A look inside the Taliban

ISIS, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are rivals in control of Muslim people and their government. They have ideological differences. ISIS wants to have worldwide control of Muslims. The Taliban wants to be the government of Afghanistan and enforce strict Sharia law. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, is a terrorist organization and has established terrorist training camps to bring together terrorists from all over the world, train them in tactics and methods, and send them back to their home countries to overthrow non-Muslim governments.

Bringing history forward, the Taliban has roots in its conception in 1994 as a militia, known as mujahedeen, who, in the 1980s, fought invading Soviet forces. Then, in 1996 it formed “The Totalitarian Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” which was its first government and imposed Islamic law in the country. These Sunni Islamists wanted to remove any foreign influence from Afghanistan and women had to be covered from head-to-toe and were not allowed to travel alone. In addition, non-Islamic holidays were banned, as well as television and most music.

That all changed in 2001 when U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11 attack on the United States that killed more than 2,700 Americans. The attack prompted President George W. Bush to initiate the “War on Terror” and war in Afghanistan. In November that year, U.S. forces pushed Taliban fighters out of Kabul and Jalalabad, and in December, Kandahar, their last stronghold.

During the War on Terror, from 2001 to 2011, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9-11 attacks, became the subject of an international manhunt with a $25 million bounty on his head. He was hunted down and found in Pakistan, where he was shot and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011.

From 2002 to 2021, the Taliban became an insurgency that waged war against the U.S. and allied forces and the new Afghan government. They recently started their second government in Kabul after taking control of most of Afghanistan as the Americans withdrew.

It is well-funded and considered mega-rich with income from opium production, mining, extortion, exports and taxation of a 2.5% wealth tax on all income called “zakat” and 10% tax on every step of opium production, known as a “value-added tax” in a manufacturing process.

As history was in the making, there were daily news reports of activity at the Kabul airport, where many American citizens and Afghans who helped the Americans during the war were waiting for flights out of the country. We followed these stories and found that the Taliban imposes callous, shameful and despicable acts on Afghani people, especially those who helped Americans during the war.

Islamic law violates human rights and holds severe punishment to those who defy compliance. However, the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” affirms that “recognition of the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all human family members is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.” Let’s hope the Taliban recognize this.

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Jack Evensizer of Dalton Gardens is a regular contributor to The Press.