Later on they are likely to ban visual descriptions communicated orally.
Gentleman 1: “I am looking for the gentleman with the olive complexion, the one wearing the beige tunic and matching pants, green tunban, and dark, overgrown brown/black beard. He walks with a hobbling gait, without a cane, like an elder. Did you see him? Can you picture him?”
Gentleman 2: “Hmm….” To the horde “Someone, get a rope!”
Bans on the depiction of living beings are fairly widespread in Islam. It’s not in the Quran, but the ban can be found among the hadith (accounts of the words and deeds of the Prophet, which many Muslims treat as a kind of subsidiary revelation: the Quran is the authoritative word of God, but if it doesn’t cover some topic, you look to the hadith for guidance). That’s why most Islamic art and decoration is based on geometric shapes, rather than figurative art.
It’s supposedly based in the prohibition against idolatry (which probably came to Islam out of Judaism). The idea is that if you make an image of something, next thing you know you’ll be worshiping it.
Of course, most Muslims aren’t as uncompromising on this point as the Taliban. The Taliban really seem to want to embrace every single “thou shalt not” to be found in either the religion or traditional Afghan culture.
In order to supercharge religious fundamentalism, one needs a set of additional texts full of killjoy rules and interpretations that their opportunistic and attention-seeking authors insist are as authoritative as the core text.
We get it. Few people here are ignorant of the U.S.'s role in elevating this pack of medieval-minded religious thugs to power. But despite campist claims to the contrary, the U.S. isn’t the only, or even the primary, villain of the piece.
[Also, copy-pasta spamming is not allowed on this BBS.]
I guess I will have to read a book sometimes that explains how and why the Afghan army folded so fast after our withdrawal. I really can’t imagine living under their control.
are implants widely used on today’s Afghanistan? i am assuming you don’t mean cosmetic implants. are you suggesting that prosthetics like an arm or a leg blown off by invading empires would be disallowed?
am i missing something?
[i’m probably missing something]
All true, but the Taliban didn’t have air support and at one point the Afghan army was well supplied. Anecdotally I know from some people who had trained Afghan regulars embedded with him, they said that most of them were just horribly undisciplined and didn’t want to be there. Which, ok, the army sucks. But at some point the Taliban would be back and it would suck much much worse.
It makes it even more messed up when you look at their secular government in the 70s and at least in places like Kabul seemed very progressive.