Taliban has been in charge of Afghanistan for about a week now, and it's clear that the new Taliban is only marginally more tolerant than the old Taliban of 2001. There are public executions. There are door to door searches for opponents, and at least one woman has been executed on the spot for not wearing a head scarf. Foreigners are also prevented form leaving the country. However, these are early days for the new regime. Much of this is typical maneuvering at the start of any radical regime change, especially one as disliked by the West as this one.
Preventing foreigners from leaving the country is a rather obvious move, and should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Washington DC blocked all Afghan assets under US control, so the Taliban resorts to hostage taking. This will lead to negotiations. The US will have to release assets in order to free hostages from the Taliban, which is terrible optics for the US and good for the Taliban who can use this to show strength both locally and abroad.
Door to door searches, and public executions of what is perceived as traitors is also to be expected. Taliban wants a comprehensive purge of its opposition. That's understandable after 20 years of bloody conflict. However, random executions of women for not wearing head covering is not likely to be something the Taliban leaders want to see too much of. Such extreme actions serves no purpose, neither at home nor abroad. Potential allies and business partners are repelled. Funding projects in Afghanistan becomes all the more difficult if the new regime comes across as too unhinged.
The Taliban leadership must find ways to reign in extreme elements in their own ranks. However, this is not as easy as one might think, because Islam is a purist religion. There's very little room for interpretation, open mindedness and forgiveness. Islam has rules for every aspect of life. Instead of one golden rule that applies to all people regardless of belief, gender and sexual orientation, Islam reserves this rule only for the pure. Make one mistake, and the rule no longer applies.
This makes it difficult to keep peace in Muslim countries, because the leadership must either be totally pure, in which case it must be totally ruthless towards anyone impure, or it must be totally ruthless to all opposition. For practical reasons, most Muslim countries end up with despots who are impure and hence totally intolerant of any opposition. The alternative is purism, which confines all laws to Sharia, which in turn is so burdensome that nothing gets done.
This is the challenge that the Taliban leadership is going to face going forward. How are they to combine international ambitions with their stated adherence to a strict interpretation of Sharia law? Any deviation from this law will be interpreted by some as impure, and hence sufficient reason to depose the leaders.
One way to deal with this would be to divide the various factions inside Taliban over the various regions, and then to control it all from Kabul. Hardliners get regions where strict Sharia is expected. More liberal leaning members get towns and cities. However, this will be a difficult balancing act. The leadership in Kabul will be under pressure to lean towards policies acceptable to foreigners and city dwellers. But this will provoke anger by purists in the provinces. The leadership becomes pressured from both sides, with the threat of assassination either way.
This problem exists wherever purism is widespread. We see it in political parties and movements with quasi-religious leanings. Religious zeal, unconstrained by a golden rule and the doctrine of sin and forgiveness, is a destructive and destabilizing force. This is the insight that Jesus brought to religion, and the reason liberty only exist in places where the golden rule is universally accepted.
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