The Afghan government has issued a formal rebuttal concerning reports that one of its high-ranking officials made critical remarks about Uzbekistan. On July 16, a message of retraction from Afghanistan's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice was delivered to the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Kabul.
The official statement emphasized that certain factions and media outlets occasionally attempt to undermine the climate of trust and good-neighborly relations between the two brotherly nations, distorting facts and misinterpreting events to advance their own malicious agendas.
Specifically, the rebuttal stated the following:
"Our position regarding our brotherly neighbor, Uzbekistan, is clear. This land is the sacred homeland of many great scholars of the Islamic Ummah, including Imam Bukhari. Deep religious, historical, cultural, and human bonds unite Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. We place a profound value on these relationships and shared affinities.
Therefore, the statements and speeches circulating in certain media outlets and social networks, which have been negatively interpreted as targeting Uzbekistan, are entirely untrue. We categorically reject these claims and characterize them as a distortion of facts.
We express our firm confidence that the atmosphere of brotherhood, mutual respect, and close relations between our two states will continue to strengthen moving forward."
The issue stems from a July 15 report by the BBC Uzbek Service, which cited local sources claiming that the Taliban's Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Muhammad Khalid Hanafi, stated that "the name of Islam is only on the paper in Uzbekistan." According to that report, the minister also criticized Uzbekistan's religious scholars, objecting to the fact that religious matters in the country are dictated by a secular state structure rather than by theological authorities.
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