Following of Taliban practices by a religious group or movement
The term Talibanization (or Talibanisation) refers to a type of Islamist or Islamic fundamentalist practice that emerged following the rise of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, where other religious groups or movements come to follow or imitate the strict practices of the Taliban.[1][2]
In its original usage, Talibanization referred to groups who followed Taliban's practices such as:
usually strict regulation and segregation of women, including forbidding of most employment or schooling for women and girls;
the restriction or banning of Western culture and other activities generally tolerated by other Muslims such as music, sports, dancing, movies, television, and the Internet;
the banning of activities (especially hairstyles and clothing) generally tolerated by other Muslims on the grounds that the activities are "Western", un-Islamic or immoral;
oppression of Shia Muslims, including takfir threats of forced conversion into Sunni Islam or prepared to be killed or ;
the destruction of non-Muslim artifacts, especially carvings and statues such as Bamyan Buddhas, generally tolerated by other Muslims, on the grounds that these artifacts are idolatrous or Shirk;
Violent suppression and persecution of modernist, moderate and liberal Muslims, often labeling them as bid'ah (innovation).
A negative view towards Jews and vigorous opposition to the state of Israel, under the belief that Israel and the Jews are considered enemies of Muslims. This view is also common among other Islamist movements outside of Taliban.
The term pre-dates the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11. It was first used to describe areas or groups outside of Afghanistan which came under the influence of the Taliban, such as the areas of Waziristan in Pakistan,[6][7][8] or situations analogous to the Taliban-Al-Qaeda relationship, such as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia and its harboring of Al Qaeda members,[citation needed] or similar harboring of Islamic extremists in Nigeria,[9][10] Malaysia,[11] or Kashmir[12] and elsewhere around the world. It has been used to describe the influence of Islamist fundamentalist parties in Bangladesh.[13]
The term was used in a Boston Globe editorial published on November 6, 1999, warning of the emerging threat of the Taliban regime almost two years before the attacks of September 11, 2001.[14]
Following the takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, Hamas has attempted to implement Islamic law in the Gaza Strip, mainly at schools, institutions and courts by imposing the Islamic dress or hijab on women.[15] While Ismael Haniyeh officially denied that Hamas intended to establish an Islamic state,[16] in the fourteen years since the 2007 coup, the Gaza Strip has exhibited the characteristics of Talibanization,[16] whereby the Islamist organization imposed strict rules on women, discouraged activities commonly associated with Western or Christian culture, oppressed non-Muslim minorities, imposed sharia law, and deployed religious police to enforce these laws.[16]
Palestinian researcher Dr. Khaled Al-Hroub has criticized what he called the "Taliban-like steps" Hamas has taken. In an article titled "The Hamas Enterprise and the Talibanization of Gaza", he wrote, "The Islamization that has been forced upon the Gaza Strip – the suppression of social, cultural, and press freedoms that do not suit Hamas's view[s] – is an egregious deed that must be opposed. It is the reenactment, under a religious guise, of the experience of [other] totalitarian regimes and dictatorships.[17]
A 2005 research by Eli Berman of UC San Diego and the National Bureau of Economic Research drew a number of parallels between Hamas and Taliban. Researchers noted that Taliban and Hamas are both highly ritualistic, extremely conservative Muslim groups, which augment the prohibitions of mainstream Islamic practice, and tend to segregate themselves from other Muslims and to be intolerant of deviation.[18]
The term is also used non-literally, and is applied to non-Islamic bodies and organizations by those who allege them to hold "repressive policies" based on their respective religions.
Like any highly politicized term, it may also be used hyperbolically or in an alarmist manner, to make a slippery slope argument, such as in the invocation of the phrase "Talibanization of Bradford" to discuss a gamut of common racial problems and tensions which fall far short of the imposition of sharia law and terrorist attacks. It may also be applied unfairly by those who do not understand Islamic culture and the basis of sharia law, or who fail to distinguish between moderate Islamic and extremist Islamist states, or misapplied to perceived threats which are not true or have yet to be proven.[28]
^The Hamas Enterprise and the Talibanization of Gaza, by Khaled Al-Hroub, Al-Ayyam (Palestinian Authority), October 11, 2010. Translation by the Middle East Research Institute, October 22, 2010.
^
Singh Safa: The Talibanization of Sikhism
The invention of new rituals by the Singh Sabha was aimed at reasserting 'social control' (p. 109). This imposition of artificial homogeneity by the Tat Khalsa was tantamount to what I have termed the 'Talibanization' of Sikhism.