Afghanistan's Shia Dilemma: Worried About ISIS Threat, Hard To Trust The Taliban

Afghan combatant illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/davric)

JAKARTA - Four Taliban fighters with guns stand guard at a Shia mosque in Kabul, as worshipers are performing Friday prayers. Meanwhile, a guard from Shia also with a gun was on guard with them.

This is an unusual new picture, following the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban last August. For decades targeting Afghan Shiites in Hazara, the Taliban are now the only refuge against ISIS.

Sohrab, a Hazara guard at the Abul Fazl al-Abbas Mosque, told The Associated Press he was fine with the Taliban guards. "They even sometimes pray in the mosque," he said, only giving his first name for security reasons, as quoted on November 17.

However, not everyone feels so comfortable. Syed Aqil, a Hazara who visited the mosque with his wife and 8-month-old daughter, was annoyed that many of the Taliban still wore their traditional, jihadist insurgent look, rather than police uniforms.

"We don't even know if they are the Taliban or Daesh," he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

Since seizing power, the Taliban have presented themselves as more moderate, compared to their first government in the 1990s when they ruthlessly suppressed the Hazara and other ethnic groups. Seeking international recognition, they vowed to protect the Hazara as a sign of their acceptance of the nation's minority.

But many Hazara residents still have a deep distrust of the insurgent-turned-rulers, who are mostly Pashtu, and believe they will never be accepted as equals in Afghanistan.

Leaders of the Hazara community say they have repeatedly met with Taliban leaders, asking to take part in the government, only to be shunned. Hazara residents complain that individual fighters discriminate against them and fear it is only a matter of time before the Taliban resume their crackdown.

"Compared to their previous rule, the Taliban are a bit better off," said Mohammed Jawad Gawhari, a Hazara cleric who runs an organization that helps the poor.

"The problem is there isn't a single law. Every individual Talib is their own law at the moment. So people live in fear of them."

Some of the changes from the previous era of Taliban rule are evident. After their takeover, the Taliban allowed Shiites to perform their religious ceremonies, including the annual Ashura procession.

The Taliban initially confiscated weapons that the Hazara residents used to guard several of their own mosques in Kabul. But, after ISIS bombings that destroyed Shia mosques in Kandahar and Kunduz provinces in October, the Taliban returned weapons in most cases, Gawhari and other community leaders said. The Taliban also alerted their own fighters as guards for several mosques during Friday prayers.

"We provide a safe and secure environment for everyone, especially in the Hazara. They should be in Afghanistan. Leaving this country is not good for anyone," said Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

The Hazara Shia group's desire for the protection of the Taliban shows how much people fear the Islamic State group, which they say aims to exterminate them. In recent years, ISIS has attacked Hazara more ruthlessly than the Taliban has ever done, unleashing bombings on Hazara schools, hospitals, and mosques, killing hundreds of people.

It is known, ISIS is also an enemy of the Taliban, often attacking Taliban troops. The international community is urging the Taliban to form a government that reflects Afghanistan's ethnic, religious, and political spectrum, including women. The Taliban's cabinet consisted entirely of people from their own ranks.

The highest level Hazara Shia in the government is the deputy health minister. Some of them hold office in the province, but they have long joined the Taliban insurgency and adopted their hardline ideology. Few in the Hazara community recognize them.