Taliban-Ban

“. . . it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity . . . ‘Contempt for humanity?’: “Whoever despises another human being will never be able to make anything of him.?Nothing of what we despise in another is itself foreign to us.”

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 'On Stupidity,' in ‘After Ten Years,’ Letters and Papers from Prison (DBW/DBWE 8:27/43, DBW/DBWE 8:29/45)[1]

As incomprehensible as it may seem, or in fact be, the regime in charge of an entire country, though a government not universally recognized, has banned not cruelty to animals or humans, not chewing gum in public, not tossing a yo-yo in a crowded elevator, no, they have banned none of these things.?They have banned something else, but what??And, for that matter who is doing this banning??They are the Taliban of Afghanistan, rugged mountain men who joined with other Afghan Mujahideen to drive the Russian-led Soviets out, and then the Americans and their lackeys, just as their forebears had done to the British, promising them safe passage to India via the Hindu Kush, through the Kyber Pass and then slaughtering them all, military, diplomats and dependents of all ages and both sexes.?

But this time, instead of slaughtering the foreigners wholesale, they went to work on their own people, slaughtering lots of them, especially women, through public execution and banning lots and lots of things they didn’t like, and other things that hadn’t occurred to them at first to ban, and then getting around to those too.?And the country they did this to the renamed 'The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.' Yes, these are the Taliban, as one Afghan described them after the defeat of the Soviets, “It was as if men from the 13th Century had crawled out of the caves and mountain passes and started running a modern country.”?So, that’s them.?Banning everything in sight in the name of, of all things, Islam.

Islam, that fine-tuned version of Abrahamic Monotheism, has from its origin valued logic, order, geometric design based on mathematics and the plant world, beauty in architecture and furnishings, in clothing and in the worship of the God whose chief name is ‘The Compassionate.?Islam has given us algebra, chess, great literature, medicine, and, as part of medicine and the healing of souls, music.[2] ?

In fact, it was a 13th Century Afghan polymath, who quickly moved from wherever he was in that mountainous country to Bagdad at the corner of Tigris and Euphrates where everything was happening. ?There he became brilliant in every branch of learning from philosophy to medicine to, yes, music, which he considered medicine for the soul.?On all of these subjects he wrote learned treatises and taught students who had come from far and wide to learn.?We speak of Muhammad Al-Farabi.[3] ?

Muhammad Al-Farabi had grown up listening to and then playing the Oud and other wonderful instruments of his spectacular musical culture.?As a philosopher, theologian, physician, astronomer, composer and musicologist, etc., he knew, like every conscious member of every great wisdom tradition knows and has always known, that as much as humans can develop their talents for the good, the true and the beautiful, we can also turn all those transcendental gifts against ourselves through misuse.?His solution to the abuse or baseness of a musical form would be to found conservatories to foster good musicianship and great composition.?Has that never occurred to those turbaned and pointy-headed men who ban the beauty of women, because men look upon them with lustful hearts, the beauty of books because the illiterate cannot appreciate them and the ignorant choose to remain so, and the beauty of music, even to celebrate the joy of a bride and groom on their wedding day??Will they ban impure thoughts by means of decapitation??If so, let them begin with themselves.??

And let them stop molesting the Afghan people, a pious people, a respectful people, an honest people, a Muslim people who submit to the will of Allah the Compassionate as best they can.?Let the people have joy, culture, beauty, schooling for their girls and boys, university education for their brilliant young women and men, and let them have their instruments back!

So the native son of Afghanistan, Muhammad Al-Farabi would say, and so the world of all people of good will say.

?Guy Christopher Carter, August 2023

[1] BONHOEFFER, Dietrich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke. BETHGE, Eberhard, MüLLER, Gerhard Ludwig, SCH?NHERR, Albrecht, REUTER, Hans-Richard, et al. eds. 17 B?nde. Munich: Chr. Kaiser, 1986-1999 (abbrv. DBW)

____________. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works. GREEN, Clifford, FLOYD, Wayne Whitson, BARNETT, Victoria J., et al eds. 17 volumes. Minneapolis: Fortress,1996-2014 (abbrv. DBWE)

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66357611 | https://www.npr.org/2023/08/12/1193566170/opinion-the-taliban-is-cracking-down-on-music-and-joy

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Farabi | https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-farabi/