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Leadership or Rule by Force? The Thin Line Between Guidance and Coercion.<\/strong> Leadership or Rule by Force? The Thin Line Between Guidance and Coercion. Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, in his Eid al-Fitr speech at the Eidgah Mosque in Kandahar, declared that he is responsible for guiding Muslims and considers the enforcement of his directives essential for reforming society. He stated: \u201cI am obliged; I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16067,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16037\/revisions\/16067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elmedia.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, in his Eid al-Fitr speech at the Eidgah Mosque in Kandahar, declared that he is responsible for guiding Muslims and considers the enforcement of his directives essential for reforming society.<\/strong>
\nHe stated: \u201cI am obliged; I am the leader of these Muslims, and I will certainly guide them to the path of God,\u201d and called on the public to remain united and support the Taliban government.<\/strong>
\nHe also, without naming Pakistan, emphasized that military pressure and airstrikes cannot change the Taliban\u2019s beliefs and faith, and that the group will not be eliminated through military force.<\/strong>
\nHowever, this claim faces a serious contradiction at the societal level. Guidance has meaning only when a leader stands alongside the people, listens to their voices, and understands the realities of their lives.<\/strong>
\nWhen the gap between the ruling authority and society widens, and signs of coercion, dissatisfaction, or repression emerge, the concept of \u201cguidance\u201d shifts from a conscious and voluntary process to one of imposition and top-down command.<\/strong>
\nIn such a situation, the claim of guidance appears more as a slogan than a reality.<\/strong>
\nA leader who is distant from the people or indifferent to their demands cannot convincingly claim moral and social leadership. True guidance requires trust, justice, and a living connection with society\u2014not merely an emphasis on obedience. Otherwise, such claims are not only unpersuasive but may deepen the divide between the people and the ruling authority.<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, sources from various provinces report that the Taliban have forced people, through pressure and coercion, to attend Eid prayers.<\/strong>
\nAt the same time, in Herat, according to earlier reports, the Taliban have detained and imprisoned a number of Shia clerics for opposing the group\u2019s declaration of Eid al-Fitr.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"