In the New York Times, Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the first elected president of the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran, expounds on the brand of Islam Afghanistan needs in order to move towards a future peace:
Religion has become about power. The most abhorrent form of this violence, suicide bombing, is the direct result of the dominance of a religious interpretation that sanctifies violence. Unless this changes, religion in Afghanistan will continue to serve the fundamentalist powers and those who are nourished by the politics of fear.
What is required instead is a revival of the repressed traditions of Islamic thought and practice, such as the concept of “Tawhid.” This is a worldview that regards the whole of existence as a single form. The whole of existence is a single living and conscious organism, possessing will, intelligence, feeling and purpose. This encompassing existence is damaged by conflict and by separation from others.
Read Bani-Sadr’s article in its entirety here.