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Essay / Pashtunwali Essay - 670
Pashtunwali dates back to the pre-Islamic era of history and is a code that Pashtuns follow regardless of any difference in geographical location. The social code produces loyal and dedicated people, who also develop high-class masculine role models, whom they consider far superior to those in Western culture (Dyk 2011). The foundation of Pashtunwali is justice, self-respect, hospitality, forgiveness, love, tolerance, loyalty, equality and independence. Of all these listed traits, none is more important to Pashtuns than honor (izzat). Honor is what makes a person a Pashtun and a member of their community; however, if he loses his honor, he does not benefit from rights, protection or support from the community. Due to the repressive nature of Islamic radicalism, many Westerners would be shocked to discover that there is a culture that is extremely independent and values individual freedom. This is because the Islamic religion has dominated much of Afghan culture for centuries. Surprisingly, the Islamic identity of the Pashtuns is only a thousand years old. This may explain how this religion corrupted Pashtunwali, since it is said to be five thousand years old. Pashtunwali provided guidelines that helped create a peaceful and hospitable Afghanistan. An example of this hospitality is provided by reports of the accommodation of Jews and Christians. This is true for Pashtun ethics when they recognize that these two religions are part of the “book”. The new image of the Pashtuns contrasts with these characteristics due to the fascism of the perverted Deobandi-Wahhabi Islam of the Taliban. This form of Islam had been exported from Pakistan and was vaguely known in Afghanistan. During the Soviet invasion, in 1979, the Pashtun code... middle of paper ... and all subsequent tribes are interconnected and reinforce ancient rites of "honor" as mentioned previously (Ali 2013). The Taliban take inspiration from the Quran and use it to become dictators and promote war with these tribal notions, which dilute the purpose, meaning and nature of their holy scriptures (Gardez & Peshawar 2006). We thus clearly see some major aspects of tilting the main doctrines of Islamic protocol in the more conservative direction. One might compare these differences and their subsequent impact on the Roman Catholic Church as Luther and his fellow Protestants revised and slanted conservative doctrines, which, again, as we see in the changes for better and for worse , depending on the state and cultural, political and economic background of each person. The impact of this split caused enormous conflict and revision of dogma, as happened during the Islamic transformation..