Date: 21/01/1404

Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban's minister for the promotion of virtue, has said that non-Muslims, including Hindus and Sikhs, are "worse than animals". According to an audio file released by the Taliban-controlled National Radio and Television on Wednesday, Hanafi made the remarks during a meeting with Taliban government officials in Kabul. In his speech, Hanafi referred to a verse from the Qur'an, calling non-Muslims worse than animals. The Taliban's minister for the promotion of virtue, emphasizing "special attention to the treasury," said that the "mission" is carried out by non-Muslims as well, and that "if success was based on the mission, they would have been successful." "But the most honorable are those who have piety along with faith," he said. In part of his speech, Hanafi criticized the use and seizure of government property by Taliban officials. The Taliban's minister for the promotion of virtue is one of the most hardline officials in the group's government and plays a pivotal role in the implementation of the Taliban's restrictive decrees, especially against women.Khalid al-Hanafi had previously said in another speech that God has made Muslims distinct and special from others because of enjoining good and forbidding vice.

The public statement by the Taliban’s Minister for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice describing non-Muslims as “worse than animals” reflects the normalization of religious hatred and dehumanization at the highest levels of Taliban governance. Delivered in an official setting and broadcast by state-controlled media, the remarks legitimize discrimination and exclusion against religious minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs, through doctrinal framing. Such language reinforces a hierarchy of belonging based on faith, undermines equal protection and dignity, and risks encouraging social hostility and abuse against minority communities. As articulated by a senior official responsible for enforcing moral and social regulations, the statement contributes to an environment of institutionalized discrimination grounded in religious intolerance.