Only by establishing a secular state, Afghanistan can solve its historical crisis. Secularism – the separation of religion and state – is the primary condition for people becoming the masters of their political destiny. Modernity proclaims that human beings, individually and collectively as societies, make their own history. That requires a rupture with the premodern worldview that God controls human destiny.
In Afghanistan, like anywhere else in the world, establishing secularism is a necessary step for adopting modern politics, where people have the opportunity to determine their political destiny.
However, theocracies are against the idea that human beings can legislate their political destiny. In the literal sense, theocracy means the government of God. In practice, it is a government of those who speak in the name of God. Hence, in the Islamist concept of the Islamic state, God himself is the Sovereign, and by the authority inherent in God’s laws, people are condemned to the tyranny of those who speak in His name.
The concept of the Islamic state is a modern phenomenon. It was developed in the 20th century by an Indian Islamist who later moved to Pakistan in order to establish an Islamic state there. Abu Ala Mawdudi (1903-1972) defined Islam as a comprehensive, all-encompassing “system,” which has divinely ordained laws and a system of government. Inspired by modern Western political philosophy, discussing modern concepts, Mawdudi argued that only an Islamic state based on Sharia is legitimate. He advocated that it is the duty of believers to establish an Islamic state, and it is the duty of the Islamic state to implement God’s laws.
Building on Mawdudi’s theory and further radicalizing it, Sayed Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian Islamist, asserted that sovereignty belongs exclusively to God, not to people. He argued that society is either ruled according to God’s sharia or it is Jahiliya, meaning “ruled by ignorance.” According to this theory, all man-made laws are Jahiliya. Thus, true believers must take it upon themselves to establish God’s sovereignty and implement God’s laws. Mawdudi and Qutb’s innovation – making the Islamic state theologically integral to Islam – is a recipe for permanant war, which provides the zealots and the criminal elements an ideological and political veneer under which to mobilize and wreck societies.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban movement is the political crop of Mawdudi and Qutb’s teaching. The Taliban aim to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan, but like most other Islamists they have an internationalist ambition. The title they use for their leader is Amir-ul-Mumineen, commander of the faithful, meaning the leader of the entire Muslim world. This title, like that of “Caliph,” given to the leader of ISIS, signifies that the Taliban leader claims to be the leader of the Muslim umma (all Muslims of the world) and, thus, the sole legitimate political authority in the world. It is based on their core philosophy, that they can never abandon the idea of global jihad. Although Taliban diplomats are constantly asserting that they want “positive relations” with other countries, at the same time, Taliban ideologues, including their supreme leader, regularly reiterate that their jihad must continue until “the entire world is under an Islamic system.”
Theocracies are tyrannies. They demand complete subservience, with no room for dissent. The only voice allowed is the one that promotes and serves the purpose of building the theocracy. The Taliban Amir-ul-Momineen is the sole and unquestionable political authority in Taliban politics. The religious merit of the Taliban movement rests on following this leadership, who is the primary source of elaboration and implementation of God’s laws. Anyone who opposes the Taliban leader’s declarations and rule is considered an enemy of God’s law. To make this explicitly clear, the Taliban leader has decreed that public criticism of the Taliban government is forbidden. Criticism can only be whispered to the ears of the officials.
To justify their theocratic tyranny, the Islamists talk about the “specificity” of Islam and Muslim societies, which, according to them, cannot accept the separation of religion from state. Yet, the majority of the world’s Muslim population live in secular states and do not support political projects designed to establish Islamic states; the majority of Muslims do not see a contradiction between their adherence to Islam and living under modern, accountable states with laws that ensure their social and material well-being; and the majority of Muslims, by their practice, are more in tune with the teachings of Egyptian scholar, Shaikh Ali Abd al-Raziq (1888-1966), who stated that “Islam is a religion, not a state; a message, not a government.” For most Muslims, the functions of state and religion are different. Religion is for spiritual well-being and the afterlife, while the function of the state is to provide and assure the stability and material prosperity of society.
In fact, secularism is a guard against the ruse of those who speak in the name of God to monopolize political power and disenfranchise the people. By virtue of separating religion from the state, secularism allows for establishing an accountable political system based on scientific reason and people’s social and political needs. True social peace and liberty are only possible under a state that is religiously neutral and does not discriminate between religions. Only such a state can allow for the creation of a society in which all citizens feel secure, equal, and respected.
Since the Islamists took over the Afghan state in 1992, their efforts to establish hegemony have caused immense pain and suffering to the people of Afghanistan, as well as its cultural and moral degradation. As a result, “Afghanistan” became synonymous with war, religious fanaticism, violations of human rights, atrocities against women, suffocating repression, poverty, and mass migration. The Islamists have transformed the country into hell for the people and heaven for extremists. They have regularly orchestrated carnivals of barbarity and blamed God and the culture of the people of Afghanistan for it.
Now with the Taliban Islamic Emirate in power there is an urgent need to discuss the necessity of struggle for a secular state in the search for a post Taliban Afghanistan, in which the people of Afghanistan are masters of their political destiny.
Hamayon Rastgar is the communications and research officer at Zan Times.
