'Father of the Taliban' interviewed, says they fight for freedom - Freedom to stone women and behead men

Reuters has conducted an interview with a soft-spoken Pakistani cleric and professor who is widely regarded as the spiritual father of the Taliban. In the interview, Maulana Sami ul-Haq predicts that the Taliban will return to power in Afghanistan within one year following the departure of American troops.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to Reuters, Maulana Sami ul-Haq is the man "whose words carry enormous weight among the Taliban on both sides of the border."

Haq is a Pakistani cleric and professor who teaches at a seminary known popularly as the "university of jihad." It's actual name is the Darul Uloom Haqquina university. In the 1980's, his students left school to join the mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. Now they leave to fight the Americans.

Although Pakistan condemns the Taliban and other extremist and terrorist movements, Haq's university remains open and sanctioned by the government. The Afghan government accuses the Pakistan of duplicity in its dealings, publicly condemning extremists while also facilitating their empowerment.

The Pakistani government denies these accusations.

Haq is openly pro-Taliban and regards Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban, as one of his best students. "He is a devout Muslim," Haq told Reuters, "very virtuous. He is hospitable. He is a very simple man, with no princely tastes." He added, "He is very intelligent. He understands politics and is wise to the tricks of outsiders. He is no aggressor. He is an angel-like human being."

The Taliban instituted puritanical rule over the Afghan people, shutting women out of schools, banning music and other everyday luxuries, and holding public executions in soccer stadiums filled with men.

Haq's seminary was founded in 1947 and is one of the ost well-respected Islamic seminaries in South Asia. It sequestures 4,000 male students in concrete buildings, behind high walls and barbed wire. In this incubator, the next generation of Islamic extremists are being created.

Haq has offered to mediate between the Taliban and the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the hopes he can forge peace between the governments and the tribal factions that inhabit the restive border region.

However, he said peace is not possible with foreigners present. The U.S. troops must leave before peace can be established. After that, he thinks it will only be a matter of time before the Taliban returns to power, either as a political party or by other means.

"Give them just one year and they will make the whole of Afghanistan happy," Haq told his interviewers. "The whole of Afghanistan will be with them ... Once the Americans leave, all of this will happen within a year."

"It's a war for freedom" he explained.

Indeed it is. Haq and his students are fighting for the freedom to oppress men and women alike, to marry children to old men and to stone women in public. Freedom to perform "honor killings" of rape victims. Indeed, that sure is a lot of freedom to fight for.

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