A brutal Taliban regime has hijacked Afghanistan and, as the terrorist group prepares to torment Afghan minorities and women all over again, some of the most popular global media houses are competing to win the Taliban’s favour. When the Taliban was overrunning Afghanistan, Al-Jazeera was expected to function as the Taliban’s mouthpiece. However, BBC clinched the project of acting as the Taliban’s spokesman and became immensely popular with the terrorist group’s leadership. However, there is a new contender for the Taliban’s goodwill- the New York Times (NYT).
The New York Times published an article titled, “Taliban Appoints Stalwarts to Top Government Posts,” which offended many readers who saw this as an attempt to normalise a cabinet that comprises UN-designated Taliban terrorists with millions worth of bounties on their heads.
Interesting choice of words. 'Stalwart' isn't an adulatory expression but neither is it a pejorative. It would fit with @nytimes' "high standards" of giving platforms to terrorists, though. After all, their 'star' columnist became an interior minister in Taliban govt. pic.twitter.com/SeipOdeXHk
— Sreemoy Talukdar (@sreemoytalukdar) September 8, 2021
First sit-in interview with Taliban spokesman
NYT has been acting all excited since the Taliban overran Afghanistan. NYT beamed with pride as it became the first Western media outlet to hold a sit-down interview with Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
“We want to build the future, and forget what happened in the past,” Mujahid told NYT. In the interview, he rejected fears regarding vindictive action by the Taliban against ethnic minorities and harsh controls on women.
‘New’ Taliban narrative:
As soon as the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the extremist group and its sympathisers have been claiming that it has changed for the better over the past two decades. By offering space for airing his views to Mujahid, NYT allowed the Taliban spokesman to strongly push the ‘new’ Taliban narrative.
NYT itself stated, “The interview came just a day after Mr. Mujahid warned the women of Afghanistan that it might be safest for them to remain home until more rank-and-file Taliban fighters have been trained in how not to mistreat them.” NYT added, “It was a notable acknowledgment of the many changes to Afghan society that greeted the Taliban when they re-entered a city they had not controlled for two decades.”
So, NYT is taking the word of the Taliban spokesman as true. It didn’t even suggest that there was a possibility of Mujahid misleading the entire world about the Taliban’s motives.
‘Positive signs’:
In one of its op-eds, NYT has gone as far as claiming that there have been “positive signs” in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. It stated, ” A lower-ranking member of their hierarchy gave an interview to a female television journalist Tuesday, and Reporters Without Borders won a vague promise that the Taliban would respect freedom of the press.”
NYT also claimed that as per some observers, the reason behind the Taliban not forming a government immediately after storming Kabul was a sign that they could remain open to an “inclusive” government.
To buttress its case, NYT quoted Maulvi Qalamuddin, a former Taliban Minister as saying, “If the Taliban wanted a one-sided government, they would have already declared an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan yesterday in the presidential palace.”
Well, the way NYT simply seems to believe what the Taliban leaders or spokespersons say is simply amazing. Anyway, the Taliban did form a government and NYT published a brief profile of the ‘caretaker’ government formed by the extremist group. Interestingly, the Taliban’s so-called “inclusive” government doesn’t include a single woman and is dominated by the Haqqani Network, a US-designated terror group.
Cooperation with the US:
Joe Biden and other Democrats keep selling the narrative that the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (IS-K), which carried out an attack on American soldiers at Kabul airport last month, is the Taliban’s enemy.
The Democrats don’t even consider the fact that Afghanistan’s caretaker President Amrullah Saleh claims that “IS-K cells have their roots in Talibs & Haqqani network particularly the ones operating in Kabul. Talibs denying links with ISIS is identical/similar to the denial of Pakistan on Quetta Shura.”
Even NYT, which openly backs the Biden administration, published a report about how the Pentagon says that working with the Taliban against ISIS-K is possible. Further, NYT stated, “Whether the Taliban can control the group had become a matter of major international concern, after ISIS-K claimed responsibility for an attack on the Kabul airport that left 170 civilians and 13 U.S. military members dead in the final days of the U.S. evacuation.”
At the end of the day, it seems as if NYT is making a big push for cooperation between the Pentagon and the Taliban. This, of course, puts NYT ahead of BBC and Al Jazeera when it comes to impressing the Taliban.