Taliban refutes UN report

Meanwhile, a Taliban official on Monday slammed the report, calling it “biased and false”. Mohammad Suhal Shaheen, an official spokesman for the Taliban movement in Islamabad told IRIN on Monday that “in Islam we don’t have extremists, we have principles and you can’t call it extremist when we have enforced a principle.” He added: “Islam is not something that has been imposed on the people, but rather it is part and parcel of the people’s faith and culture.” On allegations that members of religious minorities were discriminated against, in particular those of the Sikh faith, Shaheen told IRIN that “Islamic principle says that any minority should be allowed freedom of worship. We cannot violate this principle. Members of the Sikh faith have long enjoyed this freedom of worship and ritual in Afghanistan.” As for Amor himself, Shaheen said “it is not a good interpretation and far from the realities of Afghanistan. He is almost 20,000 km away in interpreting the aspirations of the people of Afghanistan.”