Bangladesh rejects, Turkey builds wall: Muslim countries are not too keen on helping fellow Afghan Muslims

Afghan Muslims have been desperately trying to leave the war-torn country. They are looking for shelter in other countries as Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban. While the governments across the globe are leaving no stone unturned to evacuate their citizens and other Afghans from the South Asian country, the Afghan Muslims have been abandoned by their fellow Muslim countries.

Read more: Taliban: The Frankenstein monster that the US created

Several nations including India, UK and Canada are evacuating citizens and local officials employed in their embassies in Kabul. But the Bangladesh government has denied providing temporary shelter to Afghan Muslims. Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, Dr A K Abdul Momen told the UNB in Dhaka that the country has rejected the request received from the US as it is already struggling to provide shelter to Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar. Earlier, Momen had said that Bangladesh would welcome any government in Afghanistan formed by the people of the country.

Earlier, on August 16, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said in a statement that it considered the nation as a potential development partner and a friend of Afghanistan. The statement also stated that Bangladesh is willing to share its best practices with Afghanistan in a range of areas such as basic education, community health care, sanitation, human resources development, agriculture, and climate change adaption. It also called on stakeholders in Afghanistan for maintaining peace in the country while also ensuring the safety of all Afghan nationals and foreign citizens.

Not only Bangladesh, but Turkey has also refused to accommodate fellow Muslims. Turkey is building a wall along its border with Iran. It is aiming to build a 295km-long wall on its Iranian border to prevent an influx of people from Afghanistan from crossing into the country, via Iran.

Both UAE and Saudi Arabia have been distancing themselves from these developments and are quiet on the matter which clearly indicates that the countries do not wish to welcome the Afghan Muslims.

Additionally, Pakistan has no choice but to accept the Afghan Muslims as the countries share a porous border. Every day, thousands of Afghans and Pakistanis cross the Durand Line – the 2,430-kilometer (1,510 miles) long boundary. Ethnic Pashtuns who live on both sides of the border share historical, cultural, and family ties and do not recognize the Durand Line as the official border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pashtuns can easily travel back and forth across the border.

However, the refusal to accommodate their fellow Muslims from Afghanistan shows the insensitivity of Islamic countries towards their own brethren.

In such a scenario, when the President is forced to flee the country and the country will soon be entering the Black era as Talibani terrorists will impose Sharia law, it is only the western countries and India that have come forward to show humanitarian gesture.  Major countries like the USA, UK and Canada have already announced that they will be taking in Afghan refugees and will provide them with legitimate immigrant visas. Recently, Justin Trudeau had announced that Canada will be accepting at least 20,000 Afghan immigrants.  Moreover, the Indian embassy in Kabul has been flooded with visa applications from Afghan nationals who are trying to leave the war-torn country. The officials at the Indian embassy are working overtime to issue visas to the Afghan nationals.

Those who claimed Muslims are unsafe in India and consider the Modi government as anti-Muslims are now urging the government to take the Afghan refugees while all the countries have abandoned them. New York Times, which has been vocal against the Indian government over suppression of Muslims along with the journalists in the country, has now written that it is only India that can rescue Afghan journalists and not the US.

Aditya Raj Kaul, contributing editor of CNN News18 tweeted, “The New York Times that publishes a Sirajuddin Haqqani Op-ed, the same New York Times that consistently badmouths Modi’s India, now turns to Modi’s India with a request to facilitate evacuation of its journalists from Kabul. All the irony that’s fit to print.”

The New York Times that publishes a Sirajuddin Haqqani Op-ed, the same New York Times that consistently badmouths Modi’s India, now turns to Modi’s India with a request to facilitate evacuation of its journalists from Kabul. All the irony that’s fit to print.

— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) August 12, 2021

However, India has been all up to accommodate the Afghan citizens irrespective of their religion and needs no advice and instruction from any organization or country. The irony that the Afghan Muslims have been abandoned by their co-religionists, is a loud and clear message for many Islamists that there exists no such thing as Muslim ‘fraternities’.