What the Taliban may be getting wrong about Islamic governance

There is no single and absolute reading of Islamic law that can guide an Islamic state. It is all open to debate.

The Taliban has been evasive about the details of the state its leadership wishes to establish in Afghanistan. Given the horror with which most Afghans, as well as the international community, remember the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of the 1990s, Taliban leaders have been signalling that they have updated their views on governance. A lot remains unknown as consultations about forming “an inclusive government” – as they have called it – are ongoing. It is expected that this government would fill in the current power vacuum allowing the state institutions to resume their functions until a more permanent political setup and possibly a new constitution is enacted. However, given the Taliban’s virtually unequivocal military victory, the group’s views will be most influential in shaping the transitional and later permanent future political setup in Afghanistan. Its leaders have said they want an “Islamic” government but what does that mean?