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PERSONAL OPINION
Loving the Taliban

John H. Redekop

Dear God, I need help. In a particular area of my life, I’m having difficulty doing what You want me to do.

The other day, I was stopped short by a very familiar statement in Matthew 5:44: “Love your enemies.” It suddenly struck me, God, that I didn’t love the Taliban or Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda associates. In fact, my attitude towards these people could be described as the opposite of love. I’ll probably never forget the sickening sight of the two airliners slicing into the World Trade Center towers. Almost 6000 innocent people died in a few minutes. How can I love those who planned and carried out such evil?

Apparently one of the reasons for this mass killing was deep anger over the 500,000 civilians, mostly children, who have died in Iraq since the Western Allies imposed an oil embargo. It seems illogical to assume, as these terrorists apparently did, that the US government would change its policies because the terrorists inflicted “punishment” on those undeserving civilians in the towers. But then it occurred to me that the imposing of sanctions against Iraq because of Saddam Hussein’s nasty treatment of Kuwait a decade ago was actually based on the same assumption – hurt the innocent public and thus pressure the government to change its policies. Maybe I’m beginning to understand the terrorists – but that doesn’t make it any easier to love them.

As you know, dear God, freedom, especially religious freedom, is very important to me. I think that it’s important to almost all who possess it and to almost all who don’t. When I read that in Afghanistan it’s illegal to promote Christianity or hand out a Bible and that there are 48,000 mosques but not a single Christian church – because it’s illegal to build one – my response borders on anger. I hope it’s righteous anger.

Of all the Taliban policies which make it very hard to love them, the mistreatment of girls and women is for me one of the worst. Females are not allowed to go to school – kindergarten to university – or even be home-schooled. Not surprisingly, illiteracy among younger school-age girls in that country now stands at about 90%. Women can’t work outside the home; in fact, they can’t even leave their homes or ride in a taxi unless accompanied by a close male relative. Women can’t deal with male shopkeepers, be treated by a male doctor, shake hands with men to whom they are not related, play sports or enter a sports centre, attend a public gathering, ride a bicycle or motorcycle, travel on the same bus with men (there are segregated buses) or wash clothes in public places. Women can’t be photographed. Even in their own homes, they are not allowed to appear on balconies, and they must paint all windows so that they cannot be seen from the outside. And, of course, they must always wear the burka in public. (The list of prohibitions is actually much longer than this.)

The consequences of these policies are hardly surprising. Ninety per cent of women in Afghanistan suffer from severe depression. The suicide rate among Afghan women has skyrocketed. Since only a few of the female physicians, who once were 40% of the total, can do any medical work (and then only in their homes), and since women cannot see a male doctor, women get very little health care. In Kabul alone, 40,000 women who became widows because of war have been forced into begging and sometimes underground prostitution in order to support themselves and their children.

The Taliban punishment for even the slightest infraction by women is brutal. The rules state that women who do not cover their ankles will be whipped in public; such whippings are common. Those who have been caught with painted nails have had their fingers cut off. For misdeeds deemed more serious, the punishment can be execution in front of a crowd in the sports stadium.

How can I love those responsible for such gross evil? I know, God, that I’m supposed to make a distinction between the evil deeds and the evildoer but it’s not easy. Why do men so often decide to punish women for presumed evil which is not really attributable to women? Why do the Taliban sometimes cut off a woman’s arm when the evil which the exposed arm supposedly triggers is in the men who see it? (Come to think of it, have men in Christian churches sometimes adopted similar stances, albeit without such punishment?)

I am also greatly bothered by Taliban statements claiming You as an ally. The other day, their leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, predicted that the United States would be destroyed, “God willing”. (Just when I was getting quite worked up about such tribalization of You, I realized that Allied leaders sometimes also claim You as an ally.)

I know that I shouldn’t feel this way, but sometimes I feel glad when the Taliban are hit – although I don’t show it, especially when I’m with Christians. I know that Jesus acknowledged the reality that in this fallen world governments use force. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight” (John 18:36). But Christians should not operate on the level of violence. We are to love our enemies, not try to capture or kill them.

I know that I’m supposed to pray for my enemies, but it’s hard to pray for people whom I despise. I need your help, dear God.

As I pen these lines of confession and need, I hear that the Taliban and al-Qaeda are being defeated. Maybe the situation will soon get better in Afghanistan. I want to be optimistic. Maybe, after the war ends, it will be easier to love the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and the men of al-Qaeda. I hope so.

John H. Redekop is on the faculty of Trinity Western University and is a member of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C.

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Last modified January 8, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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