8am: Recently, some prominent figures who were accused of corruption and suspicious acts in favor of the Taliban during the former regime have returned to Afghanistan in response to the invitation of the Taliban. Their mafia network had infiltrated from the presidential palace to the Ministries of Education, Information and Culture, Higher Education, and Hajj
The Hill: America still has a few tools to support its interests in Afghanistan but using them requires a focus beyond humanitarian relief and politically wishing the issue would disappear. Our interests are easily described: preventing attacks on the U.S. and its allies; supplying food and medical care to Afghans; supporting human rights, especially for
War on the Rocks: Based on a number of interviews with former Afghan officials, we believe that Tehran will struggle in its efforts to forge a cooperative relationship with the Taliban. Although the fight against the Islamic State in Afghanistan could create common ground, there are plenty of other pitfalls. The Taliban’s resistance to sharing
Michael Hughes: Islamabad had waited patiently for more than two decades for the Taliban to recapture Kabul and ensure Afghanistan would serve as “strategic depth” if Pakistan needed territory and resources in a war against India. The Pakistanis assumed the Taliban regime would take a hostile posture toward New Delhi, especially given India’s past support
Bloomberg: There’s a straightforward way to resolve the Afghans’ immigration status: Congress could pass an “adjustment act” that would allow them to apply for permanent status in the US after a year. The US has previously offered such adjustments to refugees from Vietnam, Cuba and Iraq. Click here to read more (external link).
8am: The title of Amir al-mu’minin has no jurisprudential justification and the Taliban do not have the required knowledge to justify their supreme leader’s title. Amir al-mu’minin means the ruler of all believers on earth. Political terminology for Muslims developed during the first three to four centuries of Islamic empire expansion. Click here to read
Foreign Affairs: For the last two decades, conventional wisdom in Pakistan held that an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban would be a boon to Pakistan’s security. Islamabad has long supported the Taliban with the understanding that the militants could help deny India—which many Pakistani officials see as an existential threat—any influence in Afghanistan. But since
Daily Sabah: The Taliban are implementing public policies contrary to Islamic Sharia law, forcing Pashtun identity in a diverse society by eliminating non-Pashtun texts and disposing non-Pashtun identity from daily life. Such provocations by the Taliban brought controversy to the existence of a cohesive spontaneous national identity, which is crucial for the survival of a
Jason Criss Howk: This week I spoke with numerous anti-Taliban groups about their approaches to liberating Afghanistan from the Haqqani-Taliban terror regime. The echoes of Fall 2001 are easy to see, but will these efforts come to fruition? That most likely depends on two major factors. First, can the Afghans unite and build a nationwide
Al Jazeera: The doctrine of ‘sovereign immunity’ is being used to insulate state violence from legal liability. What better illustration of the perversities of “justice” under colonial modernity, than the grotesquely disparate treatment of Afghanistan versus the Vatican when it comes to exacting recompense for international crimes. Click here to read more (external link).