Editing Taliban (section)

=== Evaluations and criticisms ===
The author [[Ahmed Rashid]] suggests that the devastation and hardship which resulted from the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet invasion]] and the period which followed it influenced the Taliban's ideology.<ref name="rashid 32">{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=32}}.</ref> It is said that the Taliban did not include scholars who were learned in Islamic law and history. The refugee students brought up in a totally male society had no education in mathematics, science, history, or geography, no traditional skills of farming, herding, or handicraft-making, or even knowledge of their tribal and clan lineages.<ref name="rashid 32" /> In such an environment, war meant employment, peace meant unemployment. Dominating women affirmed manhood. For their leadership, rigid [[fundamentalism]] was a matter of principle and political survival. Taliban leaders "repeatedly told" Rashid that "if they gave women greater freedom or a chance to go to school, they would lose the support of their rank and file."<ref>{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|p=111}}.</ref>
[[File:Taliban execute Zarmeena in Kabul in1999 RAWA.jpg|thumb|November 1999 [[public execution]] in Kabul of a mother of five who was found guilty of killing her husband with an axe while he slept.<ref>{{Cite web |title="Taliban publicly execute woman", Associated Press, November 17, 1999 |url=http://www.rawa.org/murder-w.htm |access-date=2 September 2012 |publisher=Rawa.org}}</ref><ref>Antonowicz, Anton. 'Zarmina's story", ''Daily Mirror'', 20 June 2002</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Zarmeena |url=http://www.rawa.us/movies/zarmeena.mpg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117051340/http://www.rawa.us/movies/zarmeena.mpg |archive-date=17 November 2006 |publisher=Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) |format=MPG}}</ref>]]

The Taliban have been criticized for their strictness towards those who disobeyed their imposed rules, and Mullah Omar has been criticized for titling himself [[Amir al-Mu'minin]].

Mullah Omar was criticized for calling himself Amir al-Mu'minin because he lacked scholarly learning, tribal pedigree, or connections to the [[Prophet Mohammed|Prophet]]'s family. The sanction for the title traditionally required the support of all of the country's [[ulema]], whereas only some 1,200 Pashtun Taliban-supporting Mullahs had declared that Omar was the Amir. According to Ahmed Rashid, "no Afghan had adopted the title since 1834, when King [[Dost Mohammed Khan]] assumed the title before he declared jihad against the [[Sikh]] kingdom in [[Peshawar]]. But Dost Mohammed was fighting foreigners, while Omar had declared jihad against other Afghans."<ref name="rashid 41-42" />

Another criticism was that the Taliban called their 20% tax on truckloads of opium "[[zakat]]," which is traditionally limited to 2.5% of the zakat payers' disposable income (or wealth).<ref name="rashid 41-42">{{Harvnb|Rashid|2000|pp=41–42}}.</ref>

The Taliban have been compared to the 7th-century [[Kharijites]] who developed extreme doctrines that set them apart from both mainstream [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] and Shiʿa Muslims. The Kharijites were particularly noted for adopting a radical approach to ''[[takfir]]'', whereby they declared that other Muslims were [[Kafir|unbelievers]] and deemed them worthy of death.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Another battle with Islam's 'true believers' |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/another-battle-with-islams-true-believers/article20802390/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 August 2013 |title=Balance of Challenging Islam in challenging extremism |url=http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130819100539/http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/publications/free/the-balance-of-islam-in-challenging-extremism.pdf |archive-date=19 August 2013 |access-date=21 January 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Mohamad |last=Jebara |title=Imam Mohamad Jebara: Fruits of the tree of extremism |url=https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/fruits-of-the-tree-of-extremism |website=Ottawa Citizen}}</ref>

In particular, the Taliban have been accused of ''takfir'' towards Shia. After the August 1998 slaughter of 8,000 mostly Shia Hazara non-combatants in Mazar-i-Sharif, Mullah [[Abdul Manan Niazi]], the Taliban commander of the attack and the new governor of Mazar, who the Taliban later killed after forming the rebellious High Council of the Islamic Emirate,<ref name=":12" /> declared from Mazar's central mosque:
<blockquote>Last year you rebelled against us and killed us. From all your homes you shot at us. Now we are here to deal with you. The Hazaras are not Muslims and now have to kill Hazaras. You either accept to be Muslims or leave Afghanistan. Wherever you go we will catch you. If you go up we will pull you down by your feet; if you hide below, we will pull you up by your hair.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Massacre in Mazar-I Sharif|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports98/afghan/Afrepor0-03.htm#P186_38364 |access-date=21 January 2018 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref></blockquote>[[Carter Malkasian]], in one of the first comprehensive historical works on the Afghan war, argues that the Taliban are oversimplified in most portrayals. While Malkasian thinks that "oppressive" remains the best word to describe them, he points out that the Taliban managed to do what multiple governments and political players failed to: bring order and unity to the "ungovernable land". The Taliban curbed the atrocities and excesses of the Warlord period of the civil war from 1992{{En dash}}1996. Malkasian further argues that the Taliban's imposing of Islamic ideals upon the Afghan tribal system was innovative and a key reason for their success and durability. Given that traditional sources of authority had been shown to be weak during the long period of civil war, only religion had proved decisive in Afghanistan. In a period of 40 years of constant conflict, the traditionalist Islam of the Taliban proved to be far more stable, even if the order they brought was "an impoverished peace".<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Malkasian|first=Carter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1240264784|title=The American war in Afghanistan: a history|date=2021|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-755077-9|location=New York|oclc=1240264784}}</ref>{{Rp|50–51}}