goes on to speculate about how the coalition might attempt to transplant in Afghanistan the success of both the Iraqi surge, and the related Sunni awakening movements, which many cite as the key reason for the surge’s success. Read it here.
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The debate over the trajectory of the western sociopolitical system and its strained relations with Islam is the most pivotal of our time. Muslims are in one of the most difficult phases of their history when malicious attacks including allegation of terrorism are being made on Islam and Muslims all over the world. The malicious campaign against Muslims is politically motivated. The world is obsessed by Islam. Anti-terror measures are ruining lives of Muslim youths. If you go around arresting young Muslims, you are going to find that you are going to ostracise this community. Young Muslims don’t need to be ostracized, they need to be engaged. According to the Arch Bishop, Rowan Williams, acceptance of some facets of Sharia not only “seems unavoidableâ€, but could actually improve social cohesion. Muslims should be able to choose to have marital or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia Court. Such courts should therefore be incorporated into the British legal system as a constructive accommodation with Islam. Schools are being asked to help “win hearts and minds†in the battle against violent extremists on both sides. British born Imams should go into schools to supplement the teaching of RE, PSHE and Citizenship so that all pupils can learn about the Holy Quran and Islam in the context of a multicultural society. OFSTED must make sure that their services should be fully utilised by the schools, otherwise, it will be waste of public money.
The British Establishment is wrong to assert that Imams and Masajid have been radicalising Muslim youths. The roots of extremism are in the British society and schools where institutional racism is at its peak. The racism within schools has got little media coverage. The school attended by 7/7 bombers in a part of Leeds known for its history of racial tension between British Asians and native Brits. Leeds council was so worried about the violence that it had to call in Foundation for Peace, a government funded peacekeepers who were used to keep Catholics and Protestants from killing one another in Northern Ireland. True message of Islam should be promoted because British media and society have always portrayed Islam in a negative way since Crusades and the siege of Vienna in 1683. School Curriculum should be used to convey a deeper understanding of Islamic faith, history and culture. Prison is not the answer of those who are vulnerable to, or are being drawn into violent extremism unless they have clearly committed an offence.
The greatest challenge to humanity is learning to live in a crowded and interconnected world that is creating unprecedented pressures on human society. The rector of Oxford’s largest Anglican Churches has called a Muslim call to prayers from the main Masjid “un-Englishâ€. This is a clear case of intolerance. Gibraltar is a British colony. Five Pound currency note has a queen image on one side and on the other side there is an image of the Muslim Conqueror with a sword in his hand. There is more hatred of Muslims seduced by the Western media, education system and church leaders like Bishop Nazir Ali. Catholic nuns have worn veils for centuries, with no public controversies arising. There is no reason why any girl’s school uniform can not now be modified to include a veil. Wearing a veil to school or to work must be a matter of choice for all.
Iftikhar Ahmad
With all my respect to Iftikhar Ahmed, I think that he totally missed the point on what Jason Burke tried to elaborate in his article about the situation in Afghanistan. Sir when Muslims payed little attention to what women should wear, and how courts mitigate and mosques not infringing private lives, all people of any faith accross the world lived side by side peacefully with their muslim co-citizens. Sir before you tackle the complex problems of racism and discrimination in Western countries against Muslims, you should first analyse and untangle the vicious circle of social plights that engulf Arab and Muslim countries. Sir, a simple visit to an Arab country will show you the heinous face of its social, economic and political calamities seen everyday in its streets. To apply for a job within police ranks you need to bribe some one high in charge, and the position is in favour for the one who payed much, to get a job in the education sector you need to have someone in high ranking to intermediate and negociate your case, not to mention religious zealots and bigots, a father has beatten and tortured his young teenage daughter for having a mobile phone, another one nearly killed his for mingling with her school mates… sir life is impossible and intolerable in our world and what I am scribling here is just the tip of the ice berg. Sir may I just ask you one quesion, would the Taliban do any thing good to better the lives of the Afghan people unlike what ordinary Arab citizens are enduring in their countries? I doubt it, for the simple reason that what one is supposed to find when referring back to their track records?, so let’s settle our deep social and economic and political problems first, meanwhile let democracy find a solution to the taliban crisis… this is not to say that we -in the middle east-might need the same too.
Of course we’ll lose in Afghanistan with the forces presently in place just as the Russians did in the eighties, though they probably would have prevailed if it weren’t for our (CIA et.al.) assistance to the mujhadeen.
Since the nuclear age wars aren’t fought aggressively enough certainly not with the fury of, say, World War II, where total war was the game and everyone and everything was the target. Though due to the inaccuracy of ordnance delivery systems then an inordinate amount of materiel was necessary to even attempt these killing missions.
If we took that (above) route and systematically destroyed everthing that was in our way to victory in Afgahnistan, the “War” there would be over in a few weeks since the local population would be either starved or outright killed by the enormous klling power that the West has at its disposal.
Fortunately for the Afghan people we aren’t politically or psychologically capable of mass killings anymore; at least so far.
For a current example of this thesis see the astounding numbers of killed perpetrated by the indigenous populations of the Congo: low estimates are 4 to 5 MILLION dead and those numberd do not account for Rwanda’s genocide where 900,000 people were hacked to death in eight weeks! With Chinese-made machetes as the UN had removed or destroyed most of their ordnance before abandoning the country.
That has got to be some kind of record?
So humanity is more than capable of slaughtering each other, it’s seems strange that the West has abandoned that methodology of subduing their enemies?
arrtist.
I am a former Army Ranger who served along the Cambodian border for fifteen month so I know the Hell of war.
“The roots of extremism are in the British society and schools where institutional racism is at its peak.”
So why is Islamic extremism a problem in Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, the Philippines, India – indeed, everywhere that Islam is? This kind of SWP/Respect position runs counter to all the facts – the key one being that Islamism is a malign and reactionary force the world over. Less, not more Islamicisation of British society is the answer – to give Islamism greater traction would be a long term disaster. The reason why ‘native British’ and media are so antipathetic to Islamist demands – whether jilbabs or high street Sharia, or doctors trying to blow up Glasgow airport or ‘dancing slags’ in nightclubs – is robust but entirely rational: it is a reasonable response to a hostile stimulus that has resulted in the kinds of societies which Abdenour elucidates.
We should be far MORE forceful in rejecting it, rather than giving it succour via Rowan Williams or the Government’s various sticking plaster solutions.
Neither less nor more Islamism, Oliver, in Britain or EU. Islamism (as other ISMs) did no good to Muslim societies from Jakarta to Casa Blanca, because it strove to impose a unilateral vision of the world on people. It (Islamism) tried to inforce a twisted reading of shar’iah rammed with political vigours throughout decades, and absurdly endeavoured to pass this as true religion (the virtual truth) that any one straying out of it will be declared an enemy of Islam ( in reality enemy of Islamism and Islamists and not Islam) hence the very legitimate act of eliminating who dare do this.
A careful reading of Islamism, one can easily find out the horrific blue prints of intrigues, deceits, spins and treachery coloured in the name of defending Islam, shari’ah..etc. Bear in mind that since the first centuries of Islam, it was no longer Islam per se but only de facto Muslim rulers and sultans using political Islam to consolidate their thrones with the power of awe and favouritism.
Britain, indeed, has a long way ahead to fully implement social justice and equality, which it nonetheless succeeded in incorporating their core values, among others, no one sane would argue that it’s Plato’s virtual city, yet to make heed and place for Islamism right there is just as foolish as the claim that the Taliban can embody a great civilisation.