There are aspects of my belief system that trouble me deeply.
The Taliban were evil; they committed acts that no civilized person would condone. Yet, when I point to their social system as an example of what excessive Islam can do to a society, the response I often get from Muslim apologists is that the Taliban’s fault wasn’t that there was too much Islam under them: rather, there was too little. Their system wasn’t “true” Islam. The ideal Islamic society, a utopia that perhaps existed under the Prophet fourteen hundred years ago, has yet to be replicated. So, yes, blame the Taliban for their sins, but don’t generalize it to Islamic society in general.
Unfortunately, that’s the problem with utopias: like Plato’s ideals, they tend to be unrealizable. So it’s virtually impossible to malign a “true” Islamic society simply because one does not exist. Its proponents are too slippery to ever admit that hateful regimes like the Taliban’s may in fact have incorporated some of their utopian ideals. (more…)
