The Taliban, the militant rulers of Afghanistan who also play benevolent landlord to terrorist Osama Bin Laden, are in an undeniable public-relations tailspin. Their two-year reign, if you believe infidel Western foreign correspondents, has been a roundelay of compulsory dress codes, public amputations, executions, and other displays of ill temper.
To combat these negative stereotypes, the Taliban is now circumventing the American media and (rather as Charles Manson recently did after his ninth denial of parole) taking their case straight to the public at www.taliban.com, their new Web site, which is part of a larger Islam WebRing (“Got a neato Islam site? Click here to join!”). Perusing www.taliban.com, one quickly discovers that the Taliban is misunderstood, a devout group, a single-minded group. Section headings include “Jihad,” “The True Meaning of Jihad in Islam,” “The Types of Jihad,” “Propagating, Publicising and Informing on Jihad,” “Financing the Jihad,” and “Jihad: The Forgotten Obligation.”
So sue them — they like holy war. But at heart, the Taliban, it seems, is a band of peace-loving nest-builders. Other headings include “Why Women Should Stay in Their Houses” and “Taliban Restrict Women to their homes because . . .”
There is even a chat room to foster understanding and the free exchange of ideas. At least as freely as one dare exchange ideas on a Web site that encourages visitors to “Strike a Dharb [deathblow] to the Enemy of Islam.”
As one Mohammad Tajik writes, “The other day I wrote comments criticizing the Taliban. But it was so stupid of me to say things like that without knowing the whole story. . . . I just want to apologize for my comments.” Wise move, Mohammad.
