My heart is so sad at the Afghan Crisis, but I still feel compelled to write a blog to mourn the continuing death and destruction of so much in this ancient land of tribalists that has resisted so many superpowers going all the way back to the British Empire. There is so much to admire about their tenacity and strength. There is so much to fear if they make a U-turn against modernity which is here to stay.
I asked my Sufi teacher what we can do to help the Afghan Crisis. He repeated Prophet Mohammed’s teaching that act if you can, speak out if you can and if that fails, just witness and grieve. One of our mosque members mentioned a 17-year-old that fell from a plane- he did not want to stay in a Taliban ruled country because he felt that it was as if someone would “eat his face”. He mentioned a 3-year-old boy who was taken out of the country, while his parents remained behind crying out for help in finding him again. We see the suffering and we pray and we cry for all.
The mind cannot grasp the situation, the cruelty of all parties involved, one evil outdoing the other. The heart can only bleed and feel sad. Whatever little we can do to help seems futile and yet we must stay in action that is in our control.
As Western Muslims, we feel a fatigue as one Muslim country after another is destroyed from within and without. There is always some political speculation or explanation as to why that had to happen, and why superpowers and arms suppliers had to get involved. Nobody asks how deadly arms that get into the hands of the ignorant or the angry? What if we supplied peace talks and aid instead of deadlier force with increasing collateral damage? What a legacy that would be to aspire to, one that I hope our youth will embrace Inshallah!
My friend Daisy Khan calls them Taliban lite, and I pray that they have learned a lot about what it takes to govern and run a state in the 21st century. I pray that they will honor women’s rights and development; I pray that they will not engage in revenge killings; and I pray that they accept the current world rule of materialism and capitalism and somehow integrate it with their religious beliefs and spiritual needs. I truly honor their desire to re-introduce spirituality and meaning in our lives with modernity has stolen. Even in the West, post-modern movements are trying to bring back the beauty of spirituality back as it has been erased from the public sphere. But it has to be done keeping in mind Islamic values of dignity and respect for all, and the Western freedom for the individual, e.g. to engage in the arts or other forms of expressions without fear from the rulers and their view of what religion ought to be. I was saddened to hear that the Afghan Orchestra had to destroy all their instruments. As my Sufi teacher said: When they impose their subjective view of religion on others, they are violating a basic tenet of Islam, which is that “there is no compulsion in religion”. I stay sad yet optimistic that a transformation will occur that will take place after all the suffering Afghanistan has had to endure at the hands of not one, but two superpowers; may they rebuild a peace-loving society that controls its own destiny and its own resources for its own people.
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