RASC News Agency: The Taliban’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has officially announced the appointment of 41 new imams and muezzins in the Chahar Bolak district of Balkh province. According to Taliban officials, these individuals will serve in 37 local mosques and four central congregational mosques, under the pretext of improving mosque administration. However, the reality behind this maneuver is far more troubling. Since reclaiming power in Afghanistan, the Taliban have steadily embedded a network of ideologically aligned clerics many of whom were trained in hardline Pakistani Madrassas into mosques across the country. These individuals, often indoctrinated in extremist theology and even trained in combat and suicide tactics, are being systematically positioned to reshape the spiritual and intellectual fabric of Afghanistani society.
Local civil society activists and independent observers have repeatedly warned that this strategic deployment of Taliban-approved clerics is part of a broader ideological engineering campaign. Rather than being mere administrators of prayer, these imams function as instruments of indoctrination, tasked with embedding the regime’s radical worldview deep into the daily lives of ordinary citizens. Reports indicate that beyond their mosque duties, some of these clerics have also assumed roles as instructors in newly established Taliban-run religious schools. These institutions serve as ideological factories, where young minds are subjected to relentless indoctrination in extremist thought. The objective is clear: to cultivate a generation of loyal followers capable of executing and disseminating the Taliban’s fundamentalist doctrines across communities.
Over the past four years, multiple cases have surfaced of local imams being arrested, dismissed, or forcibly replaced. Their “offenses” often involved refusing to mention Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada during sermons or expressing mild criticism of the regime’s policies. These purges have paved the way for total Taliban control over religious spaces and messaging. What is now unfolding is not merely a religious revival, but a state-led project of ideological colonization. The Taliban’s grip on the mosque and by extension, on society’s moral and intellectual compass is a calculated strategy to ensure the long-term survival of their repressive regime. By shaping sermons, filtering dissent, and brainwashing future clerics, the Taliban are not only securing present obedience but investing in the perpetuation of their extremist rule for generations to come.
