WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

READER Samuel Green (Letters, October 4) demonstrates a very limited understanding of the history of Afghanistan and Islam. Afghanistan lies at a crossroads, and over the centuries many armies have trampled across it, starting with Alexander the Great. A long history follows, but the modern nation as such was created by the British in the 18th century as a buffer between the Raj in India and Tsarist Russia in the 18th century.

From the start it never really made sense, with over 30 languages spoken and no ruler able to control the factions. It became independent in 1919 following the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

Your correspondent uses the terms “jihad” and “sharia” with a misrepresentation of both. Jihad means “struggle” and for Muslims, the inner jihad is the struggle to be a good person and the lesser jihad is justification for war only in defence of the faith, when women and children cannot be killed, nor can other Muslims. Not surprisingly, the idea has been as much abused as the Christian Doctrine of the Just War, but Islam did not spread across South Asia as part of a jihad. As for sharia, it translates as “the way to the water” and simply means how a Muslim should live, with a variety of interpretation, a bit like so-called Christian values.

If Samuel Green is referring to the Taliban’s version of sharia, he needs to look at Saudi Arabia and their extreme version of Islam, sometimes called Wahhabiism after the alliance made between the House of Saud and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in the 18th century.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, a generation of young men grew up for a decade in refugee camps in Pakistan, with their education limited to conservative interpretations of Islam funded by Saudi Arabia. These became the Talib, who took over in Afghanistan in 1994 after the war ended and mayhem followed between the warlords. The West acknowledged them until the events of September 2001, when George

W. Bush decided they were an easier target than Saudi Arabia, although almost all the hijackers were Saudis.

Saudi Arabia gets away with it because the world relies on their oil, the profits from which are used to fund their ultraconservative version of Islam or buy weapons from Europe and the US.

Peter D. Jones Lenah Valley