海外发声｜上外学者刘中民在Global Times发表评论文章，谈阿富汗塔利班组建新政府面临的国内外挑战

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2021年9月7日，上外中东研究所刘中民教授在Global Times发表评论文章“Domestic and international challenges face Taliban to start governing”(阿富汗塔利班组建新政府面临的国内外挑战)，谈阿富汗塔利班组建新政府面对的国内外严峻挑战。全文如下：

Domestic and international challenges face Taliban to start governing

（图片来源：AFP）

Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Monday that a new government in the country will be announced in the next few days, reported the Xinhua News Agency. Now all eyes of the world are on the Taliban, wondering how a Taliban-led Afghan government would look like. However, there are some serious challenges that the Taliban need to deal with in the establishment of their new Afghan government.

First, the Taliban are facing an ideological challenge to find a balance between adhering to Islamic fundamentalism and achieving moderation, inclusiveness, and openness.

Recently, the Taliban have continuously emphasized that an open, inclusive Islamic government will be established in Afghanistan. They stress that both Taliban and non-Taliban parties will work together to form a new government. According to Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen, the new government in Afghanistan will include other Afghan politicians and personalities. This should mean former government officials, secular people, and non-Pashtuns. This is the open, inclusive and moderate side currently being espoused by the Taliban.

However, Islamism is the basic ground color of the Taliban, and adhering to Islam's legal system of Sharia is the bottom line of the Taliban. In their first news conference since taking over the country, the Taliban have emphasized the need for rule under Islamic law. They have promised to respect Afghan women's rights to work and study, but within the limits of Islam. This nakedly demonstrates that Islamism remains the core ideology of the Taliban.

Judging from the policies and behaviors of the mainstream Taliban, their pursuit of openness and inclusiveness is largely true and credible. However, the organization still needs to figure out ways to unify consensus internally and bridge the differences between the hardliners and moderates inside the group.

Second, a possible change of the Taliban is to abandon their past adherence to extremism. But they also face the challenge of how to completely cut themselves off from extremist organizations and groups operating inside Afghanistan. Islamic extremism is a general term for the radical or extremist ideological views, political and social ideas of contemporary Islamism. It is essentially characterized by conducting violent terrorist activities in the name of religion. The Taliban's policy practice from 1996 to 2001 was basically based on adherence to Islamism and further to Islamic extremism. Some of the Taliban's extreme practices back then were manifestations of Islamic extremism. It included the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan, frequent violent terrorist attacks, harsh public punishments, as well as their interactions with Al Qaeda.

At present, the moderation of the Taliban is mainly about changing the Islamic extremism in the past. It means that the Taliban may give up some of their extreme practices, but they will also face the problems of how to limit and restrain hardliners inside their organization from extreme practices.

Externally, the Taliban have to disassociate themselves from extremist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and Al Qaeda. They also have to curb the expansion of the Islamic State Khorasan Province, which is also known as ISIS-K. Only in this way can the Taliban fulfill their promise to make a clean break with all other extremist and terrorist groups and not allow any terrorist group to exist in Afghanistan and threaten other countries.

Last, the Taliban face the problem of identity and role transformation, especially the challenge of gaining international legal identity and integrating into the international community.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban used to have multiple identities, such as an extremist organization and rebel group. And they were closely associated with terrorist organizations. However, in the future, they should transform themselves into the ruler of the country. In particular, they should give up extremist ideology and behavior, as well as illegal economic activities, including drug smuggling.

Moreover, on the international stage, the Taliban are faced with the mission of gaining international recognition and membership of the United Nations through self-transformation. In this process, the key lies in their own realization of real moderation and clean break with extremist and terrorist organizations. At the same time, they need to show their relatively mature ability to govern the country and to represent Afghanistan's sovereignty. This also requires the Taliban to carefully manage their relations with neighboring countries, great powers, and international organizations. The Taliban should safeguard their national independence while avoiding conflict and confrontation especially in their interactions with the US and the West in general.

来源 | Global Times

编辑 | 伍雨薇

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