We see in today’s news that Pakistan has announced that it is in contact with the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, and would like to arrange negotiations between Omar and the US.
Have we learned nothing? What possible value could such negotiations offer? What conceivable compromise could there be between the Taliban and a secular Western democracy? We have already seen what Taliban-occupied areas become: brutal, misogynistic, medieval theocracies and havens for anti-Western jihad — and we have just seen, in Swat, how little they care about honoring the agreements they make. They are resolutely committed to the destruction of Western secular democracy, with which fundamentalist Islam is utterly incompatible (as pointed out in this fine post by Jeffery Hodges). They are our mortal enemies, and will surely see any attempt to negotiate as nothing more than a tactical opportunity, and a measure of our weakness.
Read the story here.
One Comment
Thanks for the link, Malcolm. What will be interesting to watch (assuming that it happens) is how more moderate forms of Islam will manage to find ideological grounds for a separation of religion and state, an acceptance of secular society’s legitimacy, and a recognition of democracy’s value.
Lacking these, the Islamic world will always be in conflict with others and at war with itself because the only solution to disagreement would be found solely through fighting.
Jeffery Hodges
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