Afghan Ambassador Speaks

[Guest guest]

Here is the statement of facts....It is for only true Muslims (NOT

for those FIRQAS that were created after the death of Prophet of

Islam (PBUH)....

Dr. Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi:

 

 

I was just coming from [a meeting with] a group of scholars, and the

first thing we started there was the statues. And the first thing we

started here was also the statues. It's very unfortunate how little

we see and how little we know. And it really confuses me, if people

really know that little or not. Nobody has seen the problems of

Afghanistan; nobody saw their problems before. And the only thing

that represents Afghanistan today are the statues.

 

The problem of Afghanistan was not new. As you know that Afghanistan

is called, "The Crossroads of Asia." So, we are suffering because of

our geo-strategic location. We have suffered in the 18th century,

19th century, and we are still suffering in this century.

 

We have not attacked the British. We have not attacked the Russians.

It was them who attacked us. So the problems in Afghanistan you see

is not our creation. That reflects the image of the world. If you

don't like the image in the mirror, do not break the mirror; break

your face.

 

 

The problems in Afghanistan started in 1979. Afghanistan was a

peaceful country and it was doing its own job. The Russians, along

with their 140,000 troops attacked Afghanistan in the December of

1979, just 21 years ago, stayed there for a decade, killed one and a

half million people, maimed one million more people, and six million

out of the eighteen million people migrated because of the Russian

brutalities. Even today, our children are dying because of the

landmines that they planted for us. And nobody knows about this.

 

After the Russians left-during the Russian occupation, on the other

side, the American government, the British government, the French,

the Chinese, and all of the rest, supported the counter-

revolutionaries called the Mujahideen; 7 parties only in Pakistan and

8 parties in Iran who fought the Russian occupation. And after the

Russians left, these parties went into Afghanistan. All of them had

different ideologies, a lot of weapon. And instead of having a

single administration, they fought in Afghanistan. The destruction

that they brought was worse than the destruction the Russians

brought. 63,000 people were only killed in the capitol, Kabul. Seeing

all this chaos, and the complete destruction of our country, and I

don't have to forget that after the Soviets left, another million

people migrated because of the lawlessness that existed in

Afghanistan-7 million people.

So seeing this destruction and lawlessness, a group of students

called the Taliban-Taliban is the plural word of "students" in our

language; it may be two students in Arabic, but in our language it

means "students"-so a group of students started a movement called the

Movement of Students. It first started in a village in the southern

province of Afghanistan, called Kandahar. It happened when a war-

lord, or a commander abducted two minor girls, raped them, and the

parents of those girls went to a school and asked the teacher of the

school to help them. The teacher of that school, along with his 53

students, finding only 16 guns, went and attacked the base of that

commander. After releasing those two girls, they hanged that

commander, and so many of their [the commander's] people were also

hanged. This story was told everywhere; and this was called

the "terrorist" story of the Taliban, or the Students. BBC also

quoted this story. Seeing or hearing this story, many other students

joined this movement and started disarming the rest of the warlords,

who were worse than these. I will not prolong this story-so far, this

same students' movement controls 95% of the country; they captured

the capitol, including the four major cities. And only a bunch of

those warlords are remaining in the northern corridor of Afghanistan.

So our achievements are as follows. We are in a government for only

five years, and the following things that we have done, and many of

you may not know:

a.. The first thing we have done is reunify the fragmented country.

Afghanistan was formerly fragmented into five parts. The first thing

we have done is to reunify that country. The United Nations, the

United States, everybody was confused as to how to reunify that

country, and nobody could do it. First thing we have done is to

reunify that country.

b.. Second thing we have done, which everybody failed to do, was

disarming a population. After dealing [with] the war of the Russians,

and the Americans I would say, every Afghan got a Kalashnikov, and

even sophisticated weapons such as stinger missiles, and they even

got fighter planes and fighter helicopters. So disarming these people

was impossible. The United Nations in 1992 passed an appeal asking

for 3 billion dollars to re-purchase that arms, to start a process of

repurchasing those arms. And suddenly, because of its

impracticalibility, that plan never materialized, and everybody

forgot about Afghanistan. So the second thing we have done is to

disarm 95% of that country.

c.. And the third thing that we have done is to establish a single

administration under Afghanistan, which did not exist for 10 years.

d.. And the fourth achievement that we have-that is surprising to

everybody-is that we have eradicated 75% of all worlds Opium

cultivation. Afghanistan produced 75% of all worlds Opium. The drug,

you know that Opium? The Narcotics business? And last year we issued

an edict asking the people to stop growing Opium, and this year, the

United Nations Drug Control Program, UNDCP, and their head, [Mr.]

Barnard F., proudly announced that there was 0% of Opium cultivation.

Not at all. And this was not a good news for UN itself because many

of them lost their jobs. In the UNDCP, 700 so called "experts" were

working there and they got their salaries and they never went into

Afghanistan. So when we issued this edict, I know that they were not

happy. And this year they lost their jobs. And this was our fourth

achievement.

e.. The fifth achievement that we have, but it's a little

controversial, some of our friends will not know is the restoration

of Human rights. Now, YOU may think that is a violation of Human

Rights, but from OUR perspective that is the restoration of Human

Rights. Because usually [among] the fundamental rights of a human

being is the right to Live. Before us, nobody could live peacefully

in Afghanistan. So the first thing we have done, begun [to give] to

the people is a secure and peaceful life. The second major thing that

we have restored is to give them free and fair justice; you don't

have to buy justice, unlike here. You will have justice freely. And

you have criticized us for violating women's rights; now, who knows

what happened before us. Only some symbolic schools, or symbolic

posts were given to some women in the ministry, and that was called

the restoration of women's rights. I can see some Afghans living

here, and they will agree with me, that in the rural areas of

Afghanistan, women were used as animals. They were SOLD actually. The

first thing we have done is to give the self-determination to women,

and it happened not in the history of Afghanistan. Throughout the

history of Afghanistan, during all the so-called civilized kings or

whatever, they didn't give this right to women, so women were sold.

They didn't have the right to select their husbands, or to reject

their husbands. First thing we have done is to let them choose their

future. And you will know that throughout south Asia, women are

killed under the title of "honor killings." It happens when a woman's

relation is detected with a man, whether or not the relation was

sexual, they're both killed. But now this is not happening in our

country. And the third thing that happened only in Afghanistan, was

women were exchanged as gifts; this was not something religious; this

was something cultural. When two tribal tribes were fighting among

themselves, then in order to get their tribal issue reconciliated,

they would exchange women, and then [they] would make, or announce

reconciliation. And this has been stopped. If we [had to give]

fundamental rights of woman, we had to start from zero; we couldn't

jump in the middle. Now you've asked me about the rights of women's

education and the rights of women's work. Unlike what is said here,

women do work in Afghanistan. You're right that until 1997-I mean, in

1996 when we captured the capitol Kabul, we did ask women to stay

home. It didn't mean that we wanted them to stay at home forever, but

nobody listened to us. We said that there is no law, and there is no

order, and have to stay at home. They were raped before us, everyday.

So, after we disarmed the people, and after we brought law and order,

and now women are working. You are right that women are not working

in the ministry of defense, like here. We don't want our women to be

fighter pilot, or to be used as objects of decoration for

advertisements. But they do work. They work in the Ministry of

Health, Interior, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Affairs,

and so on. So, and we don't have any problem with women's education.

We have said that we want education, and we will have education

whether or not we are under anybody's pressure, because that is part

of our belief. We are ordered to do that. When we say that there

should be segregated schools, it does not mean that we don't want our

women to be educated. It is true that we are against co-education;

but it is not true that we are against women's education. We do have

schools even now, but the problem is the resources. We cannot expand

these programs. Before, our government there were numerous

curriculums that were going on; there were curriculums which preached

the king-for the kings, and there were curriculums which preached for

the communists, and there were curriculums from all these seven

parties [the previously mentioned]. So, the Students were confused as

to what to study, and the first we have done today is to unify that

curriculum, and that's going on. But we are criticized, and we say

that instead of criticism, if you just help us once, that will make a

difference. Because criticism will not make a difference. If you

[talk?] criticism from New York, thousands of miles away, we don't

care. But if you come there and help us, we do care. So actually

there are more girls students studying in the faculty of medical

sciences than boys are. This is not me who is saying this, it is the

United Nations who has announced this. Recently we reopened the

faculty of medical science in all major cities of Afghanistan and in

Kandahar, there are more girl students than boys. But they are

segregated. And the Swedish committees have also established schools

for girls. I know they are not enough, but that's what we can do. So,

that is what I say that we have restored. I don't say we are 100%

perfect, and nobody will say that they are 100% perfect. We do have

shortcomings, and we do need to amend our policies. But we can't do

everything over night.

f.. And the sixth problem, that we are-is it sixth or seventh?

Seventh I think-the seventh problem that we are accused of is

Terrorism, or the existence of terrorists in Afghanistan. And for

Americans terrorism or terrorist means only bin Laden. Now you will

not know that Afghanistan, or bin Laden was in Afghanistan 17 years

before even we existed. Bin Laden was in Afghanistan, fought the

Soviet Union, and Mr. Ronald Reagan, the president of America in that

time, and Dick, Mr. Dick Chaney called such people "freedom fighters"

or the "Heroes of Independence," because they were fighting for their

cause. So Osama bin Laden was one of those guys who was instigated by

such media reports, so in that provocation by these countries to go

to Afghanistan and fight the Soviets there. And now when the Soviet

Union is fragmented, such people were not needed anymore, and they

were transformed into terrorists-from heroes to terrorists. So

exactly like Mr. Yassir Arafat was transformed from a terrorist to a

hero. So we don't know as to what is the definition of Terrorism. We

do regret that the terrorists were actually horrific acts and they

were terrorist acts. But if they are terrorist acts, what is the

difference between those terrorist acts and the attacks on

Afghanistan-when in 1998 attacks, cruise missile attacks on

Afghanistan. Neither of the two were declared and both of them killed

civilians. So we are confused as to what is the definition of

Terrorism. If it means killing civilians blindly, both of them killed

civilians blindly. And the fact is, I'm not going to be offensive or

rude, or rude about this, I'm going to be frank. And I think it's

sometimes honest to be rude. If the United States that it has acted

for its defense, lets see. The United States government tried to kill

a man without even giving him a fair trial. In 1998, they just sent

cruise missiles into Afghanistan and they announced that they were

trying to kill Osama bin Laden. We didn't know Osama bin Laden then.

I didn't know him; he was just a simple man. So we were all shocked.

I was one of those men who was sitting at home at night, I was called

for an immediate council meeting and we all were told the United

States have attacked Afghanistan. With 75 cruise missiles and trying

to kill one man. And they missed that man; killed 19 other students

and never apologized for those killings. So what would you do if you

were in our status; if we were to go and send 75 cruise missiles into

the United States and say that we were going to kill a man that we

thought-not believed-that we thought was responsible for our embassy,

and we missed that man, and we killed 19 other Americans-what would

the United States do? An instant declaration of war. But we were

polite. We didn't declare war. We had a lot of problems at home; we

didn't want further problem. And since then, we are very open-

minded on this issue. We have said, that if really this man is

involved in the Kenya/Tanzania acts, if anybody can give us proof or

evidence about his involvement in these horrific acts, we will punish

him. Nobody gave us evidence. We put him on trial for 45 days and

nobody gave us any kind of evidence. The fact is that the United

States told us they did not believe in our judicial system. We were

surprised as to what kind of judicial system they have? They showed

us as to what they are doing to the people-they just tried to kill a

man without even giving him a fair trial, even if one of us is a

criminal here, the police is not going to blow his house, he must go

to a court first. So, that was rejected. Our first proposal, despite

all these things, was rejected. They said they will not believe in

our judicial system, and we must give him to New York. The second

proposal that we gave after the rejection of this first proposal we

gave was, we are ready to accept an international monitoring group to

come into Afghanistan and monitor this man's activities in

Afghanistan. So that he does nothing. Even that he has no

telecommunications [--]. That proposal was also rejected. And the

third proposal we gave, six months ago, was that we were ready, that

we were ready to try or accept a third Islamic country's decision, or

the trial of [--] in a third Islamic country, with consent of Saudi

Arabia and Afghanistan-that was also rejected. So we don't know, as

to what is the problem behind. If bin Laden was the only issue, we

are still very open minded, and for the fourth time, I'm here, with a

letter from my leadership that I'm going to submit to the state

department hoping that they will resolve the problem. But I don't

think so [that] they'll solve the problem. Because we think, and I

personally think now that maybe the United States is looking for a

Boogy Man always. Remember what Gorbachev said? He said, that he's

going to do the worst thing ever to the United States. And everybody

thought that he's going to blow the United States with nuclear weapon

. But he said, "I'm going to remove their enemy." And then he

fragmented Soviet Union. And he was right. After he fragmented Soviet

Union, a lot of people lost their jobs in the Pentagon, in the CIA,

and the FBI, because they were not needed anymore. So we think that

maybe these guys are looking for a Boogy Man now. Maybe they want to

justify their annual budget, maybe they want to make their citizens

feel that they are still needed to defend them. Afghanistan is not a

terrorist state; we cannot even make a needle. How are we going to be

a terrorist state? How are we going to be a threat to the world? If

the world "terrorism" is really derived from the word "terror", then

there are countries making weapons of mass destruction, countries

making nuclear weapons, forest deforestation, soil, air, and water

pollution-they are terrorist states; we are not. We cannot even make

a needle; how are we going to be a threat to the world? So as I said

in the beginning, the situation in Afghanistan is not our creation.

The situation in Afghanistan reflects the world's image. If you don't

like the image in the mirror, do not break the mirror; break your

face.

Now, we are under sanctions. And the sanctions have caused a lot of

problems, despite that we are going under so many problems, the 23

years of continuous war, the total destruction of our infrastructure,

and the problem of refugees, and the problem of land mines in our

agricultural lands, all of a sudden the United Nations, with the

provocation of Russia, is imposing sanctions on Afghanistan. And the

sanctions have been approved; we are under sanctions. Several hundred

children died a month ago, here it is (holds up pamphlet). Seven

hundred children died because of malnutrition and the severe cold

weather. Nobody even talked about that. Everybody knows about the

statues. For us, we are surprised, that the world is destroying our

future with economic sanctions, then they have no right to worry

about our past. Everybody is saying that they are destroying their

heritage-they don't have any right to talk about that. They are

destroying the future of our children with economic sanctions, how

are they going to justify talking about our past? I know it's not

rational and logical to blow the statues for, for retaliation of

economic sanctions. But this is how it is. I called, after this

announcements, I called my headquarters, and I found out, I was

really confused, I asked them, why are they going to blow the

statues, and I talked to the head of the council of scholars of

people, who had actually decided this, he told me that UNESCO and NGO

from Sweden, or from one of these Scandinavian countries-Norway,

Sweden, one of these-they had actually come, with a project of

rebuilding the face of these statues, which have worn by rain. So the

council of people had told them to spend that money in saving the

lives of these children, instead of spending that money to [restore

these] statues. And these guys said that, "No, this money is only for

the statues." And the people were really pissed off. They said

that, "If you don't care about our children, we are going to blow

those statues."

[Person from the Audience yells, "Takbeer!"]

[Audience responds, "Allahu Akbar!"]

I don't say that he's right or wrong, the decision is yours. Think of

yourself. If you are in such a problem, what would you do? If your

children are dying in front of your eyes, and you are under

sanctions, and then the same people who have imposed sanctions and

are coming and building statues here? What will you do? So, I talked

to my headquarters today, and they said that the statues have not

been blown so far. But the people are so angry. They are really

angry, they want to blow them. And there is-Kofi Annan is going, you

know Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of United Nations? He went to

[--], to Pakistan, and he said he's going to meet our representative

there. This man never bothered to enter, to talk about these

children, he never bothered himself to talk about six million

refugees, and he never talked about [the] poverty of Afghanistan. He

only goes to that region because of these statues. And the OIC is

also, they've also sent a mission to go to Kabul and talk about those

statues. So we're really confused. That the world is really caring

about the statues, and then they don't care about human beings. I

don't say we have to retaliate in blowing the statues; we have not

done that. But if we were to destroy those statues, we would have

destroyed them three years before now, because we captured those

areas those areas three years before now. We didn't want to blow

them. And now the situation has come, and it's not our decision. This

is the decision of the scholars and the people. And that is the

decision has been approved by the Supreme Court. We cannot reject

this decision. So these guys are there, the OIC and some, even I

think some ministers from different countries are there to save the

lives of these statutes. I think they will not be blown because of

the concerns of these people. But it is really, really ridiculous.

These people do not care about children, about people who are dying

there, about the foreign interference that still exists, they only

care about the statues. And I'm sure they don't care about our

heritage. They don't care about our heritage; they only care about

their "picnic site" one time. Maybe they'll have a good picnic site

there, seeing those statues. They don't care about our heritage, I'm

sure. If they were to care about our past, they wouldn't destroy our

future. And I'm sure these sanctions which are imposed on our

government will never change us, because for us, our ideology is

everything. To try to change our ideology with economic sanctions

will never work. It may work in the United States, where the economy

is everything, but for us, our ideology is everything. [--] And we

believe that it is better to die for something than to live for

nothing.

We are still open-minded. We are still, we have still opened our

doors for negotiations, but our offices are closed everywhere-our

office was closed in New York a week ago. They are trying to shut our

offices in other countries, trying to isolate us, and they don't know

that isolation is counter-productive. Because they don't have

experts; the only experts they have are those people who speak

English. They don't even speak the language. Those experts who are

advising the sanctions, or the sanction committee have not even been

to Afghanistan. And they are setting benchmarks for us to achieve.

I'm prolonging this speech, I'm sorry, because I have been repeating

it everywhere, so I may have left some thing in it, and I will let

you ask me questions.

[Applause from Audience]

***Important Note: What follows are some of the answers to some of

the questions that were asked during the Question and Answer session.

Most of the questions were not included due to the poor recording.

Apologies for the inconvenience.***

Br. Sayyid Rahmatullah Hashemi:

· [A questioner asks about the statement he heard on the radio from

the Afghan former minister (Mutawakkil) confirming that the statues

have been destroyed, and further adds, "Does that mean the statues of

Hindus and Sikhs will also be destroyed?" He further asked that since

the destruction of the statues was done in retaliation, "Was it

really saving the children?" (it was asked in a provocative manner)]

Thank you very much and unfortunately again, the first question is

the statues. So the statues as I told you, have not been destroyed so

far. And I have contacted my headquarters there, and if they were

destroyed, then people would not bother going there; as I told you

Kofi Annan is there, OIC is there, and our foreign minister is there.

And for us, as he [the questioner] said that Mutawakkil has said that

[that the statues have been destroyed], I don't think he has said

that they are destroyed. He said that [that the statues have not been

destroyed]. And I don't reject this. They raised an edict which says

these [the statues] should be blown. And we are not against

Buddhists; absolutely wrong. We are not against any religion. There

are Hindus living in Afghanistan; there are different religions.

There is one man who is a Jew living in Afghanistan.

[Audience laughs]

So we are not against any religion. And there is no Buddhist in

Afghanistan, this I can say. In our religion, if anything, you can

leave anything until it is not harmful to you. If these Buddhas were

not harmful to us, so far. But now when the money is going to Buddhas

reconstruction, and the children are dying next door, we think it's

harmful now. Not we think, the people think. And I told you that this

decision is taken by the council of scholars and the council of

people. And has been approved by the Supreme Court. And the media is

saying everywhere that it is an edict by our leadership. Have you

ever seen our leadership on TV? Have you ever seen or heard him

(Mullah Umar) on international radio? He has never been on radio, so

it's absolutely wrong that we issued an edict. I do agree that there

is an edict, but by the council of people and the scholars, and has

been approved by the Supreme Court, but has not been implemented so

far. Is it enough? You know, really, I am asked so much about these

statues that I have a headache now. If I go back to Afghanistan, I

will blow them.

[Audience laughs]

· [Questioner asks about the infighting between Mujahideens now. He

asks, in the past we knew that there was one common enemy (the

Russians) and it was easy to support the Mujahideen but now it's the

groups of Mujahideens fighting between each other. How do you explain

this?]

They [the different Mujahideen groups] killed so many people, and

there were so many problem. And that's why we started our

movement. It's all in these people. They didn't fight for Shari'ah,

or they didn't fight for Afghanistan, they only fought for their

future post in power. So we, as I told you that, we finished that.

And only now, we have one opposition headed by Ahmed Shah Masood. And

we don't have much problems with him. We had talks with his

representative in Ashkabad in Ramadhaan this year, and I was there.

So, we say that he failed in bringing about a constitution, a unified

government; he could not even unify the capitol, Kabul. So we did all

these things. So we asked him, despite that he controls nothing,

except 5% in the mountains, and we have said we are still open-

minded. We agree that he should have a post, because he has fought

the Russians. And in `98, we agreed on a joint government; actually,

I was also there, so we agreed in giving them three ministries and

accepting their judicial system merging with our judicial system, and

giving them three or four district or provincial governors or

something like that. And they agreed on that. Our, on our part, we

asked them to give us their weapons, because the problem in

Afghanistan is not political differences. The problem in Afghanistan

is the weapons. Everybody has had weapons, and now if they are

fighting us, it is not because of our very much ideological

differences; it's because of weapons. There were a lot of weapons

before, and you know, the Afghans will know that so many times they

tried to have one government and then after a week or so, they

fought, because all of them got different defense ministries, and

they would fight. So now we have said that the problems in

Afghanistan is not the political problem; it is the arms which exist.

We are, we will accept them to be in our government if he accepts to

give his arms to the Ministers of Defense. We have no problem however.

· [A questioner asked, "As Salaamu `Alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa

Barakaatuh. Brother, Afghanistan is now supposed to be a Muslim

country, Insha'Allah. And these statues are just like the statues in

Makkah, when Rasoolillah (saws) came to Makkah, and it was the very

first thing that he did was to destroy the statues. What is taking us

so long? Why aren't they destroyed already?" Audience laughs, some

say Takbeer]

So, I don't know what to say. We don't have any Buddhists as I told

you; we have to look at the problems of the Muslim minorities in some

countries. So we do not want to create problems for them, that's why

we are still waiting, and we hope that we will resolve this problem.

· [A written question read, "What is your opinion about killing the

Iranian officers in Heraat in 1998?"]

So, there is this story about seven-nine, nine Iranians, one of them

was a journalist, and the rest of them were called diplomats. It

happened in `98 when we were capturing a city in the north of

Afghanistan called Mazar-e-Shareef when we were, we announced before

our campaign in liberating that city, we announced that all diplomats

of organizations, including the UN, the diplomatic missions, and NGOs

to evacuate because of the possible fighting that may happen in the

city too. So, all of them evacuated, the United Nations, the NGOs,

and even those people who actually bombed them, they also evacuated,

so the only people who remained there was some seven, or eight, night

Iranians, who were actually not diplomats, who were actually military

advisors to their puppets in Afghanistan. So, and we didn't kill them

in diplomatic mission; they were killed on their way to Bamiyan;

Bamiyan is another city in central Afghanistan, so they were-and we

didn't want to kill them; they just died because of the shelling that

happened. And we issued an edict, and we declared that we were sorry

for what happened. And now the Iranian government has also sent their

mission, and when I was coming there, three of their villages were in

Afghanistan; they reopened their consulate here and I think they have

re-thought their policies now and maybe they will have a new chapter

of friendship with us and I hope it will happen.

· [Question asked about how people, especially Muslims, need to be

educated about the situation in Afghanistan. He went on further to

ask about whether or not he would be under a physical threat if he

were to shave his beard and walk into Afghanistan, or if a sister

would be under a physical threat if a sister were to wear Hijab

according to the Islamic standards, not wearing Burqah.]

You say that all the Muslims, or all the people, must be educated on

the situation in Afghanistan. And now I am thinking that first they

must be de-educated to try to understand what we are saying. There

are not [--], they are really trying how to approach, and you are

right, and I agree that you must have Public Relations, in teaching

people, or at least, letting them know what we say. But as I told you

that we have other priorities. Our priority is to save the children.

Our priority is to de-mine our country. Our priority is to reunify

our country. Our priority is to stop the foreign interference. Our

priority is to fight the [--] that is already operating in our

country. So for us to talk about Public Relations, it is important,

but it cannot-what would you do if you were in this status? And it is

not easy to do Public Relations. You have to spend a lot of money. I

will tell you a story of CNN. CNN was in Afghanistan interviewing bin

Laden, in `98. You have to be careful in listening to this. I was

there, and they asked bin Laden as to what was the thinking about the

killing of civilians in Iraq. After three hours of formal

conversation, and the camera was rolling. He said, that if all

American citizens and if all British citizens are willing, or

supporting, to kill all Iraqi civilians, then all American citizens

and all British citizens deserve the same thing-or to be killed. CNN

cut everything. Three-hour conversation was not there, only thing

they put was-and it was not complete-the only clause that they said

was, the independent clause of what he said, they said that, "all

American and British citizens must be killed." This is what came on

the air. But he didn't mean this. And I know that all Americans do

not support the killing [of] civilians there. Not even a quarter of

that. That was impossible. But now what they taught their people was

that bin Laden is saying that all American civilians must be killed.

That is the story of media, and the media here is very irresponsible.

They are commercialized, and they'll do anything for selling

advertisements.

He [the questioner] talked about the beard and the veil. First of

all, for all non-Afghans, this rule does not apply. So there are many

non-Afghans who are working there; there are actually Americans who

are working there in the UN, there are many people from different

parts of the world. And they do whatever [--], they don't care. And

we don't have a law for them. But Afghanistan is a country that has

gone through 23 years of war, and there is still war, and the

military is mixed with the people. Then you must have some sort of

strict law, in order to insure security and peace in Afghanistan. So,

maybe it is ridiculous for you that we ask people to grow beards, but

this is what, it is in Afghanistan, and the Afghans do leave beard,

whether or not you tell them. And it's something natural, and it's

something [--]. And regarding the veil, or the Burqas, or the Islamic

dress code, that is something that exists in Afghanistan for

centuries. And it does exist in Iran, it does exist in Saudi Arabia,

it exists in many Islamic countries. It has nothing to do only with

Afghanistan. And it does even exist here. So you can't force people

not to have Burqas, and we do have that constitution that at this

time, women should cover up. For us because our priority is that they

should be safe.

· [Questioner asks about what Afghans living in the US can do for

Afghanistan. She also gives a brief account of her experience in

Afghanistan, when she traveled there recently, and gave proof that

schools existed there, and that the situation there is much better,

more peaceful than it was six years ago. She traveled alone, all over

the country.]

Thank you very much. I'm very happy that at least I found a proof!

[Audience laughs]

I'm thankful to you [for] what you say, and I really appreciate the

emotions you have for your country. I myself, I'm 24, and serving my

country. I could play football now, and I could even play here, and I

could stay in the United States, but I don't do any of those things-I

serve my country. So I agree that whatever, all those things that

exist in Afghanistan, maybe there are many things that we don't want,

but they do exist. So we are not a sponsor for that. They did exist

for two decade. So the best thing to do for Afghanistan is to have

an association of Afghans to raise funds, and the best thing I would

say [is to] educate people. Instead of criticism, they can come there

and open a school. They can open a school for girls, for boys. But

that would be the best thing. Unfortunately some of our Afghans are

sitting in their air-conditioning rooms here, play their TV's, and

when they have nothing to do, then they criticize us because we can't

make Europe for them. We can do it, we have a lot of problems, but

the first thing they should do is to stop harming us. They have to

come and help us, in all the sectors. We do need all the Afghans from

here. If they really criticize our policies, they should come there

and criticize our policies, not from here. So the best thing for you

is for you people to raise funds, do NOT give it to us, one of you

should come there, help the people.

· [Questioner: "Do you respect our right to tell you that if you

didn't believe in PR, you wouldn't be here right now. [--] Actually

I'd like to ask you, does your version of Islam preach hate? I don't

know, I'm asking you; do you believe in the religion of hate? Because

I was very disgusted when that lady got up and asked you why don't

you blow those idols, because that boy right there (points to a boy

in the audience) laughed." MSA Representative interrupts, "Please ask

your question." Questioner, "I'm asking you, are you preaching hate?"

MSA Representative, "Is that your question?" Questioner, "That is the

question." He continues to argue.]

Enough? I don't know what to say but you only expressed your

emotions. Islam means Peace. First you have to understand. And a

peaceful religion will never preach for Hate. And we do not preach

for Hate. And you said that if we didn't believe in Public Relations,

I wouldn't be here. It's my first time here, and I've waited for an

American Visa for a long time, and I'm not used to doing these

things. I brought a letter from my leadership that I explained before

that I will be submitting to the leader of the administration here,

and hoping that they will re-think their policies. So I do believe

that, I say that we must believe in Public Relations because they are

very important. But I say that Public Relations needs a lot

resources, and at this time we have resources for the [--] for the

plight of our people.

[Questioner: "I actually agree with you about the western media; they

are very biased [--], but looking at people like him (the young boy

who laughed) at such a young age.[--]."]

[small dispute in the Audience]

[Father of young boy, "He is my son, ok, and you have come here to

accuse him..[--]." MSA Representatives calm both parties and rest of

Audience, and apologizes to audience.]

· [Questioner asks about women being required to have a male escort

whenever they go out. She also questions whether or not if she were

to go into Afghanistan wearing what she was now (a jilbab and hijab)

would she be under any physical threat.]

You [the questioner] said, told me about whether a woman was allowed

to go without a male escort. I'm here, and my wife is shopping in

Kandahar now. So they don't have to be escorted, this is absolutely

wrong. Yes, they were, in those cities that we captured first,

because that was for their safety. Now, they don't have to. And I

don't have any problem with whatever you wear, and women do wear the

same thing that you do wear, and they don't have any problems. And I

say that those cities, which are close to the frontline and there is

military operations going on close, there are thousands of military

soldiers of ours, we do ask women to avoid the social areas. Now

you're not understanding what I mean, but some of our friends here do

understand. In a country that is in a war, the military is mixed with

the people, and there are certain limitations. So I can't go beyond

that, and I say that women does not have to be escorted. I'm here now

and my wife is shopping maybe in Kandahar.

· [Questioner asks "What is Afghanistan's priority in regards to

establishing an Islamic state for all Muslims, not just for Afghans?"]

He'd like to destroy us.

[Audience laughs]

We have our first headache in Afghanistan, and that's a big headache.

We have a full-time job there. If we were worked 24 hours a day, we

will hardly ever be able to re-construct an [--] Islamic system in

our own country. And we have no intention of going beyond our

borders, and neither we can. So, all these people who exist in other

countries, or their policies, they have nothing to do with us. We are

only concerned about Afghanistan. And please do not try to make

assumptions. Ask me questions. I was asked in, I was in Bay Area just

yesterday, a journalist asked me, "Why do you hate women?" And I told

him, "Why do you beat your wife?" And he said, "I don't beat my

wife." I said, "I don't hate women."

[Audience laughs]

So you have to ask me questions. You just make assumptions. You just

make an assumption. Like he said, you explain for one hour, for five

minutes saying the same thing again and again, you've made an

assumption. You didn't ask me whether a woman must be escorted or not-

this is an easy question. But if you say, "Why are you doing

this", "Why are you doing..." We're not doing it. The question is,

here, you don't have to make assumptions.

· [Questioner: "My country (Iran) is suffering from drug-trafficking

from Afghanistan; you said that you [--] drugs from your area, but

how can you explain this contradiction? You have said that you cannot

even make a needle, what does it mean..?"]

I would like to answer this question first and then I will not

forget. I said Afghanistan produced 75% of all worlds Opium, 75% of

all worlds. And we eradicated it last year. And this was announced

not only by United Nations, who rejects this? All of them know it was

announced by Iranian government [--]. I don't say it was we

eradicated five years ago-[it was] this year. United Nations

announced.

[Questioner: "You mean 2001? So that's two months ago??. But our

country is still suffering from that?!" He continues to argue.]

Please, please try to hear what I'm saying.

[Questioner continues to talk and argue, MSA representatives try to

calm him down.]

[Questioner goes on, "I know, but this is the question I wanted to

ask!"...]

My brother, listen to me. You say that your country is still

suffering from Opium from Afghanistan. I do not say that we

eradicated it five years ago. This year, the United Nations Drug

Control Program, announced that there was 0% Opium cultivation; Iran,

too, admitted that. So if you don't know that, your problem. New York

Times announced this; it was in a New York Times editoral. So if you

don't know this, then it's your problem. I do admit that there are

still some piles of Opium that exists from the years before the last

cultivation that may [have been sent] to your country. But we will

admit, that we have, and I told you that, there are missions for us,

across Afghanistan, to Iran, to our country, and they are trying to

eradicate the already existing Opium; it was not produced this year;

it was produced the year before last.

· [Questioner asks whether or not they have asked for a loan from the

World Bank or BMF]

Not yet. We have not asked BMF neither the World Bank to help us. But

if they do help us, we will no reject it. So we are not asking

because we are not being recognized so we can't ask them for loans.

· [Questioner is a Political Scientist and is asking whether or not

Bureaucrats and Technocrats are needed in Afghanistan because,

according to him, the Taliban are not smart enough, suitable to be

governing Afghanistan.]

We never say that we are perfect. The question is, "Who could do more

than we do?" These seven parties? The Communists? Or the King? Who

did this? The things that we have done? Who could do more than that?

It's very easy to say, to criticize from here, "Do this, do this, do

that.." But it's very difficult to do that. You said that the Taliban

are not Bureaucrats and Technocrats, and we're not going to change

that. I'm sorry to say, you know what the old king of Afghanistan, he

was 88 years old, and he spent seven years living in Rome, he had

bought an island there, and now this man wants to come back to

Afghanistan and head the government. The old, rotten knucklehead.

[Audience laughs]

So, we were very surprised as to what did he do in 43 years of his

government? He didn't do anything. He only knew how to decorate his

palace. I'm sorry to say this. And now the same man, after 43 years-

Sorry, 27 years, is willing to go back and govern; he cannot even

take a flight back to Afghanistan. He's too weak. So how's he going

to? So we do need professionals. We don't say that we are perfect.

And I repeat it again, we cannot come here, and ask everybody to come

help us. We have asked so many times. Anybody willing to help their

country, come and help. And many people come and ask me, "Well, how

do we go?"...How did you come here?!

[Audience laughs]

And yeah, go there-if women can go there, what is the problem? But if

you ask us to give you the government, then that's difficult. So I

agree with you that we need Technocrats, but we don't need

politicians.

This ends the transcribed version of the lecture by Sayyid

Rahmatullah Hashemi. Please distribute it to as many people as you

can Insha'Allah, as it contains a lot of valuable information and

insights; it clears up many misunderstandings that people have today

regarding the Taliban. If we can come together to spread this

knowledge, perhaps we can alleviate the burdens that Afghanistan is

experiencing by creating an awareness of the situation there, and

thus bringing forth funds and resources to aid them, bi idhnillaahu

ta'ala.

Subhaanak-Allaahumma wa bi-Hamdik, Astaghfiruka wa atooboo ilaik

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