The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has started enforcing Sharia laws based on their own interpretation of the precepts of Islam. Pakistan is among those Muslim countries that have distanced themselves from the Afghan Taliban’s conception and enforcement of Islamic laws. However, the orthodoxy in Taliban ranks poses a more severe challenge to Pakistan compared to the rest of the Muslim world.
It is not only a matter of the Taliban regime’s religious dogma and the ideological hassle it could cause to Pakistani society; the establishment also appears more concerned about Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and other Taliban associates who have challenged its strategic views. The Taliban and affiliated militant groups are testing the perception of Pakistan’s strategic community that the Taliban’s association with madressahs in the country is political capital for the state. The head of the outlawed Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, Noor Wali Mehsud, affirmed in a recent video message that his group was waging a ‘jihad’ that teachers in Pakistani madressahs preached.
The Muslim countries are rightly worried about the Taliban’s view of Islam as it poses more of a political challenge than an ideological one. Muslim societies from Morocco to Indonesia have developed functional compatibility with the modern values of freedom and human rights….
