The arrest of eight foreign aid workers in Afghanistan last week on charges of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity has drawn attention once again to the cruel record of the Taliban regime. Afghanistan is suffering chronic problems that have brought the country close to famine and is in dire need of international aid and assistance. But the Taliban, once again, appear to be shutting the door on international help. Shelter Now was running soup kitchens and bakeries and built mud houses for the poorest of people. However, in a country devastated by three years of drought and 20 years of civil war, the Taliban are more intent on imposing their own moral strictures, based on a narrow and rigorous interpretation of the Koran and Islamic religious law.
The Taliban's treatment of women and members of religious minorities is based on the mullahs' strict interpretation of sharia. Women have been forced to abandon their education and withdraw from working life. The 1,500-year-old colossal Buddhist statues of Bamiyan, part of the world's cultural heritage, were destroyed to suppress "idolatry". Hindus have been forced to wear distinctive clothing in a chilling reminder of Nazi edicts demanding Jews wore a Yellow Star.
Many Muslim scholars argue that the Taliban are giving Islam a bad name. Freedom of religion is an accepted principle in most Muslim societies, even Iran, for the Koran proclaims: "There is no compulsion in religion". And yet the Taliban's actions have evoked sympathy in many Muslim societies where proselytism is illegal. It still remains unclear whether the foreigners face trial or deportation, but the arrests are a sign that the hardline elements in the Taliban are flexing their muscles once again, while the so-called "moderates," mostly within the Foreign Ministry, have kept a safe distance from the controversy.
The present stand-off once again leaves Afghanistan's people isolated from the West, when they are in desperate need of assistance. But it is also damaging for relations between Islamic societies and the West, and can only help to foster prejudices against Islam and its followers, for prejudice created in one region can have damaging consequences globally. Last week, the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines reached a compromise with the Manila government, while the turbulence in Israel and the West Bank demonstrates how the mainly-Muslim Palestinians need an understanding ear in the West, unhindered by prejudice. The Taliban have done nothing to help the West either to understand Muslims or to prepare to live in harmony with Islamic societies.