Taliban soldier reportedly strikes mourner with sticks in unrecognized social media videos.

 

The Afghan Taliban Government (ATG) did not announce a holiday on the eve of Muharram 10th. The ATG did not publicly mark Ashura or pay tribute to the martyrs of Karbala, However, it placed limitations on Muharram processions.

SMG checked all officials URLs , IDs of Afghan Taliban, didn’t find even a single message

International media reports the restriction imposed by Afghan Taliban Government on Moharram’s commemorations of Afghan Shi’a Muslims in Shia neighborhoods of urban centers of Afghanistan.

 Sources in Kabul report that the Taliban authorities have largely clamped down on raising religious flags and banners in public spaces. The group has also prohibited people from holding widespread public sermons, limiting them to certain mosques and places of worship.

Radio Free Europe says:

A number of Shi’ite clerics in Kabul on July 22 asked the Taliban government to protect the Moharram commemoration without any restrictions. The head of Council of Shi’ite Scholars, Sayed Hussain Alimi Balkhi, reiterated this demand in an interview with Radio Azadi on Monday July 24. 

Media worried about reprisals

TOLOnews is Afghanistan’s first 24-hour news, current affairs, business, regional and world news television network launched in August of 2010.

Although TOLO Media Group asserts that it has a liberal, progressive, and diversified stance, it barely reported on the ban on the Shia Muslim community’s freedom of religion during Moharram and the limits on Moharram Processions. Contrarily, we saw that it had focused greater attention on concerns about the apparent disconnection of telecommunications services on the ninth and tenth of Moharram.

Telecommunication services in the city of Kabul have been shut down today, the 10th day of Muharram called “Ashura,” Kabul residents say, but Islamic Emirate officials have yet to comment.

A director of news affairs for a well-known media organisation with headquarters in Kabul stated, while requesting anonymity,

“We can’t on-air or posted reports of restrictions on Moharram processions and of reaction given by Shia community, that hurts not only the Afghan Taliban but we fear attacks from terrorist groups like ISIS, ISK.” Speaking to the SMG website.

 

Using his official Twitter account, TOLO News tweeted on July 28, 2023, about the martyrdom of Imam Hussain on the tenth day of the month of Moharram. Tweet concludes with the phrase: مسلمانان در سراسر جهان پس از این، همه ساله از این روزگرامی داشت می‌کنند “Thereafter, Muslims all over the world remember this day every year.”

 

People responded by saying, “Not the Muslims, only Shi’as,” in reaction to this.

 

Such responses reveal the level of animosity towards Shi’a Muslims among those influenced by Afghan Taliban clergy. Afghan clergy practices Deobandi Islam, which labels Shia Muslims as “apostates” and calls for a prohibition on their rituals and practices, as well as in public but also to be restricted to specific locations like mosques.

Read about the history of the persecution of Shia Muslims in Afghanistan.

https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/11165/pdf.