The question is complex, we don't have access to information from both sides very often.
We all know what the West is going to say about the Taliban, and we know what many people in the Middle East think about them. Who can think anything definite about it without having been there? And if the basic question is focused on fundamentalist Islam, it is not interesting IMO, it's not as if the two sides will convince each other.
I think that the only people who are really legitimate to answer this are the Afghans themselves, because elsewhere, you either have anti or pro propaganda.
In any case, we know that they are extremists. I am personally of the opinion to avoid extremes, no matter what the subject is, what is extreme is rarely positive for humanity.
I think that it is almost impossible to judge this people objectively without having lived with them and on the spot
We don't need to rely on the West. We can look directly into the Quran or the hadith and recognize every iteration of Sharia Law isn't democratic. Any "modern" interpretation of Islam is so far removed from the direct text that even with the loosest interpretation you don't have any identifiable form of Islam.
We can hear directly from the Afghans themselves, but I figure at this point some have gotten so accustom to Islamic theocracy over the years, the abuse of human rights seems normal. This type of abuse is engrained in history, it's not anything that's new with the Taliban.
Most other religions have modernized. And their holy books are not nearly as violent against nonbelievers.
