3. Biodata:
Maulavi Mohammad Ayaz Tarnak is a conservative Kabul-based Islamic cleric. Tarnak is among the leaders of the Afghan Ulema Council, a clerical alliance that recently called on Kabul to implement Islamic Hudood, a strict Islamic criminal code that the Taliban often confuse with Shari'a. Hudood punishments including the amputations of limbs for theft, stoning to death for adultery, and lashes for alcohol consumption. "If the Taliban drop their opposition and accept the current constitution but ask for the implementation of the Hudood and Hanafi Fiqah -- if the two can agree on this compromise, I don't think that they really stand far from each other," Tarnak says. Faiqah al-Shari'a are schools of interpreting Islamic law. Most Afghan clerics follow the Hanafi Fiqah of Sunni Islam, but three other Sunni Fiqah schools exit. The Afghan Constitution also recognizes the Shi'a Fiqah for the followers of that Islamic sect.