Ahmadullah Muttaqi, Taliban’s head of Herat’s information and culture directorate, in a meeting with Shia scholars in the province called Muharram rituals as Bid’ah, a term used for religious innovations in Islam, saying that it should stop.
Muttaqi, who is the brother of Taliban foreign minister and a close aide to Taliban deputy chief minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, said such rituals had been innovated newly and that they did not exist in books.
He said he calls such rituals as “political Bid’ah,” adding that Muharram ceremonies should align strictly with Islamic sources.
“We should first determine how these ceremonies should be conducted,” he told Shia scholars at a gathering in Herat. “You are all religious scholars. We have the Holy Quran and the Sunnah and we should adjust such rituals based on that. We should avoid such Bid’ahs which we call political Bid’ahs (innovations),” he stated.
This call comes amid reports of unprecedented restrictions imposed by the Taliban on the ten-day Ashura and Muharram commemorations.
A document obtained by Amu indicates that Taliban has required certain Shia scholars to agree to these limitations.
The document, confirmed by two Shia scholars, stipulates that Shia citizens of Afghanistan are prohibited from inviting Sunni citizens to mourning ceremonies.
It also specifies that Muharram observances are limited to three days, from the seventh to the tenth of Muharram, and must be conducted behind closed doors.
Furthermore, Taliban has restricted group gatherings and the participation of Shia communities in media programs during the mourning period.
In a recent move this week, Taliban has taken down flags hoisted for Muharram ceremonies in parts of the city of Herat in the west of the country.
