The Path to secular democracy in Afghanistan

[Khostai]

ABSTRACT
Since the early 1970s, when the third major historical wave of democratization began, the Muslim world has seen little evidence of improvements in reaching for this new wave of political reform. As more and more countries around the world are embracing openness, transparency and power sharing in governance, Islam has become an important point of reference in debates about how the Muslim nation states should be
governed. In spite of the “democracy gap” in many Muslim countries, history shows that Islam is not inherently incompatible with freedom, secularism, modernism and democratic values. This thesis explores Afghanistan and its possible path to secular democracy. It focuses on establishing a secular democracy with a concentration on educational reform and rule of law in order for political, social and economic reform.In order to validate the hypothesis, the methodology used was divided into four principal parts. First, analyzing the political history of Afghanistan and demonstrating
that modern democratic initiatives have been the quest of the Afghan political forces for years. Secondly, reviewing the process of democratization of Turkey and Indonesia and using their models as a blueprint for necessary reforms while considering the relevant lessons from past political experiences in order to create a practical framework. The work of Nurcholish Madjid and his neo-modernist ideologies was also reviewed to illustrate his iii
belief that for Islam to be victorious in the global struggle of ideas, it needs to embrace the concepts of tolerance, democracy, and pluralism. Thirdly, we assessed the rise of the Taliban and their political ideologies, confirming that reconciliation with a fundamentalist regime will be a path to democratic failure. Fourth, we established the importance of rule of law initiatives for promoting civil liberties and rights of the Afghan people. Afghanistan has been besieged by foreign conquests and invasions for centuries.
It is a county which has experienced instability and armed conflict for the last thirty years. This period is an extension to its struggle for freedom, political stability, security and development. As Afghanistan attempts to build peace, sustain democracy and maintain co-existence after more than thirty years of violence, there continues to be limited attention given to two of the main contributors to social, political, and economical advancement: education and rule of law. A new curriculum for Afghanistan together with upgraded teacher capacities is the most pertinent factors to ensure that democracy is established and maintained in Afghanistan. A free and fair political system, protection of human rights, a vibrant civil society, public confidence in the police and courts are just some areas covered under the rule of law. The rule of law is the cornerstone for all other elements of democracy and is a requirement for economic growth and political stability.


Full artical: http://repository.library.georgetown...pdf?sequence=1

[Shamlawar Khurasani]

an extremely shallow master thesis. She probably got her grades just for choosing a topic that pleases her instructors.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

ABSTRACT
Since the early 1970s, when the third major historical wave of democratization began, the Muslim world has seen little evidence of improvements in reaching for this new wave of political reform. As more and more countries around the world are embracing openness, transparency and power sharing in governance, Islam has become an important point of reference in debates about how the Muslim nation states should be
governed. In spite of the “democracy gap” in many Muslim countries, history shows that Islam is not inherently incompatible with freedom, secularism, modernism and democratic values. This thesis explores Afghanistan and its possible path to secular democracy. It focuses on establishing a secular democracy with a concentration on educational reform and rule of law in order for political, social and economic reform.In order to validate the hypothesis, the methodology used was divided into four principal parts. First, analyzing the political history of Afghanistan and demonstrating
that modern democratic initiatives have been the quest of the Afghan political forces for years. Secondly, reviewing the process of democratization of Turkey and Indonesia and using their models as a blueprint for necessary reforms while considering the relevant lessons from past political experiences in order to create a practical framework. The work of Nurcholish Madjid and his neo-modernist ideologies was also reviewed to illustrate his iii
belief that for Islam to be victorious in the global struggle of ideas, it needs to embrace the concepts of tolerance, democracy, and pluralism. Thirdly, we assessed the rise of the Taliban and their political ideologies, confirming that reconciliation with a fundamentalist regime will be a path to democratic failure. Fourth, we established the importance of rule of law initiatives for promoting civil liberties and rights of the Afghan people. Afghanistan has been besieged by foreign conquests and invasions for centuries.
It is a county which has experienced instability and armed conflict for the last thirty years. This period is an extension to its struggle for freedom, political stability, security and development. As Afghanistan attempts to build peace, sustain democracy and maintain co-existence after more than thirty years of violence, there continues to be limited attention given to two of the main contributors to social, political, and economical advancement: education and rule of law. A new curriculum for Afghanistan together with upgraded teacher capacities is the most pertinent factors to ensure that democracy is established and maintained in Afghanistan. A free and fair political system, protection of human rights, a vibrant civil society, public confidence in the police and courts are just some areas covered under the rule of law. The rule of law is the cornerstone for all other elements of democracy and is a requirement for economic growth and political stability.


Full artical: http://repository.library.georgetown...pdf?sequence=1

Fatima Popal - Afghanistan | LinkedIn

Here is her resume. Pashto does not fall under her language fluency. She is also benefiting off US largesse and the military industrial complexes involvement in Afghanistan - pretty much rendering most of what she says suspect from the get go since the thesis generally promotes staying on the disastrous trajectory we are on. That trajectory generally benefits a few families.

I hardly think she can speak for the values of the Afghan majority which resides in villages - much less conservative Pashtun society:

Café Bonaparte: at home In Georgetown | The Georgetown Dish

She makes sure her CV is more honest than her facebook regarding her knowledge of Pashto:

I read her whole thesis in about 1 hour 15 minutes and would say that its undoing and contradictory approach lay in two important sections:

Page 54 admits some truth of the matter:

"The impact of all these reforms in such a short period of time was incredible.
Atatürk knew that in order for them to succeed to the point where they set new everyday norms, a radical change was imperative. Like in Afghanistan, the old habits and traditions were deeply ingrained in the people, especially in the countryside where the bulk of the people lived. Some of the reforms were actively opposed by various religious and communal sectors of the population. Atatürk therefore set out to alter the mentality of the people by encouraging national pride, this being perhaps his most difficult task. This was
not an easy task because it entailed the abandonment of old loyalties: to Islam, to the Ottoman Empire, and to the people of the Turkic origins beyond the borders of the new republic.13 Atatürk‟s primary goal was a modernized, secular Turkey, which could compete successfully with other states, nations and societies at the highest level of contemporary civilization. But he also wanted to mold a Turk who, while modernized, would still be proud of his own heritage and deeply attached to his fatherland.14 According to a generally held Turkish belief, Atatürk almost single-handedly inspired his war-weary country to reestablish its independence by a new Turkish identity through a
Cultural Revolution."

In another section she rehashes the history of Amanullah and his active Westernization program. Perhaps she should have harkened back to that idiotic moment when Amanullah threatened various tribal chiefs with imprisonment if they showed up in traditional clothing and not top hats and vests.

These two quotes are basically Fatima's acknowledgement that the will of the people needs to be put to heel. She glosses over the conflict of of the Nursiites with Ataturk, but she does coyly acknowledge that Ataturk relied heavily on the rural religious masses for his fighting gaurd:

She goes on to acknowledge that the will of the Anatolians and the the rural religious devout salt of the Earth masses used by Ataturk were treated, in a sense a similar way that the Saudi Bedouin were treated by Shah Saud when he welcomed oil harvesters into the Kingdom (i.e. he silenced and massacred them).

"He mobilized provincial religious leaders and devout Anatolian masses in the name of saving the Sultanate-Caliphate. In that sense, he personally witnessed the organizational strength and moral authority of local religious leaders that joined the military resistance. It is important to mention that most of these religious leaders who had joined the resistance movement did so with Islamic ideals and were very surprised to see Atatürk‟s radical secularist reforms after the proclamation of the Turkish Republic."
page 51

So in the same breath, she has a hard time explaining how these same rural "brutes" were organized enough to fight off the onslaught of multiple imperial powers "IN THE NAME OF THE SULTANATE-CALIPHATE" but then are dismissed as unable to govern. The far better assessment would be: they were barred from exhibiting ANY governance.

And did that do the job? Was Ataturk able to expunge the Anatolian elites and rural who backed the Caliphate? As we can see today, not at all.

She goes on to make a major historical mistake by using the famous constitution of Medina as a bedrock to claim that Muhammad (S) sought for a secular democracy ala the Western paradigm. She did not appear to reference the text of the constitution itself.

When one does this, they find a lot of trouble for Madame Popal's whole theoretical basis:

refer to page 5 in her thesis for her discussion

Here is an article from the constitution:
"Article 28 The final and absolute authority in the disputes vests in almighty Allah and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon them)
When anyone among you differs about anything, the dispute shall be referred to Almighty Allah and to the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon them) (as all final and absolute authority is vested in them)."

The Constitution of Medina

Oooops, there goes Fatima's whole tie in attempt to rework Islamic history to suit the way she wants her people to live and act as opposed to the ground level reality of they want to live and act.

With that the remainder of the thesis unravels.

The remainder of the thesis is a reasonable attempt to rehash agreed upon history and offer somewhat of a view into these various events (creation of the kingdom, the rule of Amanullah, Habibullah, Taliban, etc). So nothing new or earth shaking there.

Some degree of farsibaan pride demonstrates itself when she attempts to show that single province confined and Indian and Russian funded Ahmad Shah Mossoud. Pages 94 and 95 gloss over Ahmad Shah Mossoud's own failings and attempt to lionize him as an uncompromising democrat in a sea of fundamentalism against which he was the sole vangaurd. This section belongs in no scholarly paper and basically is a eulogy of sorts for Ahmad Shah Mossoud without discussing the flawed policies he pursued and his own foibles throughout the war.

As we can see, Miss Popal ought to return to that magnificant set of libraries at Georgetown or take Dr. Scheuer's class, because I think this thesis deserves a C+.

If her suggestions were every picked up in the halls of power it would basically mean perpetually doing the wrong thing to win an unwinnable war in the most stupid way possible.

The + I give in her in the C+ is that she provides, with the existence of this thesis, a bit of proof for all about the naivete of Western Afghans in thinking that they are the betters of their native country peoples and that they and they alone are equipped to re-educate indigenous people on how to speak, live, breath, eat, etc.

Basically, this thesis is an advocacy for equipping Ataturk style locals with the ability to inflict maximum brutality on less than pliable majority masses in the countryside and the villages in order to bring about secular democracy at the barrel end of the gun.

[Admin Khan]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION]
GeorgeTown has a sizable Afghan population, I think it has just as many Afghans as NYU or Stony Brook, and I must confess they have been producing some very garbage quality work as of recent. I posted another thesis last month, and it was as terribly written with a hidden agenda. The Ahmad Shah Masood part is when I stopped reading it. I have a simple rule, as soon as you glorify the crooked corrupt agent, I am out.

[BarakzaiAbdali]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION]
GeorgeTown has a sizable Afghan population, I think it has just as many Afghans as NYU or Stony Brook, and I must confess they have been producing some very garbage quality work as of recent. I posted another thesis last month, and it was as terribly written with a hidden agenda. The Ahmad Shah Masood part is when I stopped reading it. I have a simple rule, as soon as you glorify the crooked corrupt agent, I am out.

Thats true. She makes special care to high light Taliban funding sources but devotes just a page to lionize Mossoud and not even mention who funded him and where he traveled to.

[HalloIsBack]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION] may i ask you something? during your schooltime and for sure your study was you the one who always annoyed the teachers and your classmates because of your long discussion and and how you analyse texts?

[BarakzaiAbdali]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION] may i ask you something? during your schooltime and for sure your study was you the one who always annoyed the teachers and your classmates because of your long discussion and and how you analyse texts?

No, my thoughts were usually put down on paper, like a silent assassin . But if I was that I would have to assume that you were the dumb blonde who was at school to study the football QB's behind instead of using her brain.

[HalloIsBack]

No, my thoughts were usually put down on paper, like a silent assassin . But if I was that I would have to assume that you were the dumb blonde who was at school to study the football QB's behind instead of using her brain.

the question was no offence but if you get it as an offence then i'm sorry. i just asked you cuz you always write such long texts.
i was not the dumb blond but lots of people thought and are still thinking that i'm a dumb blond

[BarakzaiAbdali]

the question was no offence but if you get it as an offence then i'm sorry. i just asked you cuz you always write such long texts.
i was not the dumb blond but lots of people thought and are still thinking that i'm a dumb blond

Who said I was offended? That is why I inflected and said "if I was..."

[HalloIsBack]

Who said I was offended? That is why I inflected and said "if I was..."

sorry my english
but you can teach me some english with kish

[Toramana]

[MENTION=1772]BarakzaiAbdali[/MENTION] may i ask you something? during your schooltime and for sure your study was you the one who always annoyed the teachers and your classmates because of your long discussion and and how you analyse texts?

Hallo, those who don't know to be brief and precise have actual have some mental re-tardiness. And this in the Barakzai case is aggravated by Akhwani fanaticism.

[کیش]

Say what you want about Ahmad Shah Massoud, but he was a lion in his battles with the Soviets.

A lot of my family members fought alongside him in the Soviet war and they always remark his courage on the battlefield.

My older cousin (obviously a Pashtun) who fought in battle with him told us about this one story when a Soviet platoon raped and chopped of a females breast and sent it to him as a message. Massoud was so enraged that his platoon battled with that Soviet brigade for 18 hours straight, only suffering light casualties.

I know this thread isn't really about him, but I know people who don't know him or the people in his group, call them cowards who refused to fight. They couldn't be any more wrong in their assessment.

[Admin Khan]

Say what you want about Ahmad Shah Massoud, but he was a lion in his battles with the Soviets.

A lot of my family members fought alongside him in the Soviet war and they always remark his courage on the battlefield.

My older cousin (obviously a Pashtun) who fought in battle with him told us about this one story when a Soviet platoon raped and chopped of a females breast and sent it to him as a message. Massoud was so enraged that his platoon battled with that Soviet brigade for 18 hours straight, only suffering light casualties.

I know this thread isn't really about him, but I know people who don't know him or the people in his group, call them cowards who refused to fight. They couldn't be any more wrong in their assessment.

Do you think he served Afghan interests?

[کیش]

Do you think he served Afghan interests?

In the 80's ASM definitely served the interest of Afghans. My cousins who fought alongside him during the Soviets moved to Peshawar in the 90's. So I can't say for sure what was on his mind during that decade. But my family who stayed in Kabul blame him and Gulbuddin for battling who could out-mortar better.

I had a young cousin of 13 years old who was hit and had his body completely blown up from a mortar fired from one of those people. He died right in front of his family as he was fleeing from the shelling. RIP Ashgari Khan.

[khushal]

out of all the things you say Kaish, now this. masood was a lion.

are you serious.