Why Saudi Arabia is silent on Taliban’s Afghanistan? Lalit K Kaul
Why Saudi Arabia is silent on Taliban’s Afghanistan?
Lalit K Kaul
The suicide bomb attacks near the Kabul Airport have
raised apprehensions about the future of Afghans in their land that may get
engulfed by uncertainties of the events to follow. It remains to be seen how
the Taliban machinery brings under control the violence let loose by ISIS
Khurasan (ISISK). ISISK has taken the responsibility
for the blasts. It is not the kind of beginning that the Taliban would have asked
for, but has come to be. The administrative problems for the Taliban –facing resistance
from Panjshir Valley and the Afghans in different parts of the country – seem to
have grown many folds with the occurrence of blasts near the airport during the
evacuation process.
For the Afghans the Taliban are not welcome:
That post peaceful takeover of Afghanistan by the
Taliban witnessed exodus of hundreds of Afghans to the Kabul airport
desperately trying to leave their Motherland, is indicative of the dislike for
the new would be rulers; the women too are busy forming resistive squads
against them since they have not forgotten Taliban brutalities against them in
their earlier rule (1996 to 2001) and are not willing to trust them. The ones
who can’t afford air lift out of their Motherland are gathering in large
numbers on the borders between Afghanistan and her neighbouring countries;
maximum number being on the Afghan Pak border. Their bad luck is that no country
wants to take them as the apprehension of Taliban cadre sneaking into their
respective areas is too real to be overlooked. The borders have been sealed.
There is nothing surprising about it as the National concerns outweigh their
obligations to Ummah. This is not the first time it is happening, as history is
witness to many events which ended up puncturing Ummah balloon.
It should be interesting to see whether the Owaisis,
the Moulvis, the Communists, the Sonias, the Kejris, the Mehboobas, the
Abdullahs, the Lones and the Mamtas et al would appeal to Muslim countries to accommodate
Afghan refugees. Most certainly they will not make any such appeal, because
their activities are meant to create disturbances in the Indian society to feed
Pak propaganda machinery against India. Therefore they may agitate within in
the hope to force India into taking refugees from Afghanistan and when
certainly refused by the government to do so, label the government as communal
and being a threat to minority Muslim community; one more chance to feed
garbage to their Pak masters for them to churn it at international forums.
Bomb blasts and the US UK and EU response:
Twenty years on; the might of the US and NATO forces
could not disempower the ISIS and the Al Qaeda and ended up striking a
deal/pact/agreement with the Taliban (the Indian Media labels as terrorists)
for a safe exit to their respective lands. The two or three bomb blasts that
injured and killed the US Marines in the vicinity of the Kabul Airport have
violated the deal. That the Taliban could not protect the evacuees, will now be
the case against them; the US and their allies never showed any considerations
for the plight of the locals – post their exit- their concerns and the noises
they make about Human Rights, notwithstanding.
What shall be the US and allies response to the loss
of their citizens’ lives? Other lives never mattered for any of those great
military and technological powers. Will they bomb Afghanistan to Stone Age?
Will they retake charge of Afghanistan? Will they insist for a ‘UN Peace Keeping
Force’ in Afghanistan? If the answer is ‘Yes’ to any of the suggested
possibilities; in that situation what would be the Taliban’s response? Will
Taliban and ISISK including Al Qaeda close ranks against the ‘occupation forces”?
Only time can tell else, the Indian Media can profess as it is too good at
posting final decrees.
Why did the US leave Afghanistan in an Indeterminate
State (limbo):
According to the Pak political analysts the ostensibly
unplanned withdrawal of the US and NATO forces was not as unplanned as met the
eye. According to them, the plan was to ensure that Afghanistan remains in a
state of unrest and confounded with uncertainties so that CPEC project does not
see the light of the day and China’s dream of access to the Arabian Sea and
Central Asia for economical and geo political reasons remains an illusion.
Pakistan always clubs India’s RAW with every major or minor event that may take
place in there and now that they see India as the ally of the US to counter
China’s expansionists designs they feel free to devise a role for India in the
whole game. In a way Pakistan’s leadership and political commentators’ analysis
may be plausible because India would not like China to be her Western neighbour
given the fact that Pak is a colony of China. So geo political considerations make
India play her legitimate role and counter China in Afghanistan, but she would
never like any kind of instability in Afghanistan as she may like to offer the
Afghan government (Taliban or any other) a more attractive economic package
that counters China’s influence in the region and India has the credentials to
offer such packages to the Afghan government much to the consternation of
Pakistan.
In fact the game is on between the China and India
only if India decides to play ball and Pakistan could just be a helpless spectator.
In the mean time Pakistan is rejoicing:
Pakistan has always been in denial mode for its deeds,
once caught red handed. Pakistan has refused to accept dead bodies of her
soldiers just to be in denial mode for their unscrupulous acts. The Taliban
takeover of Afghanistan has brought such wide smiles on the faces of Pakistan
leaders that their jaws have been strained to the extent to need dentist’s
attention.
Pakistan’s leadership is convinced that Taliban shall
win Kashmir from India for them; to that extent they are giving public
statements and doing TV shows. For the ruling party leaders it does not matter
if their statements are too embarrassing for the anchors of the TV shows.
Pakistan may be better off worrying about Tehreek e Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) declaration about Durand line and liberating Pashtun dominated
areas on the Pak side of the line. Pak expects Afghan Taliban to reign in TTP,
but Taliban are not paying any heed to it.
The Foreign Minister of Pak visited Central Asian
countries to find acceptance for Taliban government, but cut a sorry figure.
Now, with the bomb blasts, Pak leadership must be running for covers to hide
their faces. Written off for the present by America and colonized by China with
all her assets mortgaged and the PM’s house to operate as function hall,
Pakistan need to worry about her state of affairs than dream liberation of
Kashmir by Taliban. Yes, Mehbooba Mufti is also rejoicing in the same hope as
are her PAGD colleagues.
It’s Geo Economics versus Rule by Sharia:
The Crown Prince Sri Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) has
chalked out Vision 2030 for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in that context is focusing
on geo economics and has been on the path of reducing tensions, if not efface
them, between his Kingdom and other sovereign nations. He has grasped the role
of ‘oil economy’ in the changing technological world and therefore has designed
plans to integrate Saudi economy with the world economy in such a way that
dependence on oil revenues can be reduced. According to him it is necessary to
do so if the Saudis have to maintain their standard of living. So it’s going to
be a nation that employs state of the art technologies to raise Saudi GDP and
raise per capita income of her people.
In the process of doing so he does not intend to shun
Sharia or Hadith or the Holy Quran, but stresses on reinterpretation of the
dictates in a way that facilitates integration with the world economy. The
author has managed to reproduce excerpts from his interview to a Saudi
journalist, as under. His views in the interview that describe his vision for
his country and her people are not compatible with the kind of administrative
set up Taliban plans to institutionalize in Afghanistan. Here are the excerpts:
CP: Crown Prince and AAM: Abdullah Al-Mudaifer
Excerpts from Full
Transcript: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman interview with Saudi journalist
Abdullah Al-Mudaifer
AAM: This
leads me to another question, namely the space Sharia occupies in the
State. Meaning, on the level of the constitution, the judiciary, the
public space, and on the level of freedoms of individuals.
CP: As I said earlier, our
constitution is the Quran, has been, still is, and will continue to be so
forever. And our basic system of governance stipulates this very
clearly. We, as a government, or the Shura Council as a
legislator, or the King as a reference for the three authorities, we
are bound to implement the Quran in some form or another. But in social
and personal affairs, we are only obliged to implement stipulations that
are clearly stated in the Quran. So, I cannot enforce a Sharia punishment
without a clear Quranic stipulation or an explicit stipulation from the
Sunnah. When I talk about an explicit stipulation from the
Sunnah, most hadith writers classify hadith based on their own
typology, like Bukhari, Muslim and others, into
correct hadith or weak hadith. But there is another
classification which is more important, namely whether a tradition
or hadith has been narrated by many people or a single narrator, and
this is a main reference for jurisprudence for deducing regulations,
Sharia-wise.
CP: So, when
we talk about a Mutawater hadith, i.e., narrated and handed
down from one group to another group to another starting with the Prophet,
PBUH, these hadiths are very few in number, but they are strong in terms
of veracity, and their interpretations vary based on the time and place
they were revealed and how the hadith was understood at the time. But
when we talk about Ahad hadiths, which is handed down from a single
person to another starting with the Prophet PBUH, or from a group to a
group to a single individual then another group etc. starting with the
Prophet PBUH, so that there’s and individual in the chain. This is
called ahad hadith. And this is broken down into many
classifications, such as correct, weak, or good hadith. And this type of
hadith, the ahad, is not as compelling as
the mutawater hadiths; the ones narrated by a chain of groups, unless
paired with clear Quranic stipulations and a clear mundane or worldly good to
be had, especially if it’s a correct ahad hadith.
CP: And this
is also a small portion of the body of hadith. While a “khabar” is a
hadith handed down from a single person to another single person etc. to
an unknown source, starting with the Prophet PBUH, or from a group to a
group, then a person to another person, and so on, starting with the
Prophet PBUH, so that there’s a missing link. This represents the
majority of hadith and this type of hadith is unreliable
whatsoever, in the sense that its veracity is not established and
that it isn’t binding. And in the biography of the Prophet PBUH, when the
hadith was first recorded the Prophet PBUH ordered those records to be
burnt and forbade the writing of hadith, and that should apply even more
so to “khabar” hadiths so that people are not obliged to implement them
from a Sharia perspective, since they also might be used as ammunition to
dispute God Almighty’s power to produce teachings that are fit for every
time and place.
CP: Hence,
the government, where Sharia is concerned, has to implement Quran
regulations and teachings in mutawater hadiths, and to look into
the veracity and reliability of ahad hadiths, and to disregard
“khabar” hadiths entirely, unless if a clear benefit is derived from it
for humanity. So, there should be no punishment related to a religious
matter except when there is clear Quranic stipulation, and this
penalty will be implemented based on the way that the Prophet PBUH applied
it. So, let me give you an example: Adultery. The unmarried adulterer
is flogged, the married adulterer is killed. And this is a clear
stipulation, but when the woman adulterer came to the Prophet PBUH and she
told the Prophet PBUF that she had committed adultery, he delayed judgment
several times. She eventually insisted and then he told her to go and
check if she was pregnant, and then she came back to him and the same
scenario was repeated. She came back to him and he told her to come back
after she’d weaned the baby. She could have not returned, but he did not
ask about her name or who she was.
CP: So, to
take a Quranic stipulation and implement it in manner other than the
manner followed by the Prophet PBUH and look for the person to prove a
certain charge against them, whereas the Prophet PBUH was approached by
the perpetrator confessing her crime and yet he treated her in that
manner, then that is not what God has ordained.
CP: And to
implement a penalty on the pretext that it is a Sharia penalty while there is
no stipulation for such a penalty in the Quran or in the mutawater hadith, then
this is also a falsification of the Sharia. When God Almighty wanted us to
punish a certain religious crime, He stipulated this clearly, and when He
prohibited a deed and promised punishment in the hereafter for doing it. He did
not ask us as humans to penalize that deed, and He left the individual the
choice knowing that there would be a day of reckoning, and in the end God is
Merciful, All forgiving except in the case of polytheism. So, this is the
correct approach for the implementation of the Quran and the Sunnah based on
our constitution and system of governance.
AAM: Do
you, Your Highness, follow a certain school of thought, like the school of
Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab? Would it be the one interpreting those texts?
CP: When we commit
ourselves to following a certain school or scholar, this means we are deifying
human beings. God Almighty did not put a barrier between Himself and people. He
revealed the Quran and the Prophet PBUH implemented it and the space for
interpretation is open permanently.
CP: If Sheikh
Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab were with us today and he found us committed blindly
to his texts and closing our minds to interpretation and jurisprudence while
deifying and sanctifying him he would be the first to object to this. There are
no fixed schools of thought and there is no infallible person. We should engage
in continuous interpretation of Quranic texts and the same goes for the sunnah
of the Prophet PBUH, and all fatwas should be based on the time, place, and
mindset in which they are issued. For example, 100 years ago, when a scholar
would issue a certain fatwah not knowing that the Earth was round and not
knowing about continents or technology, etc. that fatwah would have been based
on the then available inputs and information and their understanding of the
Quran and Sunnah, but these things change over time and are different right
now.
CP: So, ultimately
our reference is the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet PBUH, as I said.
AAM:
Clear. With regard to personal status law...Your Highness decided that that
judicial code was not suitable for us. Why did you reject that judicial code
and adopted the four systems including the personal status law?
CP: One can’t go
and reinvent the wheel. The world follows clear laws that regulate the lives of
people. Our role is to make sure all the laws passed in Saudi Arabia reflect
the following: One, that they do not violate the Quran and the Sunnah; the
Quran being our constitution, that they do not contradict our interests, that
they preserve the security and interests of citizens, and that they help in the
development and prosperity of the country. So, laws are passed based on this
procedure according to international conventions. If you want tourists to come
here... If you aim to attract 100 million tourists to create three million
jobs, and you say that you are following something new other than common laws
and international norms, then those tourists will not come to you. If you want
to double foreign investments, as if we have done, from five million to 17
million, and you tell investors to invest in your country that is running on an
unknown system that their lawyers do not know how to navigate nor know how
those regulations are applied and enforced, then those investors will just cut
their losses and not invest all together. When you want to attract certain
talents and human resources to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and say that
you have a new invention for enacting laws, no one will come to you. So, you
will have to adopt the laws that are internationally recognized based on your
constitution, the Quran, and your interests and objectives and based on the
preservation of the security and interests of the citizen and with the
development and prosperity of the country in mind.
Even though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was as much
instrumental as Pakistan and the US in creation of the Taliban yet in the
changed world scenario that is governed by the concerns of geo economics the
Crown Prince has a dilemma at hand.
It may be reasonable to think that Sri MBS may be
waiting for an opportune time to engage with the Taliban on the issues of the
governance of a modern nation state and its integration with the world economy
that precludes absolute dependence on just one or two countries. Crown Prince
has the religious authority, as derived from being the de facto Head of a State
from where Islam was born and hosts holiest of shrines, to, may be, counsel the
Taliban on how they may reconcile their Sharia doctrine with the world order in
order to gain acceptability from the comity of nations.
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