Taliban

Taliban
Predecessor	Students of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Founder	•  Mohammed Omar •  Abdul Ghani Baradar
Headquarters	Kandahar Quetta Peshawar
Staff	100.000+

The Taliban Islamist movement and military organization in Afghanistan. Estimates of manpower vary, some have put it as high as exceeding 200,000 men (2017). From 1996 to 2001, the Taliban held power over roughly three-quarters of Afghanistan, and enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law.

History

The Taliban emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War and largely consisted of students (talib) from the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Afghanistan who had been educated in traditional Islamic schools, and fought during the Soviet–Afghan War. Under the leadership of Mohammed Omar, the movement spread throughout most of Afghanistan, shifting power away from the Mujahideen warlords. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was established in 1996 and the Afghan capital was transferred to Kandahar. It held control of most of the country until being overthrown after the American-led invasion of Afghanistan in December 2001 following the September 11 attacks. At its peak, formal diplomatic recognition of the Taliban's government was acknowledged by only three nations: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The group later regrouped as an insurgency movement to fight the American-backed Karzai administration and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the War in Afghanistan.

A spokesperson asked about the extradition of Ossama Bin Laden in 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks: "Our position in this regard is [...] that if America have evidence and proofs, they should produce it and we are ready for the trial of Ossama Bin Laden in the light of evidence." This message was the stand of the Taliban before the US invasion. The offer was rejected by Bush shortly thereafter. On 11 Sep, 2011 Aljazeera published a report based on information offered by Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, that even before 9-11 there were proposals to put Bin Laden in a court that is under the supervision of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for his involvement in plots targeting US facilities during the 1990s (like the USS Cole attack). The US had no interest. (these negotiations were known for years)

They took back control of Afghanistan in 2021. They vow to protect portrait of the Queen found in British Embassy until UK recognises them as the new government.

 

A Taliban victim on Wikispooks

Title	Description
Dawa Khan Menapal	Afghanistan's top media official, who was assassinated in August 2021.

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal	“What I want to assure people is that our political and diplomatic efforts to find a solution for Afghanistan, working with the Taliban, of course if necessary, will go on.”	Boris Johnson	20 August 2021
Afghanistan/2021 withdrawal	“I have believed for some time—only underscored by our extraordinarily rapid and ill-conceived evacuation of Afghanistan, leaving behind not only Bagram but enough U.S. weaponry to make the Taliban’s army nearly equivalent to Italy’s, not to mention putting our advanced military technology in the hands of the Chinese and the Russians—that a large percentage of our Democratic Party leadership, as well as a tragically significant percentage of the GOP, have long believed the Chinese regime is winning the battle between China and America for global hegemony. They are, therefore, overtly or covertly, consciously or subconsciously, throwing in with the Chinese side for their own economic advantage, and, to a lesser extent, their survival, though the two intersect.”	Roger Simon	12 September 2021

 

Party Member

Politician	Born
Abdul Kabir	1958

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
1980s Afghan war	24 December 1979	15 February 1989	Afghanistan	Another episode of the Soviet Union and US imploding a third world country from inside by fuelling a civil war with weapon smuggling. Afghanistan has yet to recover.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:A warring nation, united against us	Letter	19 August 2021	Craig Murray	Craig Murray's letter to The Herald from prison in Edinburgh: "As with the previous three times when UK invasions were defeated in Afghanistan, we have united a warring nation in hatred of us."
Document:Afghanistan is not about you	Article	19 August 2021	Ella Whelan	Neocon MPs are concerned about the Afghanistan/2021 withdraw. The only problem is that they only care about themselves, and thereby show us the narcissism of Western intervention.
Document:Britain’s delusions that it could take on the Taliban alone are ludicrous - what are our empire-nostalgic MPs smoking?	Article	19 August 2021	Tom Fowdy	The UK Parliament was recalled for an emergency debate over the Afghanistan/2021 withdraw. While the BBC focused on the divide between the sides of the house with their face mask wearing, Parliament was united against the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan. Most MPs are urging Boris Johnson to go back to Afghanistan, and take on the Taliban, alone if necessary.
Document:The 20-year war on Afghanistan was a mistake	Speech	18 August 2021	Zarah Sultana	Speaking outside Parliament on 18 August 2021, prior to the Afghanistan emergency debate, Zarah Sultana joined colleagues including Jeremy Corbyn to say: "The war on Afghanistan shows – once and for all – that the West cannot deliver liberal democracy at the barrel of a gun. This war – the first 'War on Terror' – must be Britain's last war of aggression."
Document:We are the war criminals now	Article	29 November 2001	Robert Fisk	George W. Bush says that "you are either for us or against us" in the war for civilisation against evil. Well, I'm sure not for bin Laden. But I'm not for Bush. I'm actively against the brutal, cynical, lying "war of civilisation" that he has begun so mendaciously in our name and which has now cost as many lives as the World Trade Center mass murder.

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