Source: Mohammad Enam Wak
WAK Foundation
Email: abdaliwak[at]yahoo.com

Mohammad Enam Wak is the author of the "History of Pashto" section. Hence all credit goes to him and if you have any question he will be pleased to answer them through his email.
 

Comparison

After the sovereignty of God, Sovereignty of people is a well recognized and a democratic tradition of Afghan nationalism. More than twenty Loya Jirgas and grand assemblies were convened in the past more than two and a half centuries (1709-1970) for the foundation of state government, drafting and passing constitutions and for making other important national decisions.

Islamic fundamentalists criticized the convening of Loya Jirgas and resisted against it since 1964 and particularly after 1964 and particularly after 1978 and 1992. They have substituted it by the Shura-e Hall wa Aqd (assemblies of religious figures and clergy: Mullahs, Mulavi, Mualana, Sheikh-ul Hadith and other religious figures), eligible for solving and declaring verdicts after 1992. These fundamentalists convened two such assemblies between 1992 and 1998. Burhanuddin Rabanni convened the first assembly in 1993 and Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban, called another in 1995. This was never part of the Afghan tradition and culture.

The Afghan national assembly (Wollesy Jirga) represented the Pakhtoon rural culture of consultation and gatherings as well as the modern parliaments. This was not new in the Pakhtoon and afghan culture. Islamic fundamentalism principally rejects democracy, election and parliamentary systems. It considers Sharia as the only acceptable supreme law and a perfect constitution.

Afghan nationalism help in the formation of a national society with the construction of roads and communication networks connecting different parts of the country. Cultural, economic and social links were maintained. All constitution ethnic groups, Tajik< Hazara, Uzbek, Turkmen and etc., recognized their Afghan national identity up to 1978. Islamic radicalism abolished this nation state framework, particularly after 1992. Islamic fundamentalism attributes the formation of the nation state to religion. Based on this wrong doctrine, Afghanistan was divided into four main ethno-political zones before 1997; today many of these minority ethnic groups do not recognize the Afghan identity.