Celebrating Religious Freedom in Afghanistan

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from U. S. A. Today.com, November 14, 2001, dateline: Kabul, Afghanistan.  “With a mixture of jubilation and vengeance, residents here celebrated the withdrawal from the Capitol Tuesday of Taliban rulers, who had imposed a harsh brand if Islam.  Some people likened the end of five years of Taliban rule to being freed from prison.  In one street Afghans stuffed nearly worthless local currency bills up the nostrils of the bullet ridden bodies of slain Arab and Pakistani warriors who had fought for the Taliban.  “Today we are celebrating but we worry that tomorrow they will start fighting again.  We pray that won’t happen, said Ahmed Rashid who sat in a barber’s chair for the first time in five years.  The Taliban forced men to grow their beards to a prescribed length.  The owner of the barbershop, Zul Guy smiled broadly, his face obscured behind a bushy black beard.  This has been my best business day in many long years, he said, but he wasn’t going to shave just yet—“it’s still too early, we’ll wait and see.”  Elsewhere in the city several residents took out long hidden audio cassette recorders and openly played music for the first time in five years.  Abdul Reimaun took the cloth off his cassette recorder and played his favorite Afghan singer, Ahmed Zaire.  The music blared into the street.  I used to play this at home but very quietly and then I would check to see if anyone was outside, he said.  The Taliban had banned music, television, and most forms of light entertainment, saying it detracted the faithful from their prayers. The Taliban also espoused a religious philosophy that required the faithful to live and act as Islam’s prophet Muhammad had in the 7th century.  This meant males couldn’t shave and were required to wear turbans.  “Look this feels so good,” Ahmed Shah said as he rubbed his freshly shaven face.  Many women were still not ready to abandon the all enveloping burqa, a traditional garment made mandatory by the Taliban.  There were signs, however, that some; perhaps most of the younger, educated women would eventually abandon the burqa in favor of Western style.

Tom:

Dave, that’s really a fascinating piece.  The thing that comes to mind is the axiom:  “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still.”  And how much so with regard to religion in forcing somebody to believe something or to follow something.

Dave:

It’s not a matter of which style of clothes is the best, that isn’t the point, we are not advancing Western styles over what they have in the East, and the point is you must have freedom to choose.  And, I’m sorry, and I won’t get into that, but that does relate a bit to Calvinism as well.  It relates to Martin Luther’s book, The Bondage of the Will, in which he denies that man has the power of choice.  These people even go so far as to say God causes everything that happens.  He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree, then he caused them to eat of the tree, then he punished them for eating of the tree, and so forth.  And here we have an example that I think should give some pause, some serious thought to Muslims.  Islam has been spread with the sword.  You can’t force someone to believe and we have had a good demonstration of it.  These people were forced to obey.  It’s called an extreme form of Islam, actually this is fundamentalist Islam.  This is what Muhammad did and this is what he practiced, so they have been forced into this.  But they didn’t really believe; their hearts were not changed and as soon as the yoke was thrown off they are dancing in the streets for joy, they never believed it.  Now, if Islam could force, with terrorism and with the sword, if they could force the whole world to confess this, you know, like I have mentioned, in Indonesia right now, in Nigeria and elsewhere, that we will take your head off, or you say there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.  That doesn’t change people’s minds if they force the whole world to say that, they haven’t won the world to Islam.  They have only forced people to confess to something they don’t really believe in their hearts.  And, in contract, Jesus said, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.”  He said, “Whosoever will may come.”  The Ethiopian, who had believed in Christ and wanted to be baptized, he says to Philip, this is Acts 8, “See, here is water, what hinders me to be baptized?”  Philip says, “If you believe with all your heart.”  Romans:10:9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
See All..., “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart.”  Islam doesn’t care whether you believe it or not.  You are just forced to adopt that life style and to say those words and we have had a demonstration that it doesn’t work.  Tom, it really speaks to the hearts of parents as well.  There are many children in our families that we have forced to go to Sunday school, to go to Bible study and in their hearts they don’t really believe and as soon as they can get out from under the parental umbrella they kick over the traces and they are into the world.  So, we have to be very careful that we spend some time to find out what do they really believe and that their hearts are really won by the gospel and they really love God.  This is why the first commandment God gives is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.”  Christianity is based upon love and the God of the Bible is love.  But of Allah’s 99 characteristics presented in the Qur’an, not one is love.

Tom:

Dave, just going back to your statement about children and church and Sunday school, you raised four kids, I have five and we’re not saying let them do whatever they want.  We are encouraging, as you said, to encourage them to that end, to find out what they believe.  As parents, we don’t throw them over to a Sunday school teacher or to this class or that class, that’s part of our program.

Dave:

There has to be rules.

Tom:

Exactly, and encouragement and in love, but we want to guide and direct them to the truth.

Dave:

Right.