Fury as Karzai Plans Return of Taliban's Religious Police--Independent

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//The Independent, UK Published: 17 July 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article1181612.ece



FURY AS KARZAI PLANS RETURN OF TALIBAN’S RELIGIOUS POLICE

By Tom Coghlan in Kabul



The Afghan government has alarmed human rights groups by approving a plan to reintroduce a Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the body which the Taliban used to enforce its extreme religious doctrine.



The proposal, which came from the country's Ulema council of clerics, has been passed by the cabinet of President Hamid Karzai and will now go before the Afghan parliament.



"Our concern is that the Vice and Virtue Department doesn't turn into an instrument for politically oppressing critical voices and vulnerable groups under the guise of protecting poorly defined virtues," Sam Zia Zarifi of Human Rights Watch said. "This is specially in the case of women, because infringements on their rights tend to be justified by claims of morality."



Under the Taliban the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice became notorious for its brutal imposition of the Taliban's codes of behaviour.



Religious police patrolled the streets, beating those without long enough beards and those failing to attend prayers five times a day. Widows suffered particular hardship because of the diktat that women be accompanied by a male relative when out of their homes, an impossibility for thousands of women widowed during decades of war.

MORE

[LynnTheDem]

1. "Afghanistan is a role model for Iraq"

Yep sure is, bushie; total FUBAR all the way round.

[saigon68]

26. The "MAYOR OF KABUL" caves in to pressure

[partylessinOhio]

2. Everything falling apart at the same time. So much for good news.

[megatherium]

3. I need to be reminded that Islam isn't really an intolerant, repressive

religion. This week, there is going to be an international demonstration on the anniversary of the Iranian execution of two gay teenagers.
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/06/global_protests.html

[Igel]

6. Some Islams are.

Some aren't.

[LostinVA]

21. Muslims?

[soothsayer]

14. Mohammed didn't intend it to be. Women had equality in his

world view.

[Cerridwen]

18. No more so than

Christianity is intolerant or repressive when practiced by those who follow the teachings of Christ; rather than the intolerant and repressive way in which dominionists and "old testament" "christians" (who do not recognize what I've heard to have been Christ's role as the embodiment of a "New Covenant" which was to displace the old covenant of the Old Testament) practice their interpretations of religious texts.

I use Christianity here as an example because as Americans, we are, in general, more familiar with Christianity than Islam.

I should make note here, I am not a Christian of any stripe. My understanding of Jesus' teachings is in direct conflict with what is being marketed today as "christianity;" neo-con, right-wing propaganda that paints Christianity as a hate-filled, intolerant and repressive religion.

I know even less about Islam, but seeing what is marketed as Christianity in the U.S. versus my (rather limited) understanding of Jesus' words, I can only guess that the corporate smear machine is alive and well as to the tenets of Islam as well.

Note to Christians reading this: please know, I have no intent to slam or bash Christianity in this post. I was simply using a "known" factor in order to provide a common frame of reference.

[noonwitch]

20. No problem, here, I'm a christian who agrees with you

I always laugh when I read the comments of christian fundamentalists complaining that the Koran advocates violence against infidels. Have they read the Old Testament lately? Jehovah is a bloody God if you take it all at face value, leading the armies of Israel into wars, commanding various generals and leaders to slaughter whole cities, etc. Then there is the law as laid down in Leviticus, Numbers and Deutoronomy, which spells out death penalties for various offenses, such as stoning urban date rape victims if they don't scream for help, or killing animals as a sacrifice to God, and so on. I'm not going to even get into the times that God tells the Israelites to slaughter men, women and children in various cities, and to cut the children out of wombs of pregnant women, to ensure that both are dead. Or the times that the women and children aren't killed with the men, but kept as slave labor, as the OT justifies slavery.

[Cerridwen]

23. Thank you for saying so.

So many of us have had our sensitivities and defenses amped up so high on the topic of religion, that I generally don't even post to anything about religion. I miss the days when we could sit around and compare our religious beliefs or lack thereof without worrying that someone's car would get keyed or someone's house vandalized or someone get hurt. The neo-cons have done more than damage the political arena, they have begun to unravel the social fabric of our country.

[Matilda]

4. Karzai was always a puppet anyway.

Except now it looks as if he's less a puppet of the U.S. and more a puppet of the Taliban. I guess
that tells us which way the wind is blowing.

[AnOhioan]

7. Karzai is now betting on a different horse...makes one wonder

about the race.

[The Wielding Truth]

13. It always seemed like Karzai had his country as his priority and if US is

not careful he could turn against us, if we turn out to disappoint him and don't support him.He has been holding things together with tons of pressure from the poppy growers. From the interviews I have seen with him he has been putting his life on the line and he is a
leader who works for the people.If he is a puppet it is to further progress in Afghanistan.

[JerseygirlCT]

17. Which people might that be? Women?

Yeah, they stand to do quite well under a resurgence of the Taliban.

There's no way to play this as a noble, populist gesture. It's the return of gov't enshrined hate disguised as "morals".

[LostinVA]

29. You got it, JerseygirlCT

[The Wielding Truth]

30. All I'm sayin Jerseygirl is "Give the Guy a Friggin' bone".

Did you catch this from the article?

Western diplomats have reacted with unease to the proposal. However, several told The Independent that they believed the move was partly designed to defuse Tali ban propaganda which accuses the Karzai government of being un-Islamic.

"This is an Islamic republic and sharia is a part of the constitution," one diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "If it is constitutional and within the framework of the International Convention on Human Rights then it could represent a public information victory for the government."

So...

Karzai came out when no one would and he needs support.It may not look like perfection for human or women's right, but negotiating with snakes can be harder than we know.For once I think someone is on top because they have the "right stuff",so watch him lead and wait a little longer. He needs to win over the old school fundies. With a lot of support it could happen.He could get killed or he could lead his countrymen and women into a free-er (yet continued islamic) state. Sometimes freedom comes in on revolution and death other times is is pursued,crafted,and won in peace and negotiation.

[tanyev]

5. The fundies are just chomping at the bit until they can develop

something similar here.

[Zhade]

8. KandR

NT!

[daleo]

9. I didn't think we were likely to change Afghan culture, through invasion

At least not that quickly. It looks like the west is running into the same roadblocks as the Soviets did. I can't imagine western troops morale being too high, if they discover they are fighting to maintain a Department of Virtue and Vice much like that under the Taliban.

[Roy]

10. Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice

Golly... Where can we get one???

Now who can we get to head this new organization??

[MidwestTransplant]

12. Dr. Dobson

I am sure the Taliban and he agree on much.

[MidwestTransplant]

11. Perhaps a good name for a new FCC type agency.

[killbotfactory]

15. Awesome!

Freedom is on the March!

[acmavm]

16. Well george, here's another fine mess you've gotten us into. Maybe if

you would have 'stayed the course' in Afganistan and didn't let your pathetic and immoral greed get the best of you, you might not have come out in favor of dropping the ball here and going into Iraq. You might have stood up to the oil companies and Dick and Donald and Dougie and Wolfie and Richard and Michael and said, as you're so fond of saying, "I'm the Decider and I've decided we'll clean up this mess and find bin Laden and try to make the world a little safer." But no, your boys had Iraq in their sights, actually for years, and you went out just like a good little sock puppet and pimped their war for 'em. That way you got to be the War pResident and they got to rail the US Treasury. The whole g.w. bush** experience could be summed up like a television show. It would be called "Pimp My War".

But we all know what a weak and venal little piece of shit you are, so now all the American's who've died here Afganistan have died for nothing. Nothing because like the Who said "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

[wordpix2]

19. so now the poppy growers & Taliban have taken charge---& we went to Afghan

istan for what, again?

Oh, yes, for OBL, who we are no longer hunting for, by decree of the imbecile King George W.

[LostinVA]

22. And how many American soldiers have died?

And innocent Afghanis?

[xchrom]

24. oh goody! i just know that afghani women were missing

the good old days of the taliban.

now they can legally be dragged out in the street and shot again or something like that -- ain't life grand?

gimme that ol'time religion!

[truebrit71]

25. "Spreading Democracy" one oppressed person at a time...

...not surprising really...Meet the new boss, same as the old boss....after we simply hung a "Under New Management" sign out front of Abu Ghraib and then merrily continued the torture and rape, did anyone REALLY think that anything was going to change in Afghanistan? For MONTHS we have been told that the ONLY safe place in that country was the capitol, and then only during daylight hours...

At what point will the American populace finally fucking get it through their thick fucking skulls that this "war on terra" is a complete and total fucking farce?

I hope it won't be when it's too fucking late....It might be too late already...

[cyberpj]

27. Evangelicals will want one of those here next. Don'cha think? nt

[Vinca]

28. I'm so proud we brought them democracy. nt