What is the difference between the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

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.

What is the role of the Taliban and other Islamic extremist groups in Pakistan?

In "Held by the Taliban", the NY Times video we were assigned this week, David Rohde, the reporter kidnapped by Taliban leaders, says that during his captivity, he "realized that the hard-line Islamic state that the U.S. had toppled in 2001 exists. It simply shifted a few miles east, over the border into Pakistan."

The government of Pakistan is at war with the Taliban. However, the extremists maintain control of many regions and some cities, mostly in the tribal areas. The government is trying to fight the uprising, but from what I can tell, the situation is rather similar to that in Afghanistan. Though there may not necessarily be as complex of a "shadow government" as there is in Afghanistan, the Taliban still consolidate and maintain their power and pose an enormous threat to the government and the people. Some of the places in Pakistan are used as bases to prepare for attacks in Afghanistan, as well.

Al-Qaeda also maintains sanctuaries in the country.

The Taliban was formed during the Afghan Soviet war (1979-89). The Taliban are also known as a group of Mujahideen (Holy Warriors or Freedom Fighters)... Well any way they were formed on a regional basis but not united until in 1994 when Pakistan hired a group of Taliban warriors to protect a convoy going from Pakistan to Central Asia. Through this action the Taliban proved to be an effective force and later went on to take both the City of Kandahar and Kabul in 1996. The Taliban went on to rule Afghanistan until 2001 when the U.S. & Afghani opposition forces booted them out of office after the Sep 11th terror attacks. Since then Taliban has had major funding and influence by the Pakistani government. In one year alone the Taliban gained 30million dollars from Pakistan in 2002.

I got most of my information from this site: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/taliban.html I(ts pretty good reading...

Taliban from the inside

While doing a bit of background reading on the situation in Pakistan, I found this video produced by the New York Times. It is a compelling short about a reporter kidnapped. It is compelling and worth the 5 minutes it will take for you to watch it.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/20/world/asia/1247465280261/held-by-the-taliban.html If the link does not work, search Held by the Taliban New York Times and you will find it. The NY Times also has an interesting blog called" At War Blog" that has good background and other videos such as this one.

Taliban

Who are the Taliban?
(Information from infoplease.com)
The Taliban ("Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement") ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001. They came to power during Afghanistan's long civil war. Although they managed to hold 90% of the country's territory, their policies—including their treatment of women and support of terrorists—ostracized them from the world community. The Taliban was ousted from power in December 2001 by the U.S. military and Afghani opposition forces in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S.

Why did they want the election thrwarted?
(infomation from newsweek)
Taliban subcommander Mullah Saleh Khan—who, in the insurgent hierarchy, is the equivalent of a U.S. Army lieutenant leading a unit of 40 to 50 fighters—used to be nonchalant about Thursday's presidential election. His cohorts in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, where the Taliban's nearly eight-year-old insurgency is perhaps the strongest, felt so empowered until this summer that they hardly noticed an election was coming. Then the Marines arrived in July, beginning an intense campaign of heliborne operations to disrupt the insurgents.
That's when the Taliban put two and two together. "We didn't take the election seriously until the Americans started arriving in larger numbers with more and better equipment than ever before," says Khan. "Once we realized how important it was for the Americans to secure the election for their puppet Karzai and his corrupt government, it became equally important for us to try and stop it." Since then, they have done their best to undermine the election's legitimacy by keeping voter turnout to a bare minimum. The Taliban high command warned people to stay away from the polls and, according to Khan, villagers are so "angry, fearful, and sad" by the surge of 4,000 Marines in Helmand that they will stay home on Thursday. "Everywhere there is the smell of blood," he confidently tells a NEWSWEEK reporter in a meeting on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, "so who will dare to go vote?"

Is the Taliban gathering strength among the pashtun people?
well,According to thenation.com the taliban is not gathering strength from the pashtuns.