They too have dress codes, which are applicable to all, and followed, not by violent enforcement, but by a deep understanding and acquiescence with the Amish philosophy of life. If beards are compulsory for the Taliban men, they are mandatory for the married Amish gents; if the women under Taliban are required to be covered head to toe, the Amish women wear almost uniform-like dresses of limited colors, white aprons and black bonnets. Compared to mainstream American society, the Amish society is male-dominated, with well-defined roles for both sexes. However, the conformity that is displayed by the Amish is not a painful obedience extracted by threat of mutilation- like the Taliban who cut off fingers of women wearing nail polish- but the result of a profound faith in their religion and confidence in their value systems.
The Amish too avoid all manifestations of technology; they shun automobiles and electricity, and instead use horse carriages and oil lamps. They have their own school system, with community-controlled small schools, and education stops with the eighth grade While the Taliban curtail education because they abhor all knowledge -except of .the strictly religious type-, the Amish believe that vocational training in agriculture and crafts is more relevant to their community than academic learning. Amish culture attaches great importance to a strong work ethic and discourages idleness and vice, hence children are taught the value of hard work. This attitude is in tragic contrast with that of the Taliban, who, despite the puritan posturing, have the largest opium cultivation in the world. Opium, guns, religious schools and violence- these are the educational channels available to young boys under the Taliban.
An amazing contrast
What makes the Amish an absorbing sociological study is their enduring belief in non-violence, and this conviction is carried to the extent that they do not have zippers or shiny buttons in their clothes because these are reminiscent of the trappings on military uniforms. While their faith does not eschew political action to promote peace, they reject any military involvement or warfare – and this is where this community offers the most fascinating contrast to the Taliban. On the one side you have a society, which claims to live by its holy book and indulges in the most perverse form of repression, bloodshed and torture, and on the other is a community that is peace loving in the extreme because it lives by its own holy book. Needless to add, this love of peace goes hand-in-hand with tolerance for other religions and cultures, supporting and caring for each other and building a strong community that is emotionally self-sustaining.
The Taliban philosophy is based on extreme intolerance of other cultures and religions, and this bigotry does not spare even the Islamic sub-sects that differ from theirs; these so-called students of Islam are driven by a rabid intolerance that believes that the entire world should live like them, and does not permit any deviations.
The Amish, while being unshakably committed to their religion, have no quarrel with the outside world, no matter how different. While the Amish believe in a conservative lifestyle, they also believe that others should have their own freedom, including the youth in their own community. They offer their children, at sixteen, the freedom to mingle with the world and make their own informed choice of whether to be baptized as Amish or to leave the community forever – and surprisingly 90%of the children return to the fold. It is indeed incomprehensible how two cultures could have traveled the religious road and emerged as studies in total contrast.
The most poignant expression of the Amish character was seen in the recent killings in the Amish school; staying true to their values of non-violence, acceptance and forgiveness, the entire community including the bereaved families reached out to the killer’s family in what can be only described as an act of mind-boggling charity. In a situation where all others would be swearing revenge and retribution, these noble men and women thought it fit to accept tragedy and pray for the perpetrator. Nothing more Gandhian has been seen recently in our world riddled with terrorism and bloodshed.
On the other side of the world, last month pilgrims including a child were killed in bomb attacks by the Taliban, now staging a revival.
It is a fact that in a sense both the Taliban and the Amish are stuck in a time warp, but one wonders how one culture has become an enchanting and thought-provoking lesson in upstanding values, and the other has turned out to be a barbaric monstrosity.
