Dawn.com invites its readers to debate current affairs in this forum.
The United States’ new Afghanistan policy focuses on targeting Al Qaeda and ensuring that attacks against the West are stopped. As part of the new strategy, the US is planning to engage Taliban militants who have comparatively moderate views and are willing to lay down their arms.
According to US National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones, moderate Taliban include those militants who are willing to participate in the political process ‘without violence and without terror and without causing breaches in the security of either [Pakistan or Afghanistan].’
How would you define a ‘moderate’ Taliban? Is there such a thing as a militant with moderate views? Do you think the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan are in a position to distinguish between ‘moderate’ Taliban and more hard-core militants? Does the new US strategy provide an effective framework for thinking about militancy?
There is no such thing as a moderate Taliban as several people have already stated…the so called “moderate” taliban that the government and USA refer to are those who have gotten tired of the constant fighting and just want to take a break.
As soon as they have rested and regrouped they will be back at it and we will be having the same conversation after a while.
These people can not be negotiated with for the simple reason that the fight is not about land, resources, money etc. etc. this is a religious fight as far as they are concerned, they seem themselves as Allah’s soldiers, implementing his will on earth…once someone reaches that point of view, negotiation or compromise is impossible, to do so is to against the will of Allah and for that reason they may agree to a ceasefire from time to time but thats only a smoke screen to regroup, recruit and prepare for a new assualt.
As for the people of Pakistan, who have rejected religious parties in all elections, except for the ones rigged in their favor by the military it does not matter what they think. The fact is that people with guns and the will to use them will always be able to enforce their will on the unarmed.
Swat and the military’s embarrassing capitulation there is just the first step, they will keep spreading and we will keep on giving them more space for the simple reason that they have guns and are more than willing to use them indiscriminately on us all.
Dear Pakistani Friends, Please do understand, we Indians are not your enemies rather we wants Pakistan to be a healthy, educated society. Please look around you, you can see your enemies at your door step. Please put pressure on your military to disarm them and stop providing other facilities. We Indians are busy with education and nation building activities. We are sorry for your present condition at home. Awake and join hands with India to eliminate these evils.
Moderate Taliban are those to whom Pak Govt can negotiate to bring peace in those areas like FATA, SWAT & other tribal areas as war has never been the solution in those parts since the beginning of this world. As those people are less educated and react strongly to any confrontation and can only be treated with love and not by war. So Pak Govt needs to find such people to bring peace to those areas. And we should not listen to US and all other people including our own people who even don’t know the history of these people and are making comments about them.
It is high time that the Law makers and the opposition parties in Pakistan decide on two things:
1.Denial will lead to destruction.
2.No one is your enemy. Who can be an enemy of a poor struggling third world! Neighbour included!!
If we can live on US aid for all these years, it is a matter of great irony seeing statements against USA.
Why is that Pakistan has to serach almost every day what Islam means? Is it not strange that all the people have their own definition of one great religion?
So allow, and co-operate with the rest of the world.Try to upgrade the standard of the people, denounce poverty..Educate people, be broadminded, shun religious hypocrisy.
Moderate talibans may be called which are bound to cooperate will religious elements because of poverty, joblessness, otherwise there are hardcore religious extremists prepared by our religious schools and others are criminals, chechan and Uzbek which have run our of their countries to get training or wanted their Governments at home.
A moderate taliban is one who understands the basic teaching of Islam in a true sense.
He agrees to coexist with other religions and sects of Islam peacefully.
He believes in settling issues with meaningfull discussions & dialogue rahter than enforcing his agenda by killing innocent people.
He is ready to adjust in today’s moderan world instead of living in primitive ages environment.
I do not have any formal educational training of Urdu or Persian language. I have learned and conceptulised the language by listening to Radio Pakistan.
I believe word “Talib” means student. Word “Taliba” means female student. Finally, word “Taliban” is plural of word “Talib”. This makes me to believe that word “Taliban” means “Students”.
Students are like soft cherries and can be moulded into different things; they can be used for some constructive puposes.
There is nothing wrong with these students (Taliban), something is positively wrong with teachers of Taliban.
Teachers please grow up and give positive direction to your Taliban ( Students).
Muddlehead :
In childhood I read a Poem called muddlehead.
The Protagonist of the poem for excitment and novelty starts calling a socks as umbrella ,
a sheep as a wolf and so forth. In the begining it is fun but in the end this man looses touch with reality. Isn’t that tragic.
Today Pakistan is also playing with semantics. Here smart people have devised words which have Poly-distorted meanings.
The word change in chinese has symbols that is also used for pain/danger. This sort of polymorphism in language shows the maturity of a culture. But in Pakistan
words like Jihaad and Taliban have been more abused than used. The litmus test of a rascal is that he ( there are hardly she rascals and that gives me hope) usese it for opposite meaning when you use it for the other.
Today Three NGO Teachers have been killed by Talibs. I ask what sort of students are they who are killing the Teachers?
So there is no extreme and moderate talibaan. It would be good if we fix our dictionaries and say that Talibaan means a Thug and use words like shagird for a student.
The only familar common institutions are religion and culture. The Taliban know that and have “impressed” far too many law abiding citizens with their simplistic devotion, if not their methods. Why?
People are seeking an alternative to 60 years of failed civilian institutions. Education, Health Care, Law and Order, Housing, safe drinking water, sanitation etc. Some way of living, packaged and managed with deep religous and cultural practices, can appeal to millions of the down and out.
Floggings, rape, trading females, honour killings etc. were not invented by the Taliban. They are just reviving these ancient prctices for mass use, as a deterrent in the modern world. Swat was one victorious step up the ladder in this direction. Islamabad is the ultimate trophy, but they know they need to test the will and courage of the people that are hooked on being “modern”.
Are there are enough modern resistors ready to fight to prevent this?
I have been reading Dawn for a couple of weeks now, mainly to try and get an insight of the educated Pakistani’s line of thought about talibanisation and terrorism. To my great relief and pleasant surprise, I find the educated Pakistani understands the problem and is ready to face it. The comments in the article fill me up with confidence of some kind. Thank you. May peace be with us all.
A common mullah in our street mosque is an example of moderate Taliban while extremist Talibans are those who kill innocent Muslims and non-Muslim using Islam as a shield.
Moderate Taliban is an oxymoron.
A moderate can never become a Taliban. One has to have an extremist fundamentalist world-view to be one.
To believe in existence of moderate Taliban is simply to delude oneself that there is some short-cut or an easy way out in the battle against a menace which requires nothing short of an all-out and long drawn out frontal assault.
The first thing that should be asked from the Taliban is that do they really know what Islam is? They are a bunch of ignorant people who are more influenced by their culture rather than Islam. These are the forces that are making the life of common Muslim miserable. They do not know what Islam really is. The Taliban’ only follow they so called Maulvis who themselves have no awareness. The Taliban’s love to torture women. Islam condemns all these ill-doings. The concept of “Jihad” is being exploited by these barbarians.
Yes!!! there is indeed a “Moderate Taliban” and it is as real as a non-venemous cobra or a vegetarian tiger.
all you intelligent people out there, wake up, and get out of your denial mode. A “Moderate Taliban” is an oxymoron. It simply doesnt exist. Searching for a Moderate Taliban is as elusive and fruitless as searching for an “Extremist Sufi”. The Taliban represents a group that follows the Wahabi-Salafi interpretation of Islam which involves a pedantic and senselessly rigid interpretation of the Holy Quran and the Hadits. This school ensures that adherents of Islam are incapable of of coexisting in diverse multi-cultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies. They draw up the world into “Dar-Ul-Uloom” and “Dar-Ul-Harb”. Their ideology proposes to convert the “Dar-Ul-Harb” or the land of war where muslims are in a minority and not the ruling class into one where the minority must strengthen itself and take over the country and thereby make it Dar-Ul-Uloom. The perception of a “Dar-Ul-Aman” or the land of peace where people from all faiths live in harmony and equal rights is lost on these people.So, brothers and sisters of Pakistan…. stop wasting your time searching for the “Moderate Taliban” you might as well be searching for Alice lost in wonderland, and the probablity of finding her is far greater that finding the “Moderate Taliban”. Instead get out of your denial mode and takes these people for what they are. The Taliban are as much Muslims as the Nazis were Christians. Criticising and decimating the Taliban would never be an act of war agianst Muslims or Islam. On the contrary, turning a blind eyes towards the bohemian ideology and actions of the Taliban would infact defame Islam and Muslims as the Taliban does what it does in the name of Islam.
Perhaps one can use the example of the Sri Ram Sena who roughed up girls they saw drinking in a pub. To be conservative and feel it is not right for people to be hanging out in pubs maybe “Moderate” but beating them is definitely not right. The conservatives should be taught how to protest and convey their ideas and cause social change in a peaceful manner using democratic means rather than violence. Having said that many of these militants are psychologically beyond help.
There is always a silent majority that is misused and misrepresented by a vocal homophobic minority. Be it the BNP in the UK, the VHP in India or the countless militant organisations in Pakistan. These people hide behind popular resentment of a group of people, playing on their insecurities to further their political interests. Statistically, 3% of teh general population in any society has serious mental problems and about 2% have significant criminal tendencies. Therefore in a nation of 175 million people, there are more than 100,000 people with strong criminal tendencies and a psychotic view of life. The icing on the cake is the pakistani security establishment harnessing these people to further their narrow interests.
Indira Gandhi was killed by the sikh militancy she promoted and Rajiv Gandhi by the LTTE that elements in India helped.
The CIA helped create the Mujahideens that have struck back with venom.
The Frankenstein created by the Pakistani Army to gain strategic depth and to win a low intensity war with India has come home to devour the whole country of Pakistan
hi friends,
i am indian; in india the hatred towards pakistan has considerably gone down there is growing concern for the people of pakistan
we strongly believe that modernization of pakistan is of paramount importance
india we live democratically and are progressing at the a fast and unbelievable rate
i wish the same for pakistan
throw away the taliban at any cost because they are opposed to growth and are subjugating the youth of your country into darkness
regards
friend
Moderate Taliban are those that will
a) lay down their weapons
b) participate in peaceful elections with other parties
c) be willing to have an opposition when people do vote for them
d) be willing to sit in the opposition when people don’t vote for them
Clearly those running Waziristan, Swat, Bajaur and previously Afghanistan don’t fall in this category.
what is the goal that we are trying to achieve by differentiating among good, bad and moderate taliban? I believe – more than 85% people of pakistan are against Taliban, is it making any difference? It is a game plan of West to contain Taliban inside pakistan and Afghanistan. They are not the in the mood to eliminate this menace out of this part of the world. If they are so fond of moderate taliban, why they are not giving them asylum to West? Band-aid approach is not going to work for the long run.
‘Moderate Taliban’ – an oxymoron at the least and an optical illusion at the other end of the spectrum.
Who coined this term anyway?
why was there no protest, when Bamiyan Buddhas were blown up ?
So as long as they are hurting other people/countries/religions, is it ok ? I never heard anyone saying that Taliban are not true muslims at that time?
They could have developed those Bamiyan Buddisht places for tourist potential and invite people from all over the world to visit them ?
Taliban are hard core criminals wearing a garb of religion. Nobody should think that there is any iota of moderation in them.
It is heartening to see that a large number of Pakistanis have started realising that these taliban have nothing to do with religion. But I feel that these are educated Pakistanis with western education reading english newspapers. How much of this sentiment is reflected in the masses. I guess it is also the sentiment of all Pakistanis.
I am an Indian Muslim and feel ashamed at what the criminals in SWAT and FATA are doing. All my friends think that what has happened to the poor girl in SWAT is very shortly going to happen on every chauraha of Lahore and Karachi.
Friends, wake up, start seeing the enemy. Please read what Rauf has written in Jung today.
Moderate Taliban can only be defined by the US. However,Taliban who are willing to negotiate for peace should be encouraged to participate in the proposed peace process.
But, they have to disarm themselves first to show their sincerity.
In my opinion the combatants and the non-combatants should be re-categorized as the Taliban (innocent Islamic-students) and the militia-Taliban (hard-core)
Some hidden enemies of Pakistan might be using both types for their nefarious designs based on their ulterior motives.
Militants don’t have moderate views; they only know how to take the law in their hands and challenge the writ of the government.
The US policy to deal with the militancy is successful or not——Time shall tell.
Those who believe in criminal ideology (no education for women and killing innocent masses) cannot be moderate (which means no extremism). There may be some kind hearted persons within Taliban believers but they act like criminals when situation arises (or provoked by their leaders). Hence, It will be safer for Pakistan not to believe the idea of Moderate Taliban. Pakistan should now whole heartedly start fighting the Taliban and other religious extremists. Whole world is running towards developing new technology, Discovering cures for disease free world, good education for their kids and happier environment where as Religious extremists like Taliban are trying to spoil this. Pakistan is now affected with this so badly and it is in the hands of their leaders and people to cure this.
This is the time Pakistan and its people should start thinking who the real enemy is. They should stop spending money on developing ammunition with an idea of possible attack by India (Which India will never do by itself). Pakistan government should spend the money on better education for the millions of poor kids inside Pakistan and I am sure we can see a developed and Terrorist free Pakistan in the future.
A “moderate” Taliban is one who will do the bidding of his paymaster! When he breaks ranks with his paymaster, he becomes Taliban the terrorist! When these very Islamists helped the US to drive the Russians out of Afghanistan, they were feted for their religiosity and for ridding the world of atheists and infidels!
What has changed since then? The Islamists have developed political ambitions instead of merely religious goals as they professed during the post Russian era in Afghanistan.
It is now a battle for political power. The Army is losing the battle against the Taliban who are now well ensconced in the heart of Pakistan and finally a bankrupt economy that inflicts untold misery on the people.
He who sups with the devil will inevitably end as a meal himself!