The Taliban and Sharia

THE Taliban and Sharia

Allegations of connection to United States CIA

Although there isn’t any evidence that the CIA directly supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda, some basis for military support of the Taliban was provided when, in the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms to Afghans resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the ISI assisted the process of gathering radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviets.^[9] Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. The U.S. poured funds and arms into Afghanistan, and “by 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war.”^[10] FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who has been fired from the agency for disclosing sensitive information, has claimed United States was on intimate terms with Taliban and Al-Qaeda, using them to further certain goals in Central Asia.^[11]

The Taliban were based in the Helmand, Kandahar, and Uruzgan regions and were overwhelmingly ethnic Pashtuns and predominantly Durrani Pashtuns.^[12]

[edit]Emergence in Afghanistan

The first major military activity of the Taliban was in October-November 1994 when they marched from Maiwand in southern Afghanistan to capture Kandahar City and the surrounding provinces, losing only a few dozen men.^[13] Starting with the capture of a border crossing and a huge ammunition dump from warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a few weeks later they freed “a convoy trying to open a trade route from Pakistan to Central Asia” from another group of warlords attempting to extort money.^[14] In the next three months this hitherto “unknown force” took control of twelve of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, with Mujahideen warlords often surrendering to them without a fight and the “heavily armed population” giving up their weapons.^[15] By September 1996 they had captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.

[edit]Consolidation of power

Under the Taliban regime, Sharia law was interpreted to ban a wide variety of activities hitherto lawful in Afghanistan: employment, education and sports for women, movies, television, videos, music, dancing, hanging pictures in homes, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and beard trimming. One Taliban list of prohibitions included:

pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment that produces the joy of music, pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures, Christmas cards.

Men were required to have a beard extending farther than a fist clamped at the base of the chin. On the other hand, they had to wear their head hair short. Men were also required to wear a head covering.^[17]

Possession was forbidden of depictions of living things, whether drawings, paintings or photographs, stuffed animals, and dolls.^[17]

These rules were issued by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice (PVSV) and enforced by its “religious police,” a concept thought to be borrowed from the Wahhabis. In newly conquered towns hundreds of religious police beat offenders (typically men without beards and women who were not wearing their burqas properly) with long sticks.

Theft was punished by the amputation of a hand, rape and murder by public execution. Married adulterers were stoned to death. In Kabul, punishments were carried out in front of crowds in the city’s former soccer stadium.

Authoritative corruption and Expert Misinformation

Sharia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Shahriyār.

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Sharia (شريعة Šarīʿa; [ʃaˈriːʕa], “way” or “path”) is the sacred law of Islam. Muslims believe Sharia is derived from two primary sources, the divine revelations set forth in the Qur’an, and the sayings and example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh, or “jurisprudence,” interprets and extends the application of Sharia to questions not directly addressed in the primary sources, by including secondary sources. These secondary sources usually include the consensus of the religious scholars embodied in ijma, and analogy from the Qur’an and Sunnah through qiyas. Shia jurists replace qiyas analogy with ‘aql, or “reason”.

All Muslims believe Sharia is God’s law, but they have differences among themselves as to exactly what it entails. Modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists all hold different views of Sharia, as do adherents to different schools of Islamic thought and scholarship. Different countries and cultures have varying interpretations of Sharia as well.

Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime, politics and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexuality, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting. Where it enjoys official status, Sharia is applied by Islamic judges, or qadis. The imam has varying responsibilities depending on the interpretation of Sharia; while the term is commonly used to refer to the leader of communal prayers, the imam may also be a scholar, religious leader or political leader.

Introduction (or reintroduction) of Sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements in Muslim countries. Some Muslim minorities in Asia (e.g. India) have attained institutional recognition of Sharia to adjudicate their personal and community affairs. In Western countries, where Muslim immigration is more recent, Muslim minorities have introduced Sharia family law, for use in their own disputes, with varying degrees of success (e.g. Britain’s Muslim Arbitration Tribunal). Attempts to impose Sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence,
 and even warfare (cf. Second Sudanese Civil War).

Arab Socialist Union

Arab Socialist Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Arab Socialist Union (Arabic: الاتّحاد الاشتراكى العربى‎, al-Ittiḥād al-Ištirākī ‘l-ʿArabī; French: L’Union Socialiste Arabe) is one of a number of loosely related political parties based on the principles of Nasserist Arab socialism in a number of countries.^[1]

[edit]Egypt

The Arab Socialist Union was founded in Egypt in December 1962 by Gamal Abdel Nasser as the country’s sole political party. The ASU grew out of his Free Officers Movement. The party’s formation was just one part in Nasser’s National Charter. The Charter set out an agenda of nationalisation,agrarian reform and constitutional reform, which formed the basis of ASU policy. The programme of nationalisation under Nasser saw seven billion Egyptian pounds of private assets transferred into the public sector. Banks, insurance companies, many large shipping companies, major heavy industries and major basic industries were converted to public control. Land reforms saw the maximum area of private land ownership successively reduced from 200 to 100 feddans. A 90% top rate of income tax was levied on income over ten thousand Egyptian pounds. Boards of directors were required to have a minimum number of workers, and workers and peasants were guaranteed at least half of the seats in the People’s Assembly. The Charter also saw a shift in emphasis away from Egyptian nationalism towards Arab unity.^[1]

After Nasser’s death in 1970, Anwar Sadat quickly moved away from his radical socialist position. The first seat change occurred in 1974, with Sadat’s Infitah, or Open Door, economic policy, which allowed the emergence of a modern entrepreneurial and consumerist society. Then, in 1976, the beginning of political pluralism allowed three political platforms — left, centre and right — to form within the Arab Socialist Union. In 1978, the platforms were allowed to become fully independent political parties, and the ASU was disbanded. Many of today’s political parties in Egypt have their origin in the breakup of the ASU.

The Arab Socialist Union goals at that point reflected the following:

• There should be state control over the national economy and the public sector should establish institutions to undertake the development process.
  
• Pan-Arab nationalism should be pursued.
  
• Class struggle is not required for arab socialism.
  
• The country should be answerable to the people and run as a democracy.
  
• Commitment to religion and freedom of faith and worship are essential.
  

[edit]ASU Demise

Following the 1967 War and massive demonstrations in February and October 1969, Egypt was in a state of political turmoil, leading to raising calls for granting citizens more democratic rights and demanding self-expression for political affiliations.

Following assuming office in 1970, late president Anwar Sadat adopted the slogans of rule of law and the institutional state. In August 1974, Sadat put forward a working paper to revamp the Arab Socialist Union.

In July 1975, the Arab Socialist Union’s general conference adopted a resolution on establishing political forums within the union for expression of opinion in accordance with basic principles of the Egyptian Revolution.

In March 1976, president Sadat issued a decree allowing three forums to represent the right wing (the Liberal Socialist Organization), the center wing (Egypt Arab Socialist Organization) and the left wing (the National Progressive Unionist Organization).

These forums were later transformed into parties, forming today’s Egyptian major political parties.

During the first meeting of the People’s Assembly on November 22, 1976, president Sadat declared the three political organizations turned into parties. In June 1977, the law of political party was enacted, allowed the existence of several political parties and demonstrated the shift to a multi-party system. However the ratification of this law had not meant cancellation of the Arab Socialist Union, rather it had given the Union more powers to allow party formation.

Sayyed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini

Sayyed Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini (Persian: روح الله موسوی خمینی, pronounced [ruːhollɑːhe muːsæviːje xomeiniː]  ( listen)^{[add stress]}; 24 September 1900^[1][2] – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution and a national referendum, Khomeini became the country’s Supreme Leader—a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation—until his death.

Khomeini was a marja (“source of emulation”, also known as a Grand Ayatollah) in Twelver Shi’a
Islam, but is most famous for his political role. In his writings and preachings he expanded the Shi’a Usuli theory of velayat-e faqih, the “guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical authority)” to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists.

In the Muslim world abroad he was described as the “virtual face in Western popular culture of Islam,”^[3] known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iranian hostage crisis^[4] and his fatwa calling for the death of British citizen Salman Rushdie.^[5][6] Khomeini has been referred to as a “charismatic leader of immense popularity,”^[7] considered a “champion of Islamic revival” by Shia scholars.^[3]

Khomeini is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran^[8] and amongst his followers internationally, and Ayatollah Khomeini amongst others.^[9]

Islamic Revolution

The Islamic Revolution (also known as the Iranian Revolution or 1979 Revolution;^[
Persian: انقلاب اسلامی, Enghelābe Eslāmi or انقلاب بیست و دو بهمن) refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran’s monarchy (Pahlavi dynasty) under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah  Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution.

The first major demonstrations against the Shah began in January 1978.^[7] Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country. The Shah left Iran for exile in mid-January 1979, and in the resulting power vacuum two weeks later Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians.^[8] The royal regime collapsed shortly after on February 11 when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979,^[9] and to approve a new theocratic constitution whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country, in December 1979.

The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world:^[10] it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military);^[11] produced profound change at great speed;^[12] was massively popular;^[13] overthrew a regime heavily protected by a lavishly financed army and security services;^[14][15] and replaced a modernising monarchy with a theocracy based on Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (or velayat-e faqih). Its outcome — an Islamic Republic “under the guidance of an 80-year-old exiled religious scholar from Qom” — was, as one scholar put it, “clearly an occurrence that had to be explained.”^[16]