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When the US pulled out of Afghanistan, you might have assumed that was the end of the story.
The Taliban swiftly retook control of the country—and everyone expected that they would reimpose their brutal theocracy. They’d ban all heretical pursuits like books, music, sports and education. They’d return Afghanistan to a medieval stasis. Innovation and change would cease, and life would contract to the endless echoing of Qur’anic verses. The ease of their victory over the US-backed government made it seem that they’d achieve all their goals without facing any serious resistance.
However, that proved to be false. It turns out, not even the Taliban can control Afghanistan. A new enemy has arisen to threaten their grasp on power.
The Taliban face an insurgency of their own
In the nearly two years since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, ISIS-K has scaled up the volume and complexity of attacks across the country, putting pressure on the new government and raising concerns in the West about the possible regeneration of a group that could once again pose a serious threat internationally.
…ISIS-K’s recent attacks have largely been aimed at the Taliban and other symbolic targets, as well as at Afghanistan’s Shia Muslim minorities, in particular the ethnic Hazaras. Bombings have increased in urban areas, leaving hundreds injured and dead. Between late 2022 and early 2023, ISIS-K attacked the Pakistani and Russian embassies, hit a hotel where Chinese business representatives were staying and carried out an explosion at an air force compound.
“‘No one feels safe’: The Taliban promised to provide security to Afghans. New data shows threat from ISIS is growing.” Eliza Mackintosh, CNN, 19 May 2023.
The group waging guerrilla war on the Taliban is called ISIS-K, short for Islamic State—Khorasan, the historic name of the region. An offshoot of the original ISIS in Iraq and Syria, ISIS-K came into existence in Afghanistan in 2015, while the US still had a military presence. They clashed with US forces, carrying out shootings and suicide bombings, including the deadly bombing at the Kabul airport.
But since the US withdrew its forces in 2021, it’s the Taliban’s turn. ISIS-K wants the country for itself, and they’ve unleashed a wave of brutal attacks aimed at destabilizing and toppling the Taliban government. They’ve shown no compunction about bombing mosques, sending suicide bombers to blow themselves up during crowded religious services to cause maximum carnage.
They’ve bombed schools, killing new graduates and students sitting for exams. They’ve bombed Taliban government offices and airports.
They’ve even attacked the Russian embassy and a hotel patronized by Chinese diplomatic staff. This attack was partially motivated by retaliation for China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims. It was also a bid to embarrass the Taliban on the world stage and show that they’re not capable of ruling or providing security.
In return, the Taliban has cracked down with their own brand of characteristic brutality:
Taliban security forces have been waging ongoing operations and night raids against ISIS-K. The raids often target civilians accused of harboring or helping ISIS-K members, with the Taliban assaulting and detaining people without due process, according to research by Human Rights Watch (HRW). In some cases, Taliban authorities have forcibly disappeared or killed detainees, dumping or displaying bodies in public areas.
“The Taliban have been going after them in ways that are actually counterproductive because they have tackled them in the same way that everyone who’s been in power in Afghanistan has tackled insurgencies, which is as brutally as possible, which means you stir up a lot of resentment in local communities, and that stirs up more recruits,” Patricia Gossman, associate director for HRW’s Asia division, said. “We documented a number of raids by the Taliban in Kunar and Nangarhar, which ended up with a lot of people being killed who may or may not have had anything to do with ISIS-K.”
It’s astonishing that—even on their home turf, where they’re fluent in the language and culture—the Taliban are still making the same mistakes that the US and other imperialist powers have made in Afghanistan. Rather than address the root causes of the insurgency, they’re responding with indiscriminate violence and repression. This can only create resentment for their rule and sympathy for the militants they’re trying to eradicate.
Why are the Taliban and ISIS fighting?
On the surface, the Taliban and ISIS-K seem more alike than different. They’re both rigidly fundamentalist sects of Sunni Islam. Both of them believe in theocratic sharia law, restrict the rights of women, and reject democracy. Both detest all Western belief systems and believe they should be purged by force.
However, they have some important differences. The Taliban only seek to rule Afghanistan, whereas ISIS dreams of establishing an Islamic caliphate over the entire world. While both believe in Islamic supremacy, the Taliban disapproves of ISIS for being too violent. How brutal do you have to be for the Taliban to think you’ve gone too far?
Meanwhile, ISIS denounces the Taliban as a bunch of wishy-washy compromisers who are too tolerant of Shiites and other religious minorities. In ISIS’ eyes, the proper course of action is to slaughter these infidels—rather than merely oppress them, as the Taliban does. For the same reason, they’re disgruntled over the Taliban’s willingness to have diplomatic relations with Shia-majority Iran. Like all inquisitors through history, they believe that anyone who shows leniency to heretics thereby convicts themself of heresy as well.
Endless enemies, endless wars
The fact that two of the most extreme, fanatical and violent Islamist groups in the world can’t get along with each other shows why religion isn’t, and never will be, a force for peace.
Religion can’t give rise to peace because it doesn’t tend towards unity. Unlike science, which is built on objective evidence and therefore tends to converge over time, religious belief is fundamentally an opinion. No two sects, and likely no two individuals, have the exact same beliefs about what God wants. There will always be disagreements, even if they’re so seemingly insignificant that no outsider would notice.
In a secular democracy, this is less of a problem. Everyone can follow their own conscience, so long as they respect others’ right to do the same. They don’t need to agree on issues of faith to share power or live together peacefully.
But a fundamentalist theocracy, such as both the Taliban and ISIS want to create, can’t tolerate differences of opinion. Every note of dissent has to be crushed. Everyone who lives within their borders must be forced to agree. Worse, some heretics try to conceal their views—so they have to be hunted down and rooted out.
To live in such a society demands never-ending vigilance against heretics without and within. The naturally suspicious and paranoid mindset of the fundamentalist soon has them seeing enemies, real or imagined, everywhere they look. And the winner-take-all dynamic of authoritarian states gives everyone an incentive to make sure their beliefs end up on top.
This means that, for religious fundamentalists, the world is never pure enough or faithful enough. They’ll always find enemies to battle. If they somehow run out of enemies, they’ll just make new ones. They split hairs finer and ever finer, elevating once-trivial differences to sacred dogmas. A single iota can be the dividing line between the righteous faithful and the sinful unbelievers.
As long as humans are human, we’ll never be unanimous in our opinions. Religious dissent will never be completely purged. Theocrats promise to create an earthly paradise just as soon as they get everyone to agree on the true faith. But the orthodox perfection they imagine is like a mirage in the desert. It’s an illusion you can chase forever and never catch.
Because this will never happen, religious fundamentalists are dooming themselves to a life of endless war and strife. The Taliban and ISIS are a case in point, and a cautionary parable for the rest of the world. They’re locked in a spiral of bloodshed that seems unlikely to ever end. They’ll kill each other down to the last man, and when everything around them lies in ruins, they’ll be no closer to unity than the day they started.