Sharia: Why The Taliban Must Disrupt Elections In Afghanistan

Last week elections were held in Afghanistan. Once again, the Taliban used violence to attempt to prevent Afghanis from voting.

On election day, the Taliban launched 68 attacks across Afghanistan, resulting in the closure of 431 polling stations.

In the days and weeks leading up to the election, the Taliban had spread the word across Afghanistan that those voting risked being killed or having their thumbs cut off. Voters in Afghanistan had their thumbprint used as a means of completing the act of voting.

Reports indicate that the Afghan security forces were able to protect the polling sites, but turnout was still pretty low due to fear and Taliban intimidation.

Despotic regimes around the world have historically used corruption, violence and intimidation to prevent the will of the people.

Nevertheless, the Taliban’s actions are in fact different from those of other such historical efforts to hijack free elections because the Taliban’s motivation is doctrinal.

Sharia is Islam’s unique theo-political-legal-social-military code, regarded as Allah’s law, and literally and figuratively sets the path that Muslims are supposed to follow.

Sharia is supreme. Man-made laws are regarded as illegitimate. This incompatibility of sharia and democracy was explained succinctly in the Center for Security Policy’s landmark work, Sharia: The Threat to America.

From page 36:

4. Democracy & Islam: Any system of man-made law is considered illicit under Islamic law, for whose adherents Allah already has provided the only law permitted, sharia. Islam and western-style democracy can never co-exist in harmony. “And if any fail to judge by the light of what Allah has revealed, they are no better than unbelievers.” (Q 5:47) “Sovereignty in Islam is the prerogative of Almighty Allah alone. He is the absolute arbiter of values and it is His will that determines good and evil, right and wrong.” (Mohammed Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, 3d rev. ed., (Cambridge, UK: The Islamic Text Society, 2003), 8.)“The sharia cannot be amended to conform to changing human values and standards. Rather, it is the absolute norm to which all human values and conduct must conform.” (Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi)

The Taliban is simply following doctrine. Many Westerners are unaware that the Taliban’s goal is to establish an Islamic state in Afghanistan. That Islamic state was destined to become a launching pad for global jihad as the Taliban invited jihadis from around the world to “come back” to Afghanistan for that very purpose. They were well on their way to perfecting that utopian dream before the U.S. overthrew their regime in the wake of 9/11.

Free elections, even those that are decidedly imperfect, such as those in Afghanistan, are an affront to sharia. The Taliban regard Muslims in Afghanistan who participate in the electoral process to be heretics, treated as enemies.

For the motivation and explanation for almost all the actions and words of jihadists such as the Taliban, we must look to sharia. Sharia is their goal and the code by which they live. In short, sharia is the key to understanding jihad—and it provides the complete explanation as to why the Taliban would never participate in elections in Afghanistan and insist on using violence and intimidation to disrupt them.