28 October 2001 - We all call on the Taliban to stop this war now.

Open letter to the Taliban:

You, the Taliban, condemned the World Trade Center attack, yet some of your supporters, including Usama bin Laden, not only welcomed the attack but called for more like it. This alone should be sufficient evidence for you to act against him and his al-Qaeda group. If you do not then you show support for his aims and his methods, specifically his claim that civilians are acceptable targets. This takes you clearly outside of Islam and implies your support for the worst kind of murderous attacks on innocents. If you want to be recognised as leaders of the Muslims as a whole you must stop doing something simply because it is the opposite of what the US and others demand. You must do what is right according to Islam even if it is exactly what non-Muslims demand. You cannot hide behind the idea that Usama must be tried by an Islamic court. Murder is a crime in all countries, you agree it is and so the law isn't at issue. The only question is whether or not he and his organisation is guilty of committing the crime. 

If you really want to implement Islam then you must truly submit yourselves to its teachings in this and other areas. Banning girl schools, banning women from certain kinds of trade and employment, having public order police that carry out punishments for alleged crimes with no chance for the accused to offer an explanation to a qualified judge in their defence. All this must stop. 

Finally, after four years in power, last year, you prohibited the growing of poppies for use in production of heroin, but people are still free to sell their stock of heroin. This must also stop. If you want to win your wars you have to recognise and expel your sins from yourselves. As it says in the Qur'an, "God will not change the conditions of a people until they change what is in themselves". The people of Afghanistan have suffered for long enough, they have been mislead into futile internal wars for long enough. Please change yourselves and your policies and stop this unnecessary war.