WHAT is on display in and around Afghanistan issue can be called an ever-expanding terror-show. As the strife-torn country starts living under the Taliban scare, various factions and sections of the larger Islamic terror network are beginning to raise their ugly heads, asking for their pound of flesh. Each of them is being called in to play some dirty role that only promises to complicate things all the more. For a fairly long period, Afghanistan, thus, promises to act as a hot-bed of all sorts of political activities with terror outfits playing dangerous role. And the best example of this is the rise of former Afghanistan President Mr. Hamid Karzai from exile. As he stakes his claim to presidency of the troubled nation, Mr. Karzai has sought help from the infamous Haqqani network, a Taliban off-shoot declared as proscribed terror outfit by the United States. Though only time will tell how effective this contacting and canvassing is going to prove, there is little doubt that whatever Mr. Karzai does will push Afghanistan into a deeper mess. But then, that is slated to be the fate of pan-Islamism, that is political Islam.

 

Most unfortunately, these elements promoting terrorism as a tool of Islamic politics has totally distorted and disfigured Islamic ideals, all of which have been on display not just in Afghanistan now but also has been out in the open for long through various stages of expansion of terrorism on the global stage, in the process sparing nothing. All this is pushing torrents of refugees -- mostly followers of Islam -- towards so-called safer lands. And wherever they land, they create trouble of a predictable nature. Germany learned this at a terrible cost. France and England, too, did the same. At least for now, there appears no stoppage to this reckless expansion of terror as a philosophic tool. All this has epitomised in Afghanistan, moving out from Syria. State-sponsored outfits such as Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) are out on the prowl, claiming ‘victory’ of Islamic politics, asserting that Afghanistan has attained long-awaited Azadi -- freedom. No matter the international intervention -- or even interference to certain extent -- the picture is that factions of Islam are fighting grim battles among themselves. Of course, the ISI may have had a dirty role to play in Afghanistan’s worsening situation. But Islamabad does not seem to realise that it is also preparing for inviting trouble for itself in not so distant a future. For, as a State weakened by a terribly sluggish economy and horribly confused domestic politics, Pakistan is certainly a place where further chaos can be expected to wreak havoc. As a country whose economic reins are slowly passing into the Chinese control, Pakistan is more likely to find itself perched on the face of a broiling volcano that can finish it in no time.

 

The seeds of this destruction are being sown in the neighbouring Afghanistan under the Talibanic regime. In that case, Pakistan will have no one to blame except itself, let alone placing the blame at India’s doorstep. Islamabad’s so-called all-weather friend China, too, would not be able to do anything to stop that avalanche of terror extending out from Afghanistan. All this proves one point once again -- that the Islamic terror is eating up Islamic world and nothing else. If the Islamic terror spreads elsewhere, threaten as it does to do, other countries will devise their own ways to tackle the challenge, for whatever price. But this freedom to act tough will not be available to Muslim countries, bogged down as they will be by the burden of Muslim ummah -- community, brotherhood! Many a scholar and thinker have predicted that the pan-Islamic civilisation will torment itself in terrible attrition the like of which the world has not seen in a long time. Whatever is happening in Afghanistan is nothing but an early portent of that dangerous possibility. This terror show across the Islamic world will harm itself more than it does anybody else. Unfortunately, however, the Islamic politicians across the world do not see this.