Afghanistan crisis: For Al Qaeda, Taliban are role model, democracy a `deceptive mirage`

`This (Taliban) victory and empowerment reveal to us that jihad and fighting represent the Sharia-based, legal, and realistic way to restore rights (and) expel the invaders and occupiers,` Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in a statement.

Kabul: The worrying signs that the Taliban of 2021 are hardly any different from the Taliban of late 90s and early 2000 seem to be only becoming clearer with latest developments. Now, the terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has praised the Afghan extremist group as role model for others.

This seems to be a clear sign that high-profile international terror groups are sending overtures to the Taliban to expand the footprint of Global Jihad. "This victory and empowerment reveal to us that jihad and fighting represent the Sharia-based, legal, and realistic way to restore rights (and) expel the invaders and occupiers," AQAP said in a statement.

The AQAP, one of the most potent wings of the Al Qaeda 'international', described democracy as a 'deceptive mirage', which has no future. "As for the game of democracy and working with simple pacifism, it is a deceptive mirage, a fleeting shadow, and a vicious circle that starts with a zero and ends with it," said the statement carried by SITE Intelligence group-an open-source organisation that monitors terror networks worldwide.

The Al Qaeda-Taliban connection runs deep. After they came to power in 1996, the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan became a giant base for training international terrorists who would then fan out to the various parts of the globe to carry out large-scale terror attacks, including the 9/11 strike on the twin-towers in New York. The Taliban had sheltered Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda 'Amir' of the group and Ayman al Zawahiri, his right-hand man.

The US views AQAP as the most dangerous branch of Al-Qaeda's global pantheon. Experts say that the Taliban's return to power will boost the morale of extremist groups in Middle East. Many groups will feel that America can be beaten and that means democracy can be overthrown. Already several terrorist groups associated with al Qaeda have issued statements on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan after they stormed and took over Kabul on August 15. 

The Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham in Syria (HTS) views the Taliban as a model, an inspiration. Western China's Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) also reportedly issued a statement congratulating the Taliban, while the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has sworn allegiance to the Taliban leadership.

(With IANS inputs)