After the championship of Afghanistan in SAFF soccer match, I heard a very hurting utterance. It was said that the victory of Afghanistan was the plot of the United States in order to pervert the focus of Afghans from its military presence. I was further hurt as a Mullah in Western Herat Province called the football against Sharia laws and the plot of foreign countries in order to spread moral corruption. It is really not necessary to talk about someone’s ridicules but there are some unfortunate conceptions in line with the above mentioned one that need to be explained.
Definitely, one of the key characteristics of traditional societies is to believe on invisible creatures. People in such societies believe that there some metaphysical powers that are behind incidents which
otherwise are explainable. This is not about God; rather goes far beyond it. They think that spirits, evils, ghosts and other forms of abstract creatures are involved in particular issues. For example, when someone gets sick people think that evil spirit has polluted the guy.
Such concepts largely dominate the Afghans’ lives. There are people who instead of taking a patient to the doctor, are referring to Mullahs to pray or write “Taawiz” (Talisman) for his recovery. Promulgators and those who benefit from such illusionary creatures also try their best to show themselves as complex individuals, for example, pretending that they understand something beyond what common people do.
They talk of connection with powers beyond this material world. If someone questions their statements, they react harshly often with humiliation, arguing that their things they access and the rest of people do not. They write talisman in strange language that also in manner that none are legible. They also warn that if it was opened the intended effects will go away and it may not work. That is why common people carry on such illusionary secrecy and sacred.
No doubt this concept cannot be explained in short articles like this one. I just pointed it out to explain that expansion of such illusionary powers have affected the understanding of people from issues which have nothing to with metaphysical world. Many brand it as propaganda theory but I think it is far beyond it, in our case. It is based on the suspicion that nations are out there always engaged in plotting to ruin their lives and values.
Unfortunately, it is not something that common people believe rather literate and educated layers of the society stick to such baseless assumptions. They think that the biggest threat to interest of West is their religion and unique beliefs. That is why anything done by western countries are not welcomed because people try to interpret them within such suspicious environment.
That is why though the US donations have turned the country upside down and developed our country to a level that is not comparable with 2001 meanwhile people do not have an appropriate view towards it!
In addition, another breeding ground for such suspicion is foreign-phobia. Some believe that countries follow their own interests instead of doing humanitarian work. They think behind any unfortunate things, there are the hands of western countries.
During past years, I have heard different reasons by different people aimed to convince that foreign countries benefit larger in comparison to their losses. Those with religious background are telling that
Allah Almighty said in the Holy Book that Jews and Christians never become friends with Muslims. Interesting, when it comes verses of Holy Quran like there is no compulsion for any to choose a religion for himself; everybody says that Holy Quran is not easy to translate. It needs years of efforts and high command on Arabic literature to understand or interpret the Verses of Holy Quran. But in the case of
verse like that above (Jews and Christians never become your allies with you) everybody becomes an interpreter.
The second category who does not have Arabic literacy, or have not heard much of religious scholars’ sermons, or those who try to pretend to assess the ground situation through the so-called educational
perspective, claim that foreign countries benefit from the war in the country. Their main obsession as well as the very reason that pushes them to deliver a disturbed interpretation, is how is it possible that
Washington spends billions of dollars without reimbursing them from the country? They always highlight the existence of huge natural and mineral wealth that foreign countries involved extracting without notice of Afghan people.
Even the bilateral relation between Kabul and Washington got cold over the opening of political office for Taliban in Doha, I heard statements like the US had already pulled out enough to compensate its expenditures of billions of dollars. But how they extracted to such vast natural resources, everybody just continue to some unknown and baseless claims by unknown individuals.
Even surprisingly, there are people who believe that Taliban are supported by the US in order to prolong the war. If it is asked how the US support the very groups who are killing Americans, the answer would be “come on, it is politics”!
I hope by the course of time and overflow of scientific subjects bring ground changes. People should not justify their failures due to foreign intervention or invisible creatures. This transition has already commenced and I hope it continues. The feedbacks of Facebook users on the issuance of Herati Mullah showed that new generation has gotten themselves out of such mysterious world.