The
Institute for Afghan Studies (IAS) on behalf of all Afghans
expresses its utmost grief and sorrow at the heinous acts of
terror, devastation and death to the innocent civilians of the
United States of America committed on September 11, 2001. We
Afghans, specially, Afghan Americans, convey our sincere and
deepest solidarity with the victims, their families and the
American people. We share your pain and sorrow for we understand
what it feels like to be innocent victims. The Afghan nation has
been a hostage to similar groups of insane individuals and
ideologies. It has been terrorized and destroyed by them
perpetually. As a result, the Afghan nation has lost over 1.5
million innocent souls over the past two decades.
We, the Afghans, fully understand and therefore support the US
resolve to retaliate with great force against the perpetrators,
their network, their sympathizers and their harboring states for
this horrendously barbaric attack on the US soil. Nevertheless, we
want the world and particularly the United States of America to
make the following distinctions while they are weighing their
options and methods of response.
1. Afghans are not Arabs. The terrorists who carried out the
attacks on the US were Arab terrorists. Afghans can say with pride
that even though they have suffered too many injustices,
destruction, death and terror over the past two and a half
decades, no single terrorist case can be identified in which
Afghan nationals were involved. Nonetheless, some of the
terrorists’ networks and leaders such as Osama-bin-Laden might
be in Afghanistan but neither have they ever been invited nor have
they ever been guests of the people in Afghanistan. They were
initially brought with direct, avert and conscious involvement of
the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to
Afghanistan during the 1980s to fight against the Soviets and then
were left there with Western money and weapons after the
Soviets’ defeat. Ever since, Afghans have been as
much victims of these terrorist groups inside Afghanistan on a
daily basis as Americans were on September 11, 2001. The
innocent Afghan civilians have already lost too much and are
still losing to these fanatics imported into Afghanistan by former
US administrations and Pakistan. It would be a gross
injustice if, on top of all this, they were to suffer more as a
result of the US and the World retaliatory measures. It is
therefore suggested that any retaliation should be precisely
targeted at the perpetrators and their supporters only.
2. Taliban do not represent the Afghan nation. It is
no secret that the Taliban were yet another evil force imposed on
the innocent and defenseless people of Afghanistan by the
Pakistani and Saudi governments for their self-interests. This is
why they are recognized only by these countries. One of
Pakistan’s interests in imposing its puppet groups on
Afghanistan was to avoid world’s criticism by shifting its
Kashmiri and Arab terrorist training camps inside Afghanistan.
Taliban served that purpose well but proved themselves to be a
nightmare for the Afghan civilians. Right now 99.9% of Afghans,
whether inside Afghanistan or outside Afghanistan, abhor the
Taliban cult. They reject their ideology but they are left
hostages to the Taliban’s cruelty because of the indifference of
the world community. We hope that as a result of the current
resolve of the international community against the menace of
terrorism, the world community adopt a sympathetic attitude
towards the helpless Afghan nation.
3. Terrorists who committed the recent crimes are not
Muslims but rather belong to a new cult-like movement created in
the minds of a few who are brainwashed by insane individuals to
carry out their ulterior designs. The very term ‘Islam’ means
peace. True to its meaning, Islam teaches and promotes peace and
brotherhood among all human beings. In Islam, both suicide and
genocide are forbidden and strongly condemned. Both actions are
out of the boundaries of the religion. Thus, any cult that teaches
suicide and genocide is out of the boundaries of the Islamic
religion and therefore its followers are not Muslims. Just the
same way that Timothy McVeigh was not a Christian terrorist, the
criminals who attacked the US on September 11, 2001, are not
“Muslim terrorists” but rather non-Muslim, non-Afghan “Arab
terrorists”.
4. Any retaliatory measures that the US and the World
consider against the terrorists, particularly those living in
Afghanistan, should spare the innocent Afghan lives from any
collateral damage. It neither would be just nor effective to
target the Afghan soil. Not just because Afghan nationals are not
involved in this heinous crime; it will not be effective because
neither the terrorists nor their protectors, the Taliban, can be
pressured by inflicting harm on helpless and unarmed civilians for
they have no regard for the civilians. The two groups can only be
pressured through Pakistan. It is no secret that the Taliban are
the creation of Pakistan; they serve Pakistani interests; and
their very survival depends on Pakistan’s military, financial
and moral support.
The Institute for
Afghan Studies (IAS) (www.institute-for-afghan-studies.org)
is a non-profit and independent organization, founded and run by
young Afghan scholars around the globe. The mission of the
Institute is to be a center for research and a credible source of
information about Afghanistan.