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Afghan Sikh man mourns over a coffin throughout a funeral procession and cremation ceremony for many who have been killed on Wednesday by a lone Islamic State gunman, rampaged via a Sikh home of worship, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 26, 2020.
Credit score: AP Photograph/Tamana Sarwary)
It’s unlikely that Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, age-old minority communities in Afghanistan, will survive the Taliban’s second time in energy. The spiritual intolerance prevalent in Afghan society and rising safety challenges posed by the Islamic State Khorasan (ISK), along with the exodus facilitated by the worldwide Sikh NGOs, may finish an period in Afghanistan ultimately.
Traditionally, Hindus and Sikhs lived as retailers and merchants. They have been distinguished cash lenders within the Afghan economic system. However extended battle compelled many to flee the nation. Based on some conservative estimates, the variety of Sikhs and Hindus has diminished from a number of hundred thousand through the Nineteen Eighties to some hundred through the American occupation.
The rise of intolerance is in line with the rise of the pan-Islamist motion, led by the mujahideen in Afghanistan for the reason that Nineties. Saudi-funded madrasas unfold a hardline Wahabi ideology, which fueled the jihad towards the Soviets in Afghanistan however narrowed the area for plurality in Afghan society. Islam was utilized in consolidating political energy and for rallying rural Afghanistan with the decision for Islamic jihad towards the secular communist authorities, sidelining the position of non-Muslim communities in the way forward for the nation.
When the Taliban first got here to energy in 1996, the group’s intolerance towards symbolism and practices of different religions was rampant. The promotion of orthodox Islam with Wahabi underpinnings purged the historic tolerance imbued in mainstream Islam because it had been practiced in Afghanistan. The Taliban destroyed the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan and different non-Islamic cultural artifacts in Afghanistan. Hindus and Sikhs have been appeared down upon and have been requested to transform to Islam, and Muslims have been strongly discouraged from visiting the outlets of non-Muslims. Non-Muslims have been made to put on yellow patches to determine them in public.
After the autumn of the Taliban, the 2004 structure offered sure assurances of safety, materials assist, and political illustration for Hindus and Sikhs. Regardless of these protections, there remained an air of intolerance towards Sikhs and Hindus in Afghan society. Non secular minorities in Afghanistan have reported verbal harassment by the Sunni majority inhabitants over time. Their properties have been forcefully occupied and have been threatened and insulted. At authorities workplaces, they confronted delays and have been discriminated towards in employment alternatives. Their kids confronted discrimination and have been bullied in colleges.
When the Taliban got here again to energy in 2021, they freely pledged to guard minorities. Nevertheless, studies of minorities being killed by the Taliban point out that their assurances can’t be trusted. The Taliban have reneged on a number of of their guarantees associated to the liberty of girls and human rights extra broadly; there may be little proof to counsel that the state of affairs of the Afghan Sikhs can be totally different beneath Taliban 2.0.
Sikh communities have confronted myriad dangers to life and property in Afghanistan for the reason that mujahideen years. In 1988 a militant killed 13 Sikhs by opening hearth throughout a spiritual competition and in 1989 a rocket hit a gurdwara and killed 17 Sikhs in Jalalabad. There have been additionally incidents of extortion and persecution. Extra lately, there was an uptick in large-scale focused assaults on Sikhs as ISK expanded in Afghanistan, inflicting heavy casualties on the dwindling group.
In 2018, an assault claimed by ISK killed 19, most of them Sikhs and in March 2020, 25 folks have been killed in a gurdwara in Kabul. In June, ISK fighters stormed the Karte Parwan gurdwara and killed two folks. Sikh articles of religion, just like the headdress, and shut affiliation with their locations of worship make them comparatively straightforward targets in ISK’s marketing campaign. Moreover large-scale assaults, there have been a number of incidents of vandalism and extortion towards these communities. There have additionally been incidents of harassment by the hands of Taliban fighters, prompting calls for his or her evacuation.
ISK’s perception is according to the Islamic State’s ideology to ascertain an Islamic caliphate that strictly observes Sunna and is ruled by Islamic jurisprudence. They want to carve out a purely Islamic state. Ideologues of the Islamic State mannequin label non-Muslims and those that don’t settle for their interpretation of Islam as infidels, justifying their execution. This perception poses a perpetual risk to non-Islamic communities together with Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.
Lately the mass exodus of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus was facilitated by the Indian authorities, worldwide Sikh NGOs, and the Sikh diaspora. After the March 2020 assault on the Sikh gurdwara, round 500 folks have been relocated to India beneath a non-public sponsorship program known as “My household, My duty,” and dozens of individuals have been evacuated to India through the fall of Kabul in August 2021, together with Sikh MPs. The as soon as vibrant gurdwaras in Afghanistan have largely been deserted or put within the care of Muslim caretakers as Sikh households fled. The latest assault on the Karte Parwan gurdwara renewed requires the group to depart the nation, prompting the Indian authorities to situation 111 visas for the group.
Within the absence of any political illustration, it’s probably that the considerations of Hindus and Sikhs might be uncared for in Afghanistan. There may be little political benefit for the Taliban’s Sunni management in accommodating Afghan Sikhs and Hindus within the nation. Furthermore, the Taliban’s implementation of Sharia would improve intolerance towards them.
Evidently in Afghanistan, the Taliban and ISK are at loggerheads to dominate one another. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that the Taliban would struggle ISK for the sake of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. Taliban leaders have assured safety to minorities; nonetheless, their political will and materials skill to make sure the identical is restricted. The uncertainty will probably pressure Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to depart the nation ultimately as worldwide NGOs and private-sponsored initiatives crew up and name for his or her relocation.
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