The Butchers Of The Taliban
The Taliban continue their terrorism of the Afghan people, but in the case of three men helping NATO forces in Nuristan, they have shown a brutality that goes beyond terrorism and into diabolical cruelty. Taliban fighters caught the three men after they helped a supply run in the eastern province and maimed them in a most heinous way:
Taliban militants have hacked off the ears and noses of three Afghan drivers captured helping American forces.Fighters mutilated the three men seized after delivering fuel to a US base in the eastern province of Nuristan on Saturday.
"After downloading their supplies into a coalition base in Nuristan, they were heading to Kunar," said Ghulamullah, the deputy chief of police in Nuristan, who uses only one name. "On their way the Taliban stopped them and cut off their noses and ears."
It is the first time that such a barbaric punishment has been meted out by Taliban fighters on those suspected of working with foreign forces.
Fuel tankers supplying American bases have previously been targeted by insurgents with the tankers routinely torched and the drivers often left badly beaten.
Where, exactly, does that punishment get listed in the Qu'ran? Nowhere; it only repeats the "eye for an eye, nose for a nose" found in the Torah and the Bible. Taliban is a term derived from the Pashtu for "student"; apparently, these students of Islam have been making up their version as they go along.
It's not as if we've lacked for examples of radical Islamist cruelty and inhumanity in the past, but this makes it all the more clear. These are not men in any sense of the word besides genetic; they are psychotic cowards, reminiscent of disturbed children who delight in torturing small animals. One cannot hope to reason with such people, but must instead ensure that they can present no danger to anyone else, ever.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on March 19, 2007 4:44 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)
Comments (6)
Posted by Angus Mc![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 19, 2007 6:11 AM
Historically, this isn't a unique punishment. Some Catholic countries used this to punish heretics, and in dealing with the "heathen" Indians in the Americas in the 1500s. England used ear cutting and "slitting the nose" until the 1600s.
All in all, this is just proof that Afghanistan and other fundamentalist Islamic nations are stuck 400 years in the past.
Posted by ddh![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 19, 2007 7:12 AM
Cutting off the nose is a traditional punishment among Pashtuns and Baluchis in tribal areas along the Afghan-Pakistan border. The mutilation supposedly marks the victim for having committed a particularly foul crime, such as adultery.
You're right, Capn, cutting off the nose and ears is not in the Quran. A lot of the Taliban are ignorant even of knowledge of the Quran, and they will say that a tribal custom is Islamic because the tribe is made up of good Muslims.
Posted by brainy435![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 19, 2007 12:33 PM
Not terribly on topic, but can anyone tell me how, exactly, you can "download" supplies to a military base? Anyone?
Posted by Petrit Qahiri![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 19, 2007 12:50 PM
I don't want to fall into a classic rhetorical trap here, but where was your outrage when similar things were going in Sierra Leone? I don't doubt that your feelings are genuine in this case, I just find it interesting that those feelings are so specifically directed towards the Taliban rather than, say, the Lord's Resistance Army. My point being, it's not particularly useful to identify this as being specifically "radical Islamist cruelty" rather than just the run-of-the-mill cruelty practiced in many places around the world.
Posted by Winsome![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 19, 2007 6:09 PM
To Petrit Qahiri,
That doesn't change the very apparent fact that these particular Muslims are not above this particular barbarity.
The Captain wrote:
"…it only repeats the "eye for an eye, nose for a nose" found in the Torah and the Bible."
I"m sure you're being witty and twisting the phrase, instead of mis-quoting out of ignorance, but at the risk of being obvious, the classic rendering is "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."
Referring simply to the "Old Testament" in cases such as this covers both the Torah and the (Christian) Bible.
Posted by Petrit Qahiri![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/nav-commenters.gif)
| March 20, 2007 2:37 AM
Winsome: "That doesn't change the very apparent fact that these particular Muslims are not above this particular barbarity."
Which is why I didn't question that fact, nor do I disagree that it's barbaric. However linking that barbarity specifically to Islam is a rhetorical device that doesn't really help us to address either.