Canada's Role in Afghanistan

Canadian troops arrived in Afghanistan early in 2002, and have been engaged in conflict  continuously since that date. This battle group is currently projected to withdraw sometime in 2011, but Canadian involvement at a number of levels in civil reconstruction and in military and police training is expected to continue well beyond that date.  

The most significant Canadian military deployment has been to Kandahar province, sometimes called the "spiritual home" of the Taliban insurgency.

War, "Justified War," and Relations with Islam

Public opinion on Canadian military intervention in Afghanistan is deeply divided, with clear majorities in opinion polls regularly returning their disapproval. Canadian Muslims themselves, who comprise some 2% of the population, are widely believed to be mainly hostile to the war effort.

Globally, the situation is complex and confused. Many Muslims internationally are inclined to view any Western intervention in the Islamic world as "Crusade," which helps to explain al-Quaeda's consistent use of this word in its propaganda. For Western Christians and others, such use of religiously-laden language ought to provoke reflection on the possibility that thoroughly "secular" government policy and military action can indeed be perceived as a "Christian" threat to Islamic faith and practice.

There is also, of course, internal debate within Christian theology and among the churches concerning what, if anything, might constitute a "just" or "justified war" – a debate made more complex for Canadian Christians today both by the nature of insurgency warfare, and by our Muslim fellow-citizens' subtly different traditions of just war theology. 

How can we best think theologically about what is confusingly called the Canadian "mission" to Afghanistan in face of this complex set of factors? We must surely begin by thinking honestly – both as Christians and as Christians together with others – about the questions at stake.

Justice and the Poor of the Earth

A central strand in both Christian and Islamic traditions of thought concerning justice relates to the cry of the poor. From the theological standpoint, Canadian policy in Afghanistan has ultimately to be measured, not against the criterion of sheer military success, but against the demand for an answer to the needs of the impoverished, of girls and women, of orphan children and widows, of the disabled and of those with no hope. 

What have Canadian Christians and Muslims to learn from one another in face of the needs of the poor of the earth in this instance? What can they do together on their behalf? Have our theologies, our public teaching and our public witness to the justice of God done enough to call military and civilian policymakers to account before it? What ought we to be saying about Afghanistan?

Our upcoming Conference in May, 2009 will provide a forum in which these discussions can take place. Register to attend – places are limited!