By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

The Almighty Creator is All-Merciful, and He raised His Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), as “Mercy unto the creation”, with Islam as the religion of Mercy for all mankind.
Does it mean all those who claim to be Muslims are merciful people, observing the letter and spirit of the holy Qur’an and promoting compassion, forgiveness, and tolerance, as practically demonstrated by the Prophet and his blessed household, the Ahl al-Bayt?
Unfortunately not, as history bears witness and as is evident by contemporary events.
If all those who claim to be Muslims had an iota of mercy in their hearts, Yazid, who masqueraded as caliph or ruler of the Islamic realm, would not have cruelly slaughtered almost all male members of the Prophet’s Household, including his venerable grandson Imam Husain (AS) and the latter’s 6-month old infant, Ali Asghar (AS).
Here we are not concerned with the tyranny of all those so-called Muslim rulers whose hearts were devoid of faith in Islam (as the holy Qur’an says about the desert Arabs).
What shocked us and the whole world, especially Muslims with firm faith in Islam and its essence of mercy in their hearts, was the recent hanging of dead bodies of alleged kidnappers in the city of Herat in western Afghanistan by the new rulers of the country, who claim to be Muslims – and that too practicing Muslims.
According to reports, four persons attempting a kidnap (uninvestigated) were gunned down by the Taliban militia and their corpses strung on poles at various public squares of the city for instilling fear in the hearts of the people.
This sadistic event occurred less than a week after one of the senior militia leaders, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, threatened to execute people and amputate limbs, belying all those who have been saying that today’s Taliban are a tolerant lot from the murderous brutes they were over decades ago during their reign of terror in Afghanistan when they implemented medieval European laws in order to tarnish the image of Islam, to the delight of the Zionist-controlled western media.
Why weren’t the alleged kidnappers, who reportedly intended to take their victims out of the city, were not negotiated to surrender even if they were armed, on promises of Islamic justice and repentance?
What happened to the supposed hostages (a local trader and his son)? Were they also killed or seriously injured?
Why such a mockery of Islamic justice and mercy by hanging the corpses at public squares?
We still hope that this was a solitary incident of un-Islamic behaviour by Molvi Shir Ahmad Ammar, Herat’s deputy governor, who might be an American agent or a member of the macabrely murderous Daesh terrorist groulet, and should be immediately brought to justice by the higher authorities in Kabul.
If not, the neighbouring countries and the world will find it difficult to trust the Taliban, whose factional interim cabinet representing only a fraction of the one-third Pashto-speakers of Afghanistan, shows no signs of forming an inclusive national government involving the other political, ethnic, and religious groups that make up the remaining two-thirds of the country – even much more if the Pashtos not supporting the Taliban are included.