Constitution Must Have Islamic Framework

The constitution of Afghanistan should be an Islamic one, since only Islam is able to provide the people with stability and development. Stability, in particular, is needed in the country today, and the only way to ensure this is through Islam.

For a start, 99 per cent of the people in our society are Muslim, a fact which makes it clearer than the sun that the underpinnings of the state should be Islamic, and that the leader should also be a believer.

It simply would not work to make laws on any other basis.

Of course, if you just want to write a new constitution so as to display it in a window, then it does not matter what name you give it. But if it is to be practically implemented, then it must be within an Islamic framework.

Ninety nine per cent of the people in Afghanistan will simply not obey a non-Islamic constitution and - if presented with one - will rise up and fight, as we have all seen before with our own eyes.

Afghanistan has suffered so much sacrifice in recent decades, with countless orphans, widows, disabled and martyrs, and these lives were not given so as to have a non-Islamic government.

Don't imagine that Kabul is all Afghanistan, that these four walls are Afghanistan. You must realise that the provinces are very different places from the presidential palace. If you go to any province and ask people's opinion about excluding the name of Islam from the constitution, then you would be in danger of your life.

In villages, the word "democracy" is equivalent to "atheist", and most Afghans are simply not prepared to discuss this issue.

Given all this, and with no opposition to Islam in Afghanistan, I simply cannot understand any argument in favour of omitting its name.

Of course, during the years of fighting some have used the name of Islam for some very negative purposes, but that is the individual's fault. Under every form of government there are crimes such as stealing, but that doesn't mean the whole system is rejected or blamed.

What we need to ensure now is that the bad things that certain people have done are rejected as un-Islamic and that we learn from what has happened, constantly striving to be good Muslims.

Islam has good practical advice for every part of life.

Some prejudiced people seem to think that having the name of an Islamic state means that a country won't develop - but we should study the facts.

Tariq ibn Ziyad [eighth-century Muslim conqueror of Spain] established the first university in Europe, and Europeans learned from Muslim universities for hundreds of years. Under Muslim rule, the roads in Andalusia were paved long before those of London.

Currently both our neighbours, Pakistan and Iran, are developed Islamic states.

Right from the start, Islam has emphasised concerns such as equality and freedom of speech.

For instance there was the woman Khuwila, who warned the Second Caliph [Omar, seventh century AD], "At first you were small ("omir"), and then you became old ("omar") and a Caliph. Be afraid of God and implement his orders." Some of those who were with the Caliph were outraged by her outspokenness, and wanted to threaten her. But the Second Caliph himself commended her as an intelligent person.

That is the amount of freedom of speech allowed under Islam, and today's leaders must also be prepared to accept comments and criticism with an open mind.

I regret that we are sitting in meetings discussing whether it should be an Islamic country, rather than meetings about establishing a factory or developing Afghanistan. Using the word of Islam in the country's name will not make it harder for people to build factories.

The word Islam does not stop people from educating themselves, so what is the disadvantage of Afghanistan having the name of Islam?

The name of Islam is also the name of development, the way for our country to progress. For Islam is not only the religion of the mosque, it is the religion of medicine, the religion of industry, the religion of development, the religion of kindness and sympathy.

Habiburahman Ahmad-zai is a lecturer at the Shariat Faculty of Kabul University.

This text was prepared from a speech and he made on November 20, as part of an IWPR seminar on Afghanistan's draft constitution.