Afghan War Has No Legitimacy, Peace Must Prevail: Clerics

Hundreds of clerics from in Afghanistan’s Herat province on Tuesday appealed to the Afghan government and the Taliban to end the violence and announce a ceasefire in the country.

The clerics labeled the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan as ‘Muslim killing’ and said that the war has no legitimacy.

The clerics also condemned the controversial remarks of a cleric named Mujiburrahman Ansari against the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces and said that Ansari’s statement had nothing to do with Islam.

Ansari said that supporting the present government in Afghanistan was a sin.

Mawlavi Khudadad Saleh, the head of the clerical council in the western zone of Afghanistan said that the Taliban were also tired of the war and want peace to prevail in the country.

“All Afghans, including the government–the people and the Taliban–are thirsting for peace. The Taliban do their best so that peace can prevail in Afghanistan. One of the elders (Taliban elders) contacted me and said that the clerics should not remain indifferent and they should contribute to peace. I got this message from our Taliban brothers,” said Mawlavi Saleh.

“If two Muslim groups engage in war, the third group has a religious obligation to persuade them toward peace. The current war is a war between two groups of Muslims and this war does not carry any legitimacy and it cannot be called a jihad (holy war),” said Abdul Majeed Samim, a university lecturer in Herat.

“Fratricide must stop in Afghanistan and there should be peace. We appeal to the Taliban and the Afghan govt to announce a ceasefire in the first stage and then seal the peace,” said cleric Noor Aqa Habibi.

“Afghanistan is an Islamic country, the Muslims work here. Even in non-Muslim countries, thousands of Muslims are working. Calling the government workers sinners does not have any religious and Islamic credibility—if someone talks about such things from the platform of a mosque, it is his own view,” said cleric Abdul Khaliq Haqqani.

The clerics in Herat also voiced support for the Afghan security forces and called the ANDSF the true defenders of the Afghan nation and the country.