One of the justifications for CAA was 'Muslims cannot face persecution in Islamic countries', an always-specious argument now more exposed by the horrific images of refugees (mostly Muslim) fleeing Afghanistan, clinging to & falling from wings of planes in the process. #thread 
Ashamed that the Govt of India response now is to look at desperate Afghan refugees not as humans fleeing persecution & sure death, but from the view of whether or not they’re Muslim. That’s the Modi regime for you.
Disturbing to see otherwise decent liberal Indians say smugly & ignorantly about Afghanistan - “why didn’t they learn how to run the country as we did from the British Raj” or “how long can the US protect Afghanis, they’ve to learn to do it themselves”.
If it weren’t for Cold War Soviet-US competition & the US backing the mujahideen, there would be no Taliban! The US created the Taliban - so it can’t shrug off its responsibility for the horror unfolding now.
Plus, they INVADED Afghanistan in the name of eliminating the Taliban they created - but did business with it instead, and are now leaving the country in Taliban’s hands after a prolonged negotiation where Taliban agreed to a safe exit for US personnel!
The US was never on a humanitarian mission in Afghanistan - they were on an imperial mission. They didn’t invade & occupy Afghanistan to protect women from the Taliban. Kindly do revisit Arundhati Roy’s 2001 piece for a refresher course in history theguardian.com/world/2001/sep…
Imran Khan declaring that Taliban “has broken the shackles of slavery” is obscene but unsurprising - the CIA, Pakistan’s ISI, and Taliban are old allies, old shadow boxers. Even the latter seasons of @SHO_Homeland explored the nuances of this mutually rewarding relationship.
I also see whataboutery tweets asking why those shedding tears for Afghanistan aren’t doing so for Kashmir. Not an accurate comparison (plus there are many shedding tears for both). The real Q is - if you know the Sangh is fascist, why can’t see the Taliban as fascist?
And then of course there are those Sanghis who use the Taliban to say - all Muslims are cruel & violent, see? We need to fight Muslims & establish Hindu rule in India. Hello! If the Taliban takeover teaches us anything it’s the horrific dangers of letting bigotry come to power.
Talibans are bigoted politicians claiming to represent Islam. The RSS, BJP in India are likewise bigoted political forces claiming to represent Hindus. Taliban Raj is Afghanistan’s nightmare - just as Ambedkar knew Hindu supremacist rule - Sangh Raj - would be India’s nightmare.
Oh and enough with the Vietnam comparisons! No this isn’t Saigon for the simple reason that you can’t celebrate a Taliban takeover as a David winning a victory against an American Goliath. Just because it’s an American failure doesn’t make it a feel good anti imperialist victory!
The only way to think about Afghanistan today is from the point of view of the desperate Afghanis fleeing the Taliban. Ordinary Afghani people did not have a say in any of the decisions that led to this mess - caused by what the US in 2001 called Operation Enduring Freedom!
The claim that the US was saving Muslim women from the Taliban is as specious as the BJP claim to save Muslim women from Muslim men in India or save Hindu women from “love jihad” (I.e falling in love with a Muslim man). Afghani feminists like RAWA OPPOSED the occupation.
Read Arundhati Roy’s Come September speech. Read the screenshots attached (first one from Come September, the other 3 from a recent news article about Afghani feminists)
Link to the article from which the above screenshots came is here. You can look for more about feminist groups like RAWA to know it’s possible and necessary for feminists to be against the Taliban AND against US occupation at the same time. thenation.com/article/world/…
From the horse’s mouth: here is Hillary Clinton explaining how the US created the Taliban. Don’t blame the Taliban on Afghan people. Blame its power on CIA, ISI, US Presidents, & Soviet + US competitive interference in the country during Cold War.
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