Can anyone spell tolerance?

[fragment]

Thanks for the info, godfry, sounds like your friend has some useful insight. With regard to the OP I'm interested in religious tolerance - pre-Taliban were religious prejudices prosecuted as vigorously and viciously as the ethnic and gender ones? Not that they're necessarily independent quantities, but it seems like an interesting question. I vaguely recall reading passing references to Hindu merchants in Afghanistan in a history of the "great game" of the 19th century, for example, which sounds unthinkable in modern Afghanistan.

[Godless Dave]

Originally Posted by fragment

To be honest Dave, I was hoping that if you were to try to answer those questions definitively you'd have a bit more of a source than a half-read wikipedia article.

Well, here's the thing, see. I'm kind of sick of looking up widely available information for people who can't be bothered to pay fucking attention. Afghanistan has been in the news since 1979 for Christ's sake. I am sorry you are ignorant of the culture and history of such an important country, but I can't do your social studies teacher's work for him or her.

[fragment]

Dave, I haven't been trying to get at you personally, I'm just treating with a bit of skepticism the idea that Afghani cultures are so wicked and bloodthirsty that even small improvements in human rights can't be hoped for. If you think that's worth flaming me for, I'm outta this thread.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by fragment

Thanks for the info, godfry, sounds like your friend has some useful insight. With regard to the OP I'm interested in religious tolerance - pre-Taliban were religious prejudices prosecuted as vigorously and viciously as the ethnic and gender ones? Not that they're necessarily independent quantities, but it seems like an interesting question. I vaguely recall reading passing references to Hindu merchants in Afghanistan in a history of the "great game" of the 19th century, for example, which sounds unthinkable in modern Afghanistan.

Hindu merchants in Afghanistan during the 19th century should not surprise you. At various points, the British controlled sizeable sectors of what is now Afghanistan (although not continuously, nor happily). I would fully expect Hindu merchants to pursue opportunities under such "protection".

Historically, Moslems have been tolerant of religious minorities in their midst, provided that they were "people of the Book" (i.e., christians, jews, and zoroastrians), but I'm not sure how they tolerated the likes of the Hindus, considering that they, too, were "people of the Book", only the book was the Vedas, Uppanishads and works like the Mahabarata (after all, it's not a far step from the Vedic materials to the Avesta).

I do know that tolerance between Moslem sects can become very strained, and lead to violence. Usually, it is the Sunnis who persecute the Shi'ites as "kafir" (heathens/unbelievers), who can be treated quite poorly without risking divine retribution.

My friend pointed out that much of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan is a reaction to the forced modernization which the Soviets attempted. That modernization, complete with its liberal attitudes about the role of women in society (amongst many others), was offensive to many of the hyperconservative Islamic sensibilities.

That Moslems were killing Moslems over details of dogma seems to augur very poorly for those outside the realm of Islam entirely. All that need happen is that they be perceived as in alignment with outside powers attempting to "modernize" Afghan society and they would then become targets to the fundamentalists. I'd bet that the Russian Orthodox presence, as small as it was, was probably the first to be expunged. And then, after open hostilities with western nations outside the Russian orbit, missionary christianity would most likely take on overtones of being agents of foriegn powers attempting to control Afghanistan.