"Afghanistan seen ripe for faith healing"
- From: Mike <yard22192@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 07:28:11 -0800 (PST)
news.google.com
Afghanistan seen ripe for faith healing
January 9, 2008
By Willis Witter - A Washington-based group that helped negotiate the
release of 21 Korean hostages last summer hopes to build on that
experience by promoting reconciliation between Afghanistan's political
and religious leaders.
With roots in the U.S. religious and diplomatic communities, the group
thinks it can help prepare the ground for reconstruction efforts in
Afghanistan, where more traditional government efforts have fallen
short.
"It is supremely ironic that the United States, one of the most
religious nations on the planet, should find it so difficult to deal
with religious differences in hostile settings or to counter
demagogues like [Osama] bin Laden, who manipulate religion for their
own purposes," said Douglas Johnston, president and founder of the
International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD).
"U.S. diplomacy suffers from a proclivity to use our separation of
church and state as a crutch for not doing our homework to understand
how religion informs the worldviews and political aspirations of
others," said Mr. Johnston, a Naval Academy graduate and former
executive vice president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic
and International Studies.
In terms of reconstruction, little has been accomplished in
Afghanistan. Militants have killed Western aid workers, and many of
the simplest projects -- like rebuilding one-room schoolhouses and
repaving roads chewed into rubble by Soviet tanks in the 1980s --
remain unfinished.
Mr. Johnston, author of "Religion, the Missing Dimension of
Statecraft," has managed to contact and speak with the leaders of some
of the most militant madrassas in Pakistan.
His goal, he said, is to encourage these religious schools to expand
their curriculum beyond mere memorization of the Koran by emulating
the madrassas from the early days of Islam.
Not only did Muslim religious schools keep classical learning alive
during Christendom's Dark Ages, they ultimately served as models for
the university system developed later in the West.
"Wherever we go, we always partner with an indigenous institution that
has credibility with, and commands the respect of, the people with
whom we will be working," Mr. Johnston said.
"Our project director, who is the point of the spear in our madrassa
effort, is a Pakistani-American who grew up in Karachi and who
attended a madrassa himself. He is a superb trainer and educator and
also one of the more likable gents you will ever meet." Mr. Johnston
asked that the Pakistani partner not be further identified for his own
safety.
Growing out of the madrassa effort, Mr. Johnston, an evangelical
Christian, met in April with 57 Taliban leaders in the mountains of
Pakistan to explain why the U.S.-led war on terrorism is not a war
against Islam -- an idea widely accepted throughout the Muslim world.
He began by pointing out the obvious: The U.S. went to war to help
Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo and Somalia.
But he also explained U.S. policies in terms typically missing from
U.S. statecraft -- hospitality, loyalty and revenge -- that are integral
to Afghanistan and the Taliban's tribal culture.
"Before certain al Qaeda members were recognized as a threat," Mr.
Johnston said, "the U.S. offered them hospitality by accepting them
into the country."
He was referring to the September 11 hijackers.
"Then, without warning, they struck on 9/11. Because of this violation
of hospitality, the United States wanted revenge and asked the Taliban
government to turn over al Qaeda's leadership so they could be brought
to justice. When they refused, the U.S. attacked Afghanistan.
"But it did so with a heavy heart," he added, "because many Americans
feel great respect and admiration for the Afghan people, stemming from
our common struggle against the former Soviet Union."
For his work with the madrassas, Mr. Johnston received an award at The
Washington Times' 25th anniversary dinner in May.
What has yet to be publicly reported is his group's role in winning
the release of the Christian missionaries held captive by the Taliban
last summer.
Because of his center's earlier involvement with the Taliban, a
Christian friend asked Mr. Johnston whether his group could help
resolve the hostage situation.
By then, two of the 23 Christian aid workers from Seoul, who had been
captured nearly two weeks earlier, had been executed.
Mr. Johnston provided details for the following narrative, which was
confirmed by a U.S. State Department official. The ICRD contacted one
of its Pakistani partners who enjoyed considerable influence in the
Pakistani border province of Baluchistan to see what he could do. The
partner agreed to help and contacted 15 religious leaders who agreed
to participate in a makeshift jirga, a decision-making body of
elders.
Most of the participants knew the two Afghans, Mawlawi Nasrullah and
Mullah Qari Bashir, who had been appointed by the hostage-takers to
serve as their spokesmen.
By Aug. 3, the jirga had traveled to Ghazni province in Afghanistan
and established contact with the captors. With open Korans in hand,
religious discussions began.
During six days of negotiations, the captors agreed that no further
harm would come to the hostages while negotiations were under way.
They also agreed to meet with a Korean delegation that had been sent
to the area and to release four or five of the female hostages as a
"sign of good intent."
Subsequent negotiations between South Korean officials and the captors
led to the release of two women on Aug. 13. But six days later, the
negotiations collapsed.
At that point, the ICRD reconstituted the original jirga and added
several influential former Cabinet-level officials from the ousted
Taliban government.
The new jirga then re-engaged with the captors, and a week later, all
the hostages were freed.
In the wake of their release was widespread speculation that the
Korean government had paid a ransom.
The full truth may never be made public, but in any case, one key
negotiator said that had it not been for the religious intervention,
the hostages would never have been released unless their full demands
had been met -- demands that included a prisoner swap that the
government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was unwilling to carry
out.
The lessons learned from the whole episode, Mr. Johnson said, were
"the wisdom of talking with one's enemies" and that "policies of
isolation and demonization almost never bear the intended fruit."
The recently released movie "Charlie Wilson's War" weighed heavily on
Mr. Johnston's mind as he explained the Korean hostage episode,
especially the U.S. abandonment of Afghanistan once the Soviets were
gone.
In an oblique reference to the rise of al Qaeda and the Taliban and
global terrorism that followed, Mr. Johnston said: "As far as I'm
concerned, there would be no aftermath to deal with had the Congress
supported the proposed endgame of helping the Afghans get back on
their feet after the Soviets left."
.
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