#Reviewing Taliban Narratives

"After a theoretical discussion in chapter one, chapter two turns to an analysis of Taliban master narratives which Johnson categorizes into religious, cultural, and political concepts. Under the religious concepts used by Taliban, Johnson identifies six themes: jihad, Islamism, shaheed (martyrdom), shar’iah, and Islam. Johnson’s conceptualization of these themes is vague and intermingled at times. For instance, he does not make clear the difference between Islamism and Islam. In both these themes, Johnson argues the Taliban use the notion of Islam under threat to mobilize people. Unlike Johnson’s understanding, Islamism indicates an ideology that projects Islam as a socio-political system. He also conceives Taliban as a Deobandi movement that follows a Salafist egalitarian model. While it is correct the Taliban is Deobandi, it is problematic to call them Salafi. Salafis are the neo-fundamentalist movements mainly following Wahhabism.

In the cultural concepts, Johnson introduces five themes: Pashtunwali, pride and honor, resistance and independence, justice, and victimization. Similarly, two themes, nationalism and collective memory, are presented in political concepts. Again the main problem here is the concepts are not mutually exclusive. Nationalism is very much connected to the issue of collective memory and independence, for example, yet these are categorized separately. Chapter three distinguishes five different Taliban audiences and provides an analysis of the context, aim, and effectiveness/ineffectiveness of Taliban messages. These five target audiences, according to Johnson, are the local but neutral population, local sympathizers, local people who are against them, the neighboring countries, and the international community. Chapter four provides a detailed bibliography of the magazines, circulars, and newsletters of the Taliban and Hizb Islami Gulbudin."