COMMENT: The Indian media report that Youssef al-Qaradawi is mediating talks with the Taliban. Closely linked to the Bank al-Taqwa, Qaradawi may well be the most important of the Muslim Brotherhood’s religious theologians.
In part, this development (if true) may well be an outgrowth of the State Department’s alliance with the Brotherhood, delineated in the For The Record series about the Arab Spring.
Certainly, it is important for the U.S. to extricate itself from the mess in Afghanistan, but the american embrace of the Brotherhood is not likely to benefit the U.S. in the long run.
It is not, however, a surprise.
“Indian Media Report Qaradawi Key Mediator in Secret U.S.–Taliban Talks”; The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report; 12/29/2011.
EXCERPT: . . . . Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Doha-based Islamist scholar who once called on his followers to back jihadist groups in Jammu and Kashmir, has emerged as a key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban, government sources have told The Hindu.
In 2009, Mr. al-Qaradawi had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, asserting that “the Kashmiris were properly fighting jihad against the Indian army.” The jihad was legitimate, he argued, since mujahideen groups sought to create an Islamic state. Therefore, the edict concluded, it was incumbent on all Muslims to help Kashmiris gain their “freedom from Indian aggression.” New Delhi, Indian diplomatic sources said, has been warily watching Mr. al-Qaradawi’s emergence as peace broker — fearful that his growing influence could help regional jihadist groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad find new sanctuaries in a rapidly changing West Asia or a future Afghan regime which includes the Taliban.
Earlier this month, the sources said, Mr. al-Qaradawi helped draw a road map for a deal between the Taliban and the United States, aimed at giving the superpower a face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan which is due to begin in 2014. . . .
It looks like Pakistani authorities are closing in on the sad gunmen that shot Malala Yousufzai in the head and neck. And Malala — the heroic 14-yr-old girl that became the public face of the closed girls schools in the 2009 after the Taliban swept into the Swat Valley and closed them — wasn’t the only one shot in the attack. When the gunmen stopped the bus carrying Malala and requested for her by name, the girls on the bus told them she wasn’t there. When the gunmen spotted Malala they opened fire and hit two other girls. One remains in critical condition. So now we learn that this attack was sanctioned by a unanimous vote by the Swat Taliban elders and this info is coming from the Swat Taliban’s spokeman.
The article below is really worth a read because — while it appears that the Swat Valley is populated by incredibly badass teenage girls — the Taliban men it’s kind of stunning to hear the Swat Taliban discuss their inner motives and rationals so openly: She wouldn’t stop talking out against them so they were “forced” to shoot her and that they will be targeted Malala father for assassination now that she lived through the initial attack. It’s like a remake of Lord of the Flies, but with man-child actors. And real. So it’s like an extra depressing remake of Lord of the Flies with especially sad villains...and some incredible girls:
You kind of have to wonder of these hyper-violent responses to a girl simply speaking out against Taliban are partially a sign of inner subconscious awareness on the part of the Taliban that they’ve kind of been brainwashed. Who knows, but that’s still a critical to remember for these guys...most of them didn’t have a choice about Taliban rule either. It’s like that phenomena when people get most upset over being accused of something they know to be true. Is it possible that the words of someone like Malala triggers some of these folks to realize that they’ve been pretty seriously used and abused too and it’s driving them even more insane? There’s just something about the idea of a group of Taliban elders meeting and unanimously voting to murder a 14-yr old girl that conveys a sense of deep, deep insecurity. And not drone-strikes-from-the-sky insecurity but more like a “the locals are starting to think we’re crazed zealots that are ruining their lives and maybe they have a point” kind of insecurity. Wishful thinking? Probably. But it’s topical wishful thinking. The Taliban aren’t the only crazies that seem determined to obliterate the Enlightenment.
Earth to the Taliban: Stop. Just stop: