AFGHANISTAN - Taliban Cracks Down on Music
The Taliban, who shot their way to power in Afghanistan two years ago, have thrown women out of their jobs, banished them from sports, and banned girls above the age of twelve from going to school.
They have also banned video games, foreign films, and music as “idolatrous.”
A guitar, a harmonium, a drum, amps, and speakers were recently set afire in the province of Herat, and posted online. The BBC quotes an official at the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry as saying music “causes moral corruption.”
“Music is denounced as unlawful and un-Islamic,” Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, director of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, told us. “Musicians are treated as criminals.”
Millions of Afghans may now be forced to live without the comfort, diversion, inspiration, and delight of music. No music to be heard, and danced to, at weddings; no music to enchant children; or console those who suffer loss, or may be lonely. No music for those who want to feel something inside them soar.
-www.npr.org, 12 August 2023
Arno's Commentary
Afghanistan is listed as the world’s 41st largest country, with a population of about 40 million. Life expectancy is very low at 54 years, and 30% of the population does not have access to clean drinking water.
When doing research on Afghanistan, one notices that they have been plagued with internal and external enemies for several centuries. “Afghanistan is rich in natural resources, including lithium, iron, zinc, and copper. It is also the world’s largest producer of opium, second largest producer of cannabis, and third largest of both saffron and cashmere.”
According to the Cost of War Project, 170,000 people were killed in the conflict between 2001 and 2021. “Following the 2001 invasion, more than 5.7 million refugees returned to Afghanistan; however, in 2021, 2.6 million Afghans remained refugees, primarily in Iran and Pakistan, and another 4 million were internally displaced.”
While Afghanistan is not mentioned in the in Bible, we read in the book of Esther the following: “Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)” (Esther 1:1). Thus, we see the territory of Afghanistan was included. Ahasuerus’ advisor, Haman, devised a scheme to annihilate all Jews from the empire. The signed declaration of King Ahasuerus could not be changed. Instead, the king issued a new command: the Jews’ right to defend themselves. “Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey” (Esther 8:11).
While the Purim holiday is still celebrated in Israel and by Jews around the world, we are concerned with another group not mentioned here; namely, the Church. There are believers in Afghanistan, as there are in the whole world, on every continent and in every country. We are instructed to pray for those who are oppressed.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
