Muslims From Afghanistan

"Your letter, replete with sentiments of friendship and regard, expressing your solicitude for the propagation of the faith, and the extirpation of the abandoned irreligious infidels; informing us that in the mosques, after the conclusion of public worship, supplications are made at the Throne of Grace for the increase of our dominion, and the success of our triumphant banners . . . arrived in a most auspicious season . . . as the object of your well- directed mind is the destruction of the infidels and the extension of the faith of the Prophet . . . we shall soon march with our conquering army to wage war with the infidels and polytheists, and to free those regions from the contamination of these shameless tribes with the edge of the sword; so that the inhabitants of those regions may be restored to comfort and repose; be therefore perfectly satisfied in this respect . . . continue to gratify us by communicating to us by letters, your situation and sentiments."

"He wrote to Zaman Shah, the king of Afghanistan, that "we should come together in carrying on a holy war against the infidels, and for freeing the region of Hindustan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion (Hindus)"."

"Your Majesty’s gracious letter…has given increased [value] to our friendship…You were pleased to write that it was the object of yours to crush the infidels and to propagate the religion of Muhammad; please God, your Majesty would soon proceed with the conquering army to prosecute a holy war against the infidels and heretics…It is my hope…that the oppression of the infidels and polytheists may be destroyed by the avenging sword of those who have been selected by God to exercise dominion… The English having received intimation of the arrival of the ambassadors of the Sarkar [Tipu’s ambassadors] at your Highness’s court…have taken umbrage, and in concert with the infidels, taken up arms against me and they have written that they entertain the design to subvert Islam. Many are the words that proceed from their lips but their words are nought but lies."

"Your Majesty must doubtless have been informed that my exalted ambition is to wage a Holy War…In the midst of this land of heretics, the Almighty protects this tract of Muhammadan dominion like the Ark of Noah and cuts short the extended arm of the abandoned heretic."

"His 5 February 1797 letter to Zaman Shah is more fervent, severer in tone and morbid in its violence against Hindus: I have the satisfaction to hear that your Majesty, the Ornament on the throne, the promoter of Faith, the destroyer of the heretics, etc, employs your whole time and exerts every faculty in the support of the enlightened Religion, and is wholly devoted to its cause… In return to this [Zaman Shah’s religious piety] nearly a hundred thousand followers of the Faith, nay more, assemble every Friday at the mosques of the capital [Srirangapattana], called the Allah and Aksha mosques, and after the prescribed forms of prayer…as “Grant thy aid, O God, to those who aid the religion of Muhammad….and destroy those who destroy the religion of Muhammad…and pray that the Almighty will render your Majesty who is the supporter of the Faith.”"

"If none of your Majesty’s noblemen should be sufficiently in your confidence or equal to the undertaking, and if your Majesty should be entirely at ease with respect to the state of your country… it is proposed that you should in person proceed to Delhi, and having made the necessary arrangements there, establish one of your confidential servants in the office of the Vizier and return to your own capital. The person who may be selected…[as the] Vizier must be a man of enterprise and status, that remaining twelve months with his army in Delhi, he may be able to bring under subjection the chiefs of the neighbouring country. The second year, your Majesty should also send from your capital a small army as a reinforcement so that the Vizier…may proceed with the chiefs of Hindustan towards the Deccan. Should those infidel Brahmins direct their power to that quarter, by the grace of God, the hands of the heroes of the Faith in this part of the world shall be raised for their chastisement. After their extirpation, it will be proper to enjoin the Vizier…to fix upon a place of rendezvous and there to meet me and then a proper means may be adopted for the settlement of the country."

"That your Majesty should remain in your capital and send one of your Number; a man in whom you have confidence, to Delhi with an army; that, this person on his arrival there should make the necessary arrangements, and after deposing the infirm king who has reduced the Faith to this state of weakness, select from among the family someone properly qualified for the Government; he should remain one year for the purpose of settling the country and taking with him the chiefs of the country who are the Rajputs and … direct his standard towards the Deccan, so that the Brahmins and others may come forward and present themselves to him, whilst I, from this quarter, with the aid of God, will raise the standard of the Holy Wars and make the infidels bow under the sword of Faith. After these shall have been sacrificed to the sword, and no longer exist, the remaining infidels will be nothing. Afterwards, the settlements of the Deccan may be concluded in any manner which shall be mutually agreed upon."

"I am very desirous of engaging in this pursuit, but there are three sects of infidels in the way of it, and although when we are united there is little ground for apprehension, yet the union of the followers of the Faith is necessary. If that Ornament of the Throne, that conqueror of kingdoms, should adopt (one of the) two plans for effecting this, it will tend to the glory of the Faith. One of the plans is as under."

"The imbecility and ruinous condition of the kingdom of Delhi are more obvious than the sun. Delhi, which is one of the seats of the Government of the Muslim faith, has been reduced to this state of ruin so that the infidels altogether prevail; it has become proper and incumbent upon the leaders of the Faithful that uniting together they exterminate the infidels."

"Here is a representative letter addressed to Zaman Shah of Kabul: Your Majesty would soon proceed…to prosecute a holy war against the infidels…should those infidel Brahmins [Marathas] direct their power…the hands of the heroes of the Faith [Muslim soldiers] in this part of the world shall be raised for their chastisement. We should unite in carrying on a holy war against the infidels…Delhi, the seat of the Government of the Muhammadan faith has been reduced to this state of ruin so that the infidels altogether prevail…we should unite in carrying a holy war against the infidels and free these regions of Hindustan."

"In his letter to Zaman Shah, Tipu stated that Delhi, which was the seat of Mohammedan power, had been reduced to a state of a ruin, since ‘the infidels [Marathas] altogether prevail . . . it is incumbent upon the leaders of the faithful, to unite together and exterminate the infidels . . . the union of the followers of the faith [Islam] is necessary.’...In the second year, the Afghan army was to invade the Maratha dominions in the Deccan from the north, while Tipu was to attack from the south, raising ‘the standard of holy war and make the infidels bow under the sword of the faith.’"

"In early 1796, Tipu had dispatched ambassadors, Meer Habibullah and Meer Mohammad Raza, to Zaman Shah with valuable presents, elephants and messages of friendship to pursue the common cause of ‘carrying on the holy war against the infidels and freeing the region of Hindostan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion.’"

"Agreeably to the Command of God and his Apostle [Prophet] . . . we should unite in carrying on a holy war against the infidels, and free the region of Hindustan from the contamination of the enemies of our religion. The followers of the faith [Islam] in these territories, always assembling at a select time on Friday, offer up their prayers in the words: ‘Oh God! Slay the infidels who have closed the way! Let their sins return upon their own heads, with the punishment that is due to them!’"

"He extols Zaman Shah as ‘the ornament of the throne, the promoter of religion, the destroyer of infidels and oppressors . . . employs your whole time and exerts every faculty, in the support of the enlightened religion, and is wholly devoted to its cause.’"

"Your letter replete with sentiments of friendship and regard, expressing your solicitude for the propagation of the Faith and the extirpation of the abandoned irreligious infidels…for the increase of our dominion and the success of our triumphant banners. As the object of your well-directed mind is the destruction of the infidels and the extension of the Faith of the Prophet, please God, we shall soon march with our conquering army to wage war with the infidels and try to free those regions from the contamination of those shameless tribes with the edge of [our] swords…"

"We ask God to save our poor people from trials and harms."

"During Mullah Omar's rule, there was no internet, yet affairs progressed smoothly."

"For those cases that have met the Sharia conditions of and , you are obliged to implement Hudud and Qisas. This is the order of the Sharia and my order and it is obligatory."

"You [the United States] have used the mother of all bombs and you are welcome to use even the atomic bomb against us because nothing can scare us into taking any step that is against Islam or Sharia."

"The success of the Afghan jihad is not only a source of pride for Afghans but also for Muslims all over the world."

"I am not here to fulfill your [foreigners'] wishes, nor are they acceptable to me. I cannot compromise on Sharia to work with you or even move a step forward."

"A woman is not property, but a noble and free human being. No one can give her to anyone in exchange for a peace deal and/or to end animosity."

"We have expelled the foreigners and I would like to congratulate the whole nation on this. This is pride, not only for a limited number of people. This is a proud moment for the whole nation. This kind of pride is rare when it can be achieved. The whole nation, after the whole history of the nation and therefore, on the base of this I would like to congratulate the whole nation and I would like to welcome you. Freedom and independence seeking is a legitimate right of every nation. The Afghans also use their legitimate right after 20 years of struggle for freedom and for emancipating the country from occupation, this was our right and we achieved this right."

"The issue of women is very important. The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women within the framework of Sharia. Our sisters, our men have the same rights; they will be able to benefit from their rights. They can have activities in different sectors and different areas on the basis of our rules and regulations: educational, health and other areas. They are going to be working with us, shoulder to shoulder with us. The international community, if they have concerns, we would like to assure them that there’s not going to be any discrimination against women, but of course within the frameworks that we have. Our women are Muslim. They will also be happy to be living within our frameworks of Sharia."

"We would also like to request the international community that we then recognise international boundaries and interactions. We should be treated accordingly. According to this framework, we do not want to have any problem with the international community, we’d like to act on the basis of our principles of our religion, of our culture, and we have given a lot of sacrifices. We have the right to act on the basis of our religious principles and rules and regulations, it’s of the right of Afghans."

"I would like to assure the international community, including the United States that nobody will be a harmed in Afghanistan. I would like to assure our neighbours, regional countries, we are not going to allow our territory to be used against anybody, any country in the world. So the whole global community should be assured that we are committed to these pledges that you will not be harmed in any way from our soil."

"We have pardoned anyone, all those who had fought against us. We don’t want to repeat any conflict anymore again. We want to do away with the factors for conflict. Therefore, the Islamic Emirate does not have any kind of hostility or animosity with anybody; animosities have come to an end and we would like to live peacefully. We don’t want any internal enemies and any external enemies."

"Non-Muslims expressing concerns over these laws or rejecting them should first educate themselves about Islamic laws and respect Islamic values ...We find it insulting to our Islamic Sharia [law] when they object due to a lack of knowledge and understanding."

"Ghani is perhaps best known now as a man who fled his presidential palace with $169 million. Even before an official denial from the former president, questions around the logistics of transporting that amount of cash cast doubt on the claims. Still, regardless of what actually happened when Ghani fled Kabul, there is a truthfulness to the image of the failed leader stealing from the Afghan people."

"No matter what happened in his final moments as president, Ghani was a failure at putting into practice what he had spent his entire life talking about: making Afghanistan a prosperous nation. While he was a darling of Western politicians and prestigious NGOs, he was a leader completely inept and out of touch with the realities of a country he spent most of his adult life avoiding."

"Ashraf Ghani embodies the degree to which modern neoliberal democracy is a façade for the ruling kleptocracy."

"This is the worst job on Earth"

"The behavior of the Taliban as well as their extremist attitudes do not correspond in any way with a tolerant Islam. We have always been opposed to extremist tendencies of Islam and we still are. We have not stopped insisting on defending an Islam of tolerance which would be profitable to every Muslim, in Afghanistan and in the whole world, and we will always defend it."

"We will never be a pawn in someone else's game. We will always be Afghanistan."

"If President Bush doesn't help us, these terrorists will damage the U.S. and Europe very soon."

"If we stop fighting, terrorism will spread all over the world."

"I am afraid to die sometimes, but God is the one to decide when a person dies. I want to live to the fullest until then."

"I am ready to serve the people of Afghanistan, particularly in order to restore peace. I will be ready to assume any duty at the service of my people."

"It has always been our deep conviction, and we have always stressed the fact that the only solution for Afghanistan is democracy through elections. Each individual must have the right to vote. The day we will be in Kabul, we will organize elections under the auspices of international organizations."

"Afghans want to regain their right to self-determination through a democratic or traditional mechanism acceptable to our people.… We are willing to move toward this noble goal. We consider this as part of our duty to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence and fanaticism."

"'I have myself seen the depredations of the Afghans round Dehli and Mattra. God defend us from them! It makes the very hair of the body stand on end to think of them. Two hundred thousand men were destroyed in these massacres, and the hordes of the enemy were without number. Such atrocities, forsooth, were perpetrated in compliance with their religion and law! What cared they for the religion, the law, the honour and reputation of the innocent sufferers? It was enough for such bigots that splendour accrued by their deeds to the faith of Muhammad and 'Ali!'"

"Suddenly the breeze of victory began to blow, and as willed by Allah, the wretched Deccanis (Maratha's) suffered utter defeat."

"Ahmad Shah greatly desired to subdue the Sikhs, and his army attacked and gained control of the Sikh's holy city of Amritsar, where he brutally massacred thousands of Sikh followers. Not only did he viciously demolish the sacred temples and buildings, but he ordered these holy places to be covered with animals blood as an insult and desecration of their religion."

"But the Jat peasantry were determined that it was over their corpses that the ravager should enter the sacred capital of Braja. 'eight miles north of MathurA, JawAhir Singh barred the invader's path with less than 10,000 men and offered a desperate resistance (28th February, 1757). From sunrise the battle raged for nine hours, and at the end of it 'ten to twelve thousand infantry lay dead on the two sides taken together, the wounded were beyond count"

"The Hindu Bethlehem now lay utterly prostrate before the invaders. Early at dawn on 1st March the Afghan cavalry burst into the unwalled and unsuspecting city of Mathura, and neither by their master's orders nor from the severe handling they received in yesterday's fight, were they in a mood to show mercy. For four hours there was an indiscriminate massacre and rape of the unresisting Hindu population - all of them non-combatants and many of them priests.' Idols were broken and kicked about like polo-balls by the Islamic heroes. Houses were demolished in search of plunder and then wantonly set on fire. Glutted with the blood of three thousand men, SardAr JahAn Khan laid a contribution of one lakh on what remained of the population and marched away from the smoking ruins the same night. 'After the tiger came the jackal. 'When after the massacre Ahmad ShAh's troops marched onward from MathurA, Najib and his army remained there for three days, plundered much money and buried treasure, and carried off many beautiful females as captives.' The blue waves of the Jamuna gave eternal repose to such of her daughters as could flee to her outstretched arms; some other happy women found a nearer escape from dishonour by death in their household wells. But for those of their sisters who survived there was no escape from a fate worse than death. A Muslim eyewitness thus describes the scene in the ruined city a fortnight later. 'Everywhere in the lanes and bazaars lay the headless trunks of the slain and the whole city was burning. Many buildings had been knocked down. The water of the Jamuna flowing past was of a yellowish color, as if polluted by blood. The man [a Muslim jeweller of the city, robbed of his all and fasting for several days] said that for seven days following the general slaughter the water had turned yellow. At the edge of the stream I saw a number of huts of vairAgis and sannyAsis [i.e., Hindu ascetic], in each of which lay a severed head with the head of a dead cow applied to its mouth and tied to it with a rope round its neck.' 'Issuing from the ruins of MathurA, JahAn Khan roamed the country round, and plundering everywhere as directed. VrindAvan, seven miles north of MathurA could not escape, as its wealth was indicated by its many temples. Here another general massacre was practised upon the inoffensive monks of the most pacific order of Vishnu's worshippers (c. 6th March). As the same Muhammadan diarist records after a visit to VrindAvan: 'Wherever you gazed you beheld heaps of the slain; you could only pick your way with difficulty, owing to the quantity of bodies lying about and the amount of blood spilt. At one place that we reached we saw about two hundred dead children lying in a heap. Not one of the dead bodies had a head.' The stench and effluvium in the air were such that it was painful to open your mouth or even to draw breath.'..."

"'Next morning the sun revealed a horrid spectacle on the vast plain south of PAnipat. On the actual field of the combat thirty-one distinct heaps of the slain were counted, the number of bodies in each ranging from 500 upwards to 1000 and in four up to 1500 a rough total of 28,000. In addition to these, the ditch round the Maratha camp was full of dead bodies, partly the victims of disease and famine during the long siege and partly wounded men who had crawled out of the fighting to die there. West and south of PAnipat city, the jungle and the road in the line of MarAtha retreat were littered with the remains of those who had fallen unresisting in the relentless DurrAni pursuit or from hunger and exhaustion. Their number - probably three-fourths non-combatants and one-fourth soldiers - could not have been far short of the vast total of those slain in the battlefield. 'The hundreds who lay down wounded, perished from the severity of the cold.'.... 'After the havoc of combat followed massacre in cold blood. Several hundreds of MarAthas had hidden themselves in the hostile city of PAnipat through folly or helplessness; and these were hunted out next day and put to the sword. According to one plausible account, the sons of Abdus Samad Khan and Mian Qutb received the DurrAni king's permission to avenge their father's death by an indiscriminate massacre of the MarAthas for one day, and in this way nearly nine thousand men perished; these were evidently non-combatants. The eyewitness Kashiraj Pandit thus describes the scene: 'Every Durrani soldier brought away a hundred or two of prisoners and slew them in the outskirts of their camp, crying out, When I started from our country, my mother, father, sister and wife told me to slay so may kafirs for their sake after we had gained the victory in this holy war, so that the religious merit of this act [of infidel slaying] might accrue to them. In this way, thousands of soldiers and other persons were massacred. In the Shah's camp, except the quarters of himself and his nobles, every tent had a heap of severed heads before it. One may say that it was verily doomsday for the MarAtha people.'.... The booty captured within the entrenchment was beyond calculation and the regiments of Khans [i.e. 8000 troopers of AbdAli clansmen] did not, as far as possible, allow other troops like the IrAnis and the TurAnis to share in the plunder; they took possession of everything themselves, but sold to the Indian soldiers handsome Brahman women for one tuman and good horses for two tumans each.' The Deccani prisoners, male and female reduced to slavery by the victorious army numbered 22,000, many of them being the sons and other relatives of the sardArs or middle class men. Among them 'rose-limbed slave girls' are mentioned.' Besides these 22,000 unhappy captives, some four hundred officers and 6000 men fled for refuge to ShujA-ud-daulah's camp, and were sent back to the Deccan with monetary help by that nawab, at the request of his Hindu officers. The total loss of the MarAthas after the battle is put at 50,000 horses, captured either by the AfghAn army or the villagers along the route of flight, two hundred thousand draught cattle, some thousands of camels, five hundred elephants, besides cash and jewellery. 'Every trooper of the Shah brought away ten, and sometimes twenty camels laden with money. The captured horses were beyond count but none of them was of value; they came like droves of sheep in their thousands."

"“Moving a fortnight behind his vanguard, the AbdAli king himself came upon the scene. He had stormed Ballabhgarh on 3rd March and halted there for two days. On 15th March he arrived near MathurA, and wisely avoiding that reeking human shambles crossed over to the eastern bank of the Jamuna and encamped at MahAvan, six miles south-east of the city. Two miles to his west lay Gokul, the seat of the pontiff of the rich VallabhAcharya sect. The AbdAli’s policy of frightfulness had defeated his cupidity: dead men could not be held to ransom. The invader’s unsatisfied need of money was pressing him; he sought the help of ImAd’s local knowledge as to the most promising sources of booty. A detachment from his camp was sent to plunder Gokul. But here the monks were martial NAgA sannyAsis of upper India and RajputAna. Four thousand of these naked ash-smeared warriors stood outside Gokul and fought the AfghAns, till half of their own number was killed after slaying an equal force of the enemy. Then at the entreaty of the Bengal subahdAr’s envoy (Jugalkishor) and his assurance that a hermitage of faqirs could not contain any money, the AbdAli recalled the detachment. ‘All the vairAgis perished but Gokulnath [the deity of the city] was saved’, as a Marathi newsletter puts it.” [Rajwade, i. 63.]"

"Abdali’s soldiers would be paid 5 Rupees (a sizeable amount at the time) for every enemy head brought in. Every horseman had loaded up all his horses with the plundered property, and atop of it rode the girl-captives and the slaves. The severed heads were tied up in rugs like bundles of grain and placed on the heads of the captives…Then the heads were stuck upon lances and taken to the gate of the chief minister for payment."

"It was an extraordinary display! Daily did this manner of slaughter and plundering proceed. And at night the shrieks of the women captives who were being raped, deafened the ears of the people…All those heads that had been cut off were built into pillars, and the captive men upon whose heads those bloody bundles had been brought in, were made to grind corn, and then their heads too were cut off. These things went on all the way to the city of Agra, nor was any part of the country spared."

"“Ahmad Shah Abdali in the year AH 1171 (AD 1757-58), came from the country of Kandahar to Hindastan, and on the 7th of Jumadal awwal of that year, had an interview with the Emperor ‘Ãlamgir II, at the palace of Shah-Jahanabad… After an interval of a month, he set out to coerce Raja Suraj Mal Jat, who from a distant period, had extended his sway over the province of Ãgra, as far as the environs of the city of Delhi. In three days he captured Balamgarh, situated at a distance of fifteen kos from Delhi… After causing a general massacre of the garrison he hastened towards Mathura, and having razed that ancient sanctuary of the Hindus to the ground, made all the idolaters fall a prey to his relentless sword…”"