If there is any trouble it is all your fault
And of course now that the news is out, clerics are talking disgusting nonsense about Kambaksh and what he did.
Maulavi Hanif Shah Hosseini, a prominent mullah, declared: “Kambaksh committed a crime against the Koran and the people who conspired so that he escaped the law have also committed a crime. All the decisions to help this man who disrespected Islam are coming from the foreigners…We are going to call for a gathering of the ulama to decide what to do…[A]ny trouble will be the fault of people who helped Kambaksh.”
A crime against the Koran – that’s an interesting notion of a possible crime, right there. It presumably means something like ‘disagreeing with some tenet of Islam as laid down in the Koran.’ So, one, it’s a crime to disagree with any tenet of Islam as laid down in the Koran, and two, doing so is a crime against the Koran. So…that makes it pretty risky to do anything at all, in case whatever it is you do turns out to be in disagreement with some tenet of Islam as laid down in the Koran. It certainly makes it insanely risky to do anything that might imply disagreement with the surrounding status quo if you live in a place where the surrounding status quo is supposed to be and assumed to be in conformity with all the tenets of Islam as laid down in the Koran. So, welcome to the 7th century, we’re going to stay here forever.
Qari Rahmatullah, MP for Kunduz, said: “This just shows that our country is not independent. Our policies are dictated by outsiders. Why should a man be allowed to insult Islam and then just walk away?” … Muqbullah Ali, a 46-year-old labourer, was adamant that: “This is a very bad thing and it is not good for the country, those responsible cannot just walk away as if nothing had happened. If our religious leaders now ask us to take some action then I shall do so.”
And any trouble will be the fault of people who helped Kambaksh.
From the link:
“Conservative and religious groups in Afghanistan reacted with fury yesterday to the news that Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death for promoting women’s rights, has been freed.”
This comes hot on the heels of General McChrystal’s statement that a new strategy is needed in Afghanistan.
Within reason, it would appear to me that good starting point would be the old dictum of Mao: “Oppose what the enemy supports, and support what the enemy opposes.”
As maintenance of female illiteracy and general oppression is a major Taliban objective, protection of women while they are learning to read should be fundamental to NATO’s strategy. Once women have been taught basic skills of literacy and numeracy, these cannot be taken away from them except by death. Make the literacy widespread enough and this becomes impossible and counterproductive, even for the benighted Taliban.
As a result of 9/11, George W. Bush made the Afghan War primarily a search-and-destroy operation against the Taliban. This strategy has not succeeded, and is up for review. Military protection with whatever necessary and concomitant economic support for the women who have not been intimidated would appear to be a good way to go. The war can never be won if the Islamist oppression of Afghanistan’s women is left intact, regardless of what the Koran might say on the subject.
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