Who Is Good And Who Is Bad?

I am stumped by the ongoing discussion in the media about the “good” Taliban and the “bad” Taliban…Until now I thought all Talibs were bad…Kind, generous, helpful, honest, respectful, and loving are some qualities I associate with a “good” person and I can’t see any of these qualities in the Taliban (okay, some individual members may have certain good qualities but the organization as a whole is bad)…

According to some strategists in Pakistan and the US, the ultra conservative Pakistani Talibs are good because they are interested only in the local affairs of Swat whereas the other Talibs are bad because their interests are global and therefore their actions would affect other countries…Even if the Pakistani Talibs have only local interests, how can they still be called good? Didn’t they terrorize the citizens of Swat to such an extent that thousands had to flee? Didn’t they destroy hundreds of schools and ban girls from attending them? Didn’t they ban women from working and leaving their homes alone? Didn’t they force women to wear burqas and men to grow beards and wear salwar kameezes? How can such people be called good? Just because the Pakistani Talibs are at the moment only interested in local affairs does not mean that they don’t have national and global ambitions…Anyone who forcefully enforces Sharia rule necessarily believes in Islamic domination of the world and will go to any extent to achieve that goal…

Talibs are all bad because they are intolerant, violent and are hell bent on taking the world back to the Stone Age - all in the name of religion…The Pakistani government cannot justify its incompetence and its deal with Maulana Fazlullah by defining the Maulana's group as "good"...

Edited to Add:

The 'good' Taliban at work

The Hindu reports:

PESHAWAR: Islamist terrorists on Thursday blew up the mausoleum of a 17th century poet in Peshawar, apparently because women visited it. It was revered in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.