The Taliban is a religious based group that obtained the governing position in Afghanistan during the Afghan civil war and retained this position from 1996-2001. During this time the Taliban's goal was to create the worlds most pure Islamic state. Their main base of law was a strict interpretation of the Islamic law banning television, music, and the Internet. Under the Taliban women wore burqas and most of their freedoms where prohibited such as working for pay and not having tight curfew hours. The Taliban also sheltered Al-Qaeda during their time governing Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda is an Islamic militant organization that seeks to end foreign influence in Muslim countries and to create a perfect Islamic form of government throughout the world. Al-Qaeda was Established in 1988 by Osama bin laden to combat the Soviet Union in the Afghan Soviet war. Al-Qaeda is also internationally known as a terrorist organization through their suicide attacks and coordinated bombings.
The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are similar in their striving for an Islamic middle east and their hatred towards infidels (An unbeliever with respect to a particular religion :Online Dictionary), but different in the fact that one ruled a country and is more politically active while the other gains power by being a subversive terrorist organization.
That's really helpful to know the difference between the two; they get so garbled up all the time (at least in my mind). Do the two organizations still work together? Are there any leaders or supporters that are involved in both?
ReplyDeleteThe Taliban was not really toppled;as Jake Wise said,it was just moved into Pakistan.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the succinct analysis. Seeing the way the author expressed the differences between the two organizations got me to thinking about what is a terrorist exactly. This led to the thought that if the definition has innocent, non soldier, and fear as its describers, then, from the point of view of the citizenry the Taliban would gain admittance to the club. Women and intellectuals pay a high price in Taliban controlled society and fear is a major weapon of social control. Also, there is an unpredictable capriciousness about the law in these societies. Socrates.
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