Panjwai District religious scholars vow to spread calls for peace

KANDAHAR -- Scores of religious scholars in Panjwai District, Kandahar Province, have publicly declared their support to engage with the Taliban in an effort to make peace.

The scholars, who convened December 3, vowed to help raise public awareness about peace talks in their communities.

"We will spread the message of peace among our people from now on and will raise our voices for peace from the pulpit of our mosques," Mawlawi Naimatullah Akhundzada, the imam of Pashmol village in Panjwai, told participants of the gathering.

"The residents have now realised that they don't want the fighting to continue in this country," he said.

It is the duty of all of the religious scholars to help move the peace process forward, said Mawlawi Abdul Ghani Shah, chairman of the Council of Religious Scholars in the Taloqan area, Panjwai District.

"It is the responsibility of the religious scholars to make the public aware of the good and bad, and we all denounce the ongoing fighting in the country," he told Salaam Times. "We are asking the Taliban militants not to fight anymore because this fighting is illegitimate."

"Everyone from the police, army and the local district governor's office is our brother," Shah said. "There is disgrace in the fighting and goodness in peace."

Religious scholars play an important role in enlightening the minds of the public and of the militants about peace, Panjwai District Governor Fazal Mohammad Ishaqzai told participants of the gathering.

"Peace is a necessity, and the Afghan people are thirsty for it," he said.

"If religious scholars raise their voices for peace through the pulpit and the nation joins them, peace will come," Ishaqzai said. "Religious scholars can also play a helpful role in teaching Islamic subjects in schools."

Similar calls for peace are brewing in neighbouring provinces, including in Helmand, which has long been a hotbed of Taliban insurgency and violence.

Helmand residents are now more hopeful for peace, said Asadullah Patman, deputy chairman of Helmand Civil Society, a non-profit advocacy group.

"We support the recent peace efforts," he told Salaam Times, referring both to local calls for peace and to efforts by US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad.

"Khalilzad recently met with the Taliban representatives, and we have become closer to peace," he said.

"We hope that the armed groups will lay down their arms and make peace."