After a few weeks of military moves, the Taliban succeeded - Sunday, August 15, 2021 - in controlling the Afghan capital, Kabul, and entering the presidential palace, after President Ashraf Ghani fled outside the country.

What is the Taliban movement that emerged on the scene 27 years ago?

How did you form?

What are their ethnic affiliations and intellectual backgrounds?

What is the nature of its organizational structure?

Foundation

The Islamic movement for students of religious schools known as the Taliban (plural of the word student in the Pashto language) arose in the province of Kandahar (southwestern Afghanistan) on the border with Pakistan in 1994, at the hands of Mullah Muhammad Omar Mujahid (1959-2013), who wanted to eliminate the manifestations of Moral corruption, and the restoration of an atmosphere of security and stability in Afghanistan, helped by the students of religious schools who pledged allegiance to him as their emir in 1994.

ethnicity

Most of the members of the Taliban movement belong to the Pashtun nationalism, most of whose sons are concentrated in the east and south of the country, and they represent about 38% of the Afghan population, which is about 39 million people.

frame of mind

The Taliban is a Sunni Islamic movement that embraces the Hanafi school of thought, and considers the legal ruling in its doctrine as a single ruling that cannot be taken or rejected. Therefore, the implementation of the legal rulings of the Taliban - even if there are other sects or opinions that contradict them - becomes a religious duty that must be implemented.

Members of the movement learned in Deobandi religious schools (after the village of Deoband in India), and were influenced by the curricula of these schools;

Which is reflected in their style of governance.

These schools focused on Islamic sciences such as interpretation, hadith and biography, in addition to some modern sciences taught in an old, traditional way.

In these schools, the student progresses from one stage to another, starting with the primary stage, then the intermediate stage, then the higher and the supplementary stage. Finally, the student spends a year specializing in the study of hadith sciences, which is called the “Hadith Course”.

During a student’s study, his academic rank changes from one stage to another, so he is called the word “talib”, which is combined in the Pashto language with “Taliban”, which is everyone who enters school and begins educational attainment, then “mullah”, and he is the one who has come a long way in the curriculum and has not yet graduated Finally, Mawlawi, who completed the curriculum and graduated from the Hadith course, wore a turban on his head and obtained a teaching license.

Organization and leadership

The Taliban does not have a strong organization. It does not have a clear administrative structure, no regulations governing its internal affairs and programs, no programs to educate its members, and not even membership cards distributed to members for their registration.

The Taliban says that they are not a party like other parties, so they do not care about the administrative-organizational system, but rather they want to serve the whole people by activating government departments.

However, they have a semi-organizational structure represented in:

Commander of the Faithful

He is the mullah (currently he is the gift of God, the gift of God, Akhundzada), and he enjoys wide powers, is called the Commander of the Faithful, and has legal rights, so it is not permissible to violate his command, and he may not be removed unless he violates religious instructions, or is unable to carry out his responsibilities, and he remains in his position until death. .

The Movement's Central Shura Council

This council does not have a fixed number and specific members, although the movement at the beginning of its formation announced that it includes 70 members.

The Supreme Shura Council of the Taliban movement

All known leaders within the movement are considered members of this council, and there are no specific members for it.

Central Ifta House

It includes a number of scholars for their referendum on legal matters, and its headquarters are in Kandahar, the original homeland of the Taliban movement and the residence of Mullah Commander of the Faithful.

Shura councils in the states

The mullah granted wide powers to the governors, and each of them formed a shura council in which matters related to the administration of the provincial government and the Taliban movement were discussed.

Decision making method

Despite the many shura councils established by the movement, it believes that shura is a teacher, not an obligation;

Important decisions are taken by the mullah by consulting the opinions of the people of the shura, and he has complete freedom to adopt or reject the opinions of the Shura Council.

Factors of internal cohesion in the Taliban movement

The Taliban movement does not have an internal regulation regulating its affairs, nor does it have a membership system. However, it is a coherent movement from within, due to the unified intellectual background of its elements, as most of them graduated in one religious schools belonging to the Deobandi schools that oppose the renewal intellectual currents.

They are also loyal to their idea and are convinced of it, and they see working for it as a jihad for the sake of God.

The emir of the movement enjoys a kind of spiritual control over individuals who consider his violation a legitimate sin, and the absence of pivotal figures with strong influence in the movement had an impact on its internal stability, and this was also helped by the movement’s immediate penalties for violators, and a continuous change of positions so that internal pockets were not formed in The movement or centers of power, and they do not accept members of other Afghan parties, especially in senior positions and decision-making centers.

The political thought of the movement

The Taliban refuse to use the term democracy, because it "grants the right to legislate to the people, not to God."

The movement does not see the importance of establishing a constitution or regulation to organize the affairs of the state, and considers that the Qur’an and the Sunnah are the constitution of the Islamic state.

The movement considers the Commander of the Faithful to be the caliph, who is elected by the people of the solution and the contract. There is no specific period for taking the position of the Commander of the Faithful, and he is removed only in the event of disability or death or if something contrary to religion comes.

Shura, as the movement believes in it, is only a teacher and is not obligatory, and the movement pays great attention to the Islamic appearance as it envisions it, so it orders men to grow beards and wear turbans, and forbids long hair and forbids music, singing and pictures, and forbids women to work outside their home, and the bodies for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice supervise the implementation of this .

The movement does not allow the formation of new political parties, nor does it accept the existing ones, and the leader of the movement says that he rejected them because "it is based on ethnic, tribal and linguistic bases, and it is a kind of ignorant fanaticism, which has caused problems, hostility and division among people."

The position of neighboring countries

The position of the Taliban movement towards neighboring countries varies. With regard to Iran, the relationship between them has been characterized by extreme tension. The movement accuses Iran of working to export Shiite doctrine to Afghanistan and support opposition parties, while Iran accuses it of persecuting the Shiite minority there.

As for the position on India, Russia and some Central Asian countries, these countries do not hide their concern about the Taliban and are working to support the opposition.

India believes that the Taliban constitutes a strategic depth for Pakistan and opens up the Central Asian markets to it, while Russia and its allies in Central Asia fear the influence of the Taliban movement and radical Islam, and the Taliban, in turn, does not hide its hostility to these countries.

As for Pakistan, the movement viewed it as the closest and most friendly country to it, until Islamabad announced its agreement to cooperate with the United States in its war against Afghanistan following the New York and Washington bombings on September 11, 2001.

Movement achievements and intakes

The Taliban movement, like other regimes, has achieved some positives, but at the same time it suffers from some negatives.

First, the achievements:

  • Restoring security and stability.

  • Unification of the Afghan territories.

  • Eliminate administrative corruption and nepotism.

  • Resistance to moral corruption.

  • Collect weapons.

  • Elimination of the war-rich class.

  • Establishing courts and creating an administrative system in the states.

Secondly, the intakes:

  • Presenting a distorted image of the Islamic model of governance.

  • Intolerance of opinion.

  • Lack of qualified personnel.

  • Lack of interest in modern education.

The Taliban and the war with America

September 11, 2001 represented a watershed day in the history of the Taliban movement, as the United States considered Afghanistan and the Taliban movement a primary target for its revenge, after the movement refused to extradite Osama bin Laden for not providing evidence of his involvement.

Who is behind the Taliban?

There have been many analyzes that dealt with the external parties that were behind the establishment of the Taliban movement and its emergence on the scene of events. arose and evolved.

Those who attribute the movement to Pakistan are based on the tour made by the then Pakistani Interior Minister General Nasirullah Babur in southern and western Afghanistan in October 1994, during which he met leaders and officials in the provinces of Kandahar (the stronghold of the movement) and Herat, and sent a relief convoy consisting of 30 buses under the command of a colonel from the Pakistani intelligence, and the Taliban managed to rescue them after the "Gilani" group led by Mansour Agha tried to intercept them, and the name of the Taliban appeared in the international media since that day, which was following the news of the seizure of that convoy.

But what is proven is that the Taliban movement started its activity at least 4 months before that, and its emergence coincided with Pakistan's desire to obtain the support of a popular movement of the size of the Taliban, which began to gain the support of the Afghan people day after day.

Others believe that Mawlawi Fazl-ur-Rahman, the Emir of Jamiat Ulema-ul-Islam in Pakistan, who headed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Pakistani Parliament in the government of Benazir Bhutto, was the one who put forward the idea of ​​establishing the Taliban movement, and he consulted Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abd Rab-Rasul Sayyaf, and they agreed to establish it on the grounds that it is It will deal a severe blow to the forces of Hekmatyar, their archenemy at the time.

Some analysts believe that Mawlawi Fazlur Rahman was not the influential figure in what was happening in Afghanistan, and he was not able to establish a movement like the Taliban.

As for the founder of the movement, Mullah Muhammad Omar, he says that the idea arose in his mind after he thought about the rampant corruption in the state of Kandahar, where he was receiving his religious studies. They agreed to work to eradicate this corruption and pledged allegiance to him as their Emir on the 3rd of April 1996.

Psychological characteristics of the movement members

The movement’s members are distinguished by several psychological characteristics, the most important of which are stubbornness, toughness, and endurance of hardships, just like the Afghans in general and the residents of Kandahar province in which their movement originated in particular.

Perhaps the famous popular competition in the state of Kandahar, which is called "extinguishing the coals", gives an indication of this;

The competition is summarized in the players holding burning coals in their hands for a long time until they are extinguished, and the winner in this competition is the one who does not move or groan.

The members of this movement are also distinguished by the ability to bear the harshness and hardship of living, and their respect for religious scholars, in addition to sincerity to their idea and hard work to implement it, and the simplicity that characterizes their lives.

Movement prominence factors

The rapid spread of the movement and the turnout of the Afghans to it in many states, especially the southern and eastern states, were helped by several internal and external factors, including:

First, the internal factors:

  • the civil wars

The grinding civil wars that erupted between the Afghan opposition factions due to the struggle for power, and the belief of each party that it is the most deserving of the rule, have led to the collapse of the conflict.

A large number of human losses, amounting to more than 40,000, in addition to heavy material losses.

The international mediators did not succeed in putting an end to these wars, and this played an important role in the turnout of large segments of Afghans to the Taliban movement, which they saw as a way to rid Afghanistan of the scourge of those wars and restore security and stability to the country.

  • Chaos and disorder

Chaos ensued in the Afghan body after the defeat of the Soviet occupation forces. Afghanistan was divided between conflicting groups and teams, and the country's unity was threatened as a result, and the population did not have a unified force that would force them to respect the laws and abide by the decisions issued.

During the emergence of the movement, the government of Rabbani and Masoud controlled only 7 states in northern and central Afghanistan, while the former communist leader Rashid Dostum controlled 6 states in the north, and the Nangarhar Shura controlled 3 states in the east, and Ismail Khan’s administration controlled western Afghanistan, In addition to many provinces that were without any kind of administration, the Taliban movement was a hope for the Afghan people to preserve the unity of the country and prevent its internal division.

  • Moral corruption

Corruption became rampant as a result of the remnants of the communist era in Afghanistan, the rule of the communist leader Rashid Dostum in some states, and the administrative chaos that made it difficult for a certain party to fight the vices that spread in the inherently conservative Afghan society. Good in the hearts of Afghans.

  • security disturbances

Afghanistan has suffered greatly from the lawlessness of the security situation, which was represented in the hijacking of cars, especially those belonging to relief institutions, and the looting and armed clashes that took place between armed groups in crowded places, which resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries.

It also resulted in extortion of funds and the imposition of various types of royalties;

Therefore, the people wanted any authority to restore security, impose stability and prevent these violations, which paved the way for the Taliban, which was able to deal effectively with this matter until Afghanistan got rid of its effects.

  • War wealthy class

It is a class that showed signs of rapid wealth after the end of the Soviet-Afghan war due to the trade in minerals, precious stones, weapons, ammunition and scrap iron piles left by the war, in addition to the control of some officials in the funds resulting from customs and border taxes. The world, which created feelings of resentment against these people, and they wanted the Taliban to rid them of this class, and work to redistribute wealth in the country in a just manner.

Secondly, external factors:

As for the external factors, many of them combined simultaneously at the international and regional levels and prepared the ground for the Taliban movement, including:

  • Pakistan

Pakistan was seeking to cooperate with a friendly government in Afghanistan to facilitate trade exchanges between it and the Central Asian republics, and it did not find its purpose in the government of Rabbani and Masoud, which it accused of collaborating with India, and it tried to overthrow that government through Hekmatyar and Dostum, but it failed in that, when the Taliban appeared Pakistan was quick to support them and cooperate with it.

  • United State

As for the United States, its interests intersected with the interests of the Taliban. It did not prevent their emergence at first. Then, interests quickly differed after that, and the situation turned and it became one of its staunch enemies.

In the beginning, the United States wanted to strike the Afghan fundamentalism with a more fundamentalist than it, so that the arena would be vacated for a single fundamentalist group that could then subjugate it into the American political orbit.

Washington also wanted to tighten the siege on Iranian influence and prevent it from penetrating towards the east, especially the republics of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region, which contains the second largest oil reserves in the world after the Persian Gulf;

Therefore, the United States did not mind and did not stand in the way of the progress of the Taliban.

Movement goals

On November 3, 1994, after they seized the Spin Boldak district, the Taliban announced that their movement's goal is to restore security and stability and collect weapons from all sides, in addition to removing the collection centers from public roads. That robbed people of their money and violated their symptoms.

But after the movement seized a number of states and received initial acceptance among broad sectors of the Afghan people who were exhausted by the civil war, it developed its goals, to become the establishment of an Islamic government, as stated by Mullah Muhammad Omar in his speech before the scholars in Kandahar on the fourth of April / April 1996. The movement published its goals as follows:

  • The establishment of the Islamic government on the approach of the Rightly-Guided Caliphate.

  • That Islam be the religion of the people and the government of all.

  • The law of the state should be derived from Islamic law.

  • Choosing scholars and adherents of Islam for important positions in the government.

  • Uprooting nationalist and tribal fanatics.

  • Preserving the dhimmis and the trustees, safeguarding themselves, their money and their honor, and taking care of their rights stipulated in Islamic Sharia.

  • Closer relations with all countries and Islamic organizations.

  • Improving political relations with all Islamic countries in accordance with Shariah rules.

  • Focusing on the legal veil for women and obligating them to do so in all areas.

  • Appointment of bodies for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice in all parts of the country.

  • Suppression of moral crimes and the fight against drugs, forbidden pictures and films.

  • The independence of Sharia courts and their supremacy over all government departments.

  • Preparing a trained army to save the Islamic State from external aggressions.

  • Choosing a comprehensive Islamic curriculum for all schools and universities and teaching modern sciences.

  • Arbitration in all political and international cases to the Book and the Sunnah.

  • Islamization of the state economy and interest in development in all fields.

  • Requesting aid from Islamic countries for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

  • Collecting zakat, tithes, and others, and disbursing them to projects and public utilities.