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Pashtun culture |
World hot
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Afghanistan Pakistan |
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"The Pashtun
Way"
Pashtunwali
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| In the late eighties Pakistan assisted
Pashtun tribes in attempting to overthrow the Soviet
influenced Afghanistan Government. A group of
religious Pashtun scholars and Pashtun mujahideen fighters
were organized and formed the Taliban. After the war
ended various factions fought each other for power and
none were able to gain control over the entire country.
Afghanistan was reduced to a collection of territories
held by competing warlords. Under Pakistan
intelligence force training and guidance the Taliban was
able to unite their loosely aligned regional groups
together and formed a large and dominating militia.
The Taliban were able to defeat the warlords and other
militant factions and in 1996 captured Kabul. The
Afghanistan people were tired of continuous war and for
the first time in over two decades a chance for peace and
safety could be offered to the population. Pakistan
felt they had secured their interests when the Taliban
officially controlled the majority of Afghanistan
territory.. |
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| The Taliban was able to restore order by
imposing a very strict interpretation of Sharia law.
Mullah Muhammad Omar directed the Taliban and led them
backward in history in order to rid the Pashtun and other
peoples of Afghanistan of Western demonic influence.
Men were forced to wear beards, women were not allowed to
attend schools, television, music and internet were
banned. Woman could no longer work outside the home
or even leave it without a male escort. Soccer
stadiums would be filled to witness executions and
punishment for violating the new laws. The Taliban
let the world know their complete intolerance for other
religions when Mullah Omar destroyed the Buddhist stone
statues etched into a mountain where it has stood for
centuries. The oddest
conflict within the Taliban and Islam is the procreation
of opium into the world markets. They allowed the
smuggling and cultivation of this drug which violates Sharia law. After international pressure they did
reduce the amount of cultivation but never wiped it out.
In the end the Taliban has been criticized by many
Islamists for their lack of understanding and being
poorly educated in Islamic Law and History. It
appears as mentioned earlier in this article that the
Pashtun have always done things their own way and the
Taliban sect blended Wahabbi teachings with their own Pashtun tribal customs to produce the desired effect of
control. |
| In 1996 after Sudan requested that Osama
Bin Laden and his associates relocate their operations
from within Sudan to another country the Taliban allowed
him to seek refuge in Afghanistan. He was welcomed
as a hero from the Soviet conflict and given protection
and allowed to continue his training of mujahideen
warriors for the next great conflict of our time.
The kindred spirits of Bin Laden and Mullah Omar
respected one another and their beliefs that Western
influence should be removed from the Muslim world as it
degrades their culture, Muslim women, and
corrupts their children. They feared that the
continuation of the West imposing it way of life on their
homelands would destroy the Muslim Culture. |
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After the
September 11, 2001 attacks the U.S. demanded that the
Taliban handover Bin Laden. The Taliban were not
interested in the U.S. demands to hand him over and as
previously stated that they would not betray a
"friend" to the Afghanistan people because it would betray
the sacrifices during the Afghan-Soviet War. In all
reality the Taliban didn't give Osama Bin Laden up because
they are Pashtuns and because of their codes of honor and
sanctuary.
| Mullah Muhammad Omar refused to cower
to the demands of a superpower and go down in Pashtun
folklore as the man that betrayed a protector of Islam.
He chose to let the Taliban temporarily collapse under
U.S. bombing rather than to commit this betrayal.
Among the system's tenets
are the jirga (council of elders), a
punishment system based on revenge, hospitality, and sanctuary,
which says Pashtun should provide protection to someone who has
taken refuge with them After all it is the "Pashtunwali
Way". The early announcement of a win against
the Taliban was premature as in the months and years
ahead will show as it has in history that the Pashtun
people do not bend easily. They are warriors and
remember every bomb that has fallen on their villages
and it gives their call of vengeance an answer for
more than likely an entire generation to come. |
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In the Pashtun culture, if someone kills your family
member, you have inherited a duty to take revenge. Also, a
wrong that has been done to one person is considered to
have been committed against the entire tribe |
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U.S. and Coalition Soldiers in
Pashtun Country |
| In the land that
devoured the Soviets and other invaders the U.S. led
forces are occupying the same Pashtun tribal lands. The
biggest problem that faces the coalition troops is to be
successful at winning over the locals in the territory they are
operating in. The locals are always weary of
outsiders and realize that no one comes to their part of
the world unless they are there for drug smuggling, arms
dealing, or to wage war against them. This ideology
does not bode well for a country that will not compromise
their way of life from any threat, including one from
another superpower that has invaded their territory.
The Pashtun tribes are very weary of the U.S. presence and
have suffered greatly in the conflict and as the Taliban
continues to press the new government's authority they have
emerged more organized and deadlier as we approach May
2008. The
invading forces from another world are in unfriendly
country along the border. The Taliban has been
gaining ground in the country and as this happens it will
become more and more difficult to know who the enemy are
as the villages that were once safe for the coalition can
become a deadly trap.
The word "Patience" comes to mind when I think about
where the war in Afghanistan is today. The Taliban has
perfectly displayed this virtue in their art of war.
Taliban forces were quickly defeated and bombed into
submission, they knew they could not answer that with the
level of weaponry in their arsenal. The Pashtun
warriors returned to their villages and temporarily gave
up their war. They returned to their life patiently
waiting for word that the leadership of the Taliban is
ready to wage jihad once again. As they waited they
watched their enemy and learned what they could about the
foreign invaders. At times they cunningly negotiated
with them and got items that they needed in their
villages as they are villagers themselves so it was not
difficult to blend in. They bided their time and it
appears that word has come from Mullah Omar and other
Taliban leaders in hiding that it is time. Time to
leave their tribe, their wives, children livestock and
crops and to pick up their AK-47 and push the foreign
soldiers out of their mountains or sacrifice their life
for their peoples honor.
After all it is the "Pashtunwali Way". |
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Pakistan: The Frontline of
Terrorism
A closer look at the unique relationship between
terrorists and the Pakistani Intelligence Service, ISI.
Why is Pakistan so important to the United State's War on
Terror and who is winning in Pakistan's struggle with
Fundamental Islamists. |
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Afghanistan War
Heads Down The Road Into Pakistan
George Bush has given the go ahead for
U.S. Forces to strike in the heart of the world of
terrorism inside Pakistan. Pakistan is not in agreement
with this policy but is losing control of it's country to
the growing influence and terror tactics of the Taliban
militants. It opens a whole new front in the Afghanistan
War. |
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Pakistan The
roots of Pakistan’s reputation as a haven for jihadists
run deep. It was, after all, in the city of Peshawar that
Al-Qaeda was born after ISI, Pakistan’s military
intelligence, started to recruit Arabs to fight in the
Afghan jihad |
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Afghanistan
Afghanistan
has become a major focal point in the war on terror.
Muslims fundamentalist teachings and to receive training
from camps set up for militants have arrived at this
destination from around the globe |
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The Taliban
The
Taliban are a Sunni fundamentalist group that was created
in large part from fighters from the Afghan - Soviet war
and propagated by religion scholars. |
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