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Title: Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid ISBN: 0-300-08902-3 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (120 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A fair and honest discussion of the Taliban
Comment: Ahmed Rashid's 'Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil & Fundamentalism in Central Asia' is an excellent read for anyone interested in the brief history of the Islamic 'student' movement that captured the majority of Afghanistan. While, at the time that I am writing this review, it seems likely that the Taliban has run its course, Rashid's text highlights the centuries of instability in central Asia and exposes the questionable dealings of Western governments in the region.
The author divides the book into three sections. The first is a brief recap of centuries of Afghan conquests by Mongols, Persians, British, Russians... everyone, including a detailed synopsis of the seven years of Taliban conquest beginning in the mid-1990s. The second section analyzes the origin and substance of the movement's interpretation of Islam. Finally, Rashid presents an in-depth analysis of The New Great Game in Afghanistan; that is, the use of ethnic factions by foreign interests in order to influence trade (both legal and illegal) throughout central Asia. Most interesting to me among these is the United States' negotiations, via Unocal, to fund a petroleum pipeline.
Rashid provides several interesting appendices, including excerpts of Taliban legislation regarding women and a glossary of relevant Islamic terminology. I highly recommend 'Taliban' to anyone who desires a clear unbiased discussion of the events leading up to the United States' recent foray into Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid's treatment is especially meaningful toward that end, as it was published before the horrible events of September 11.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Guide for the Perplexed
Comment: As the Taliban's string of lives runs out in Kandahar and Konduz, Rashid's book remains a useful guide to the players and the issues, which will be with us long after Mullah Omar and his band of bumpkins are gone. Rashid has covered Afghanistan for more than 20 years and has put a tremendous amount of information and analysis at the reader's disposal.
Apart from the most complete story of the rise of the Taliban--and the special conditions in Afghanistan that facilitated its rise--Rashid includes useful chapters on bin Laden, oil politics in Central Asia (the heart of what will remain the book's main value in the post-Taliban era), the status of women in Afghanistan, and a host of sensible observations about Afghanistan as a landlocked Central Asian state. Rashid's coinage--the "New Great Game"--which harks back to the "tournament of shadows" in which Russia and England sought to outduel the other in Central Asia, seems more than a little justified in light of the Caspian oil and gas finds that lie undeveloped in the ground and under the sea.
This book also will continue to be useful as providing a dollop of background information on "all those names" you've been seeing in the press--Gulbuddin Hekymatyr, Ismail Khan, Abdulrashid Dostam, Burhanuddin Rabbani, etc.--the whole pack of which hasn't changed since the war against the Soviets and is unlikely to change any time soon (with the exception of Ahmed Shah Masood, "the Lion of the Panshir," who was assassinated, probably by bin Laden's "Arab-Afghans," in September 2001).
Coming from a scholarly house--Yale University Press--with a full bibliography and footnotes, the book nevertheless suffers from production flaws that tempted me to subtract a star from my rating. The index is infuriatingly incomplete--the main material on an entry is often located on pages not indicated in the index. It's almost as though the indexer, hitting a name or a place for the third or fourth time, decided, "hey, this looks like it might be pretty important," and started compiling entries at that point. A few spelling glitches and at least two howling typos in dating specific events seemed simply puzzling--how could Yale's editors have permitted this?
On balance, however, such shortcomings do little to distract from the considerable pleasures of discovery and understanding Rashid's excellent work affords.
Rating: 5
Summary: How to understand a new enemy....
Comment: Taliban I have to say is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. Ahmed tells us the history of Afghanistan and how the Taliban came into power through bloody war. Also he tells us how the Taliban came together through the war with the Soviet's, and how they think. The Taliban ran Afghanistan until the U.S. led invasion threw them out of power in that country and established a provisional government ran by President Harmid Karzi. Of course this book came out in 2000 before they were thrown out of power, but the Taliban leaders banned sports, kite-flying, music, they destroyed women's rights forcing them to wear the buqura and not allowing them to attend school, to work, and they put some harsh rules which they go by the Shaiah rule. They wanted to bring back the time where the Prophet Muhammed was still alive; meaning that they wanted to bring Afghanistan back to the 7th century. Now when we look at the Taliban through this book, we wonder 'why would these men do something like this to women and be so damn strict?'. During the time of Muhammed, things were different in the 7th century, but things have changed and they didnt like what they saw in the world with women going to school, working, and being in society.
Women during the time of the Taliban were forced to stay inside the house and could not go out unless they were with a man of blood or their husband. It's sad that these men were so extreme, but under Islam, this is not the way that the prophet Muhammed wanted; he wanted peace and unity with the world, it was the Taliban who wanted to bring back the world to the 7th century, and am I glad we got rid of the Taliban? Yes, but still in Afghanistan; beyond Kabul, women are still treated like crap because of warlords that have rules like the Taliban. Is this book worth reading? Of course, but try to read it with a open mind and understand how these men think.
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Title: Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid ISBN: 0142002607 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban by Stephen Tanner ISBN: 0306811642 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Rohan Gunaratna ISBN: 0425191141 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System, Second Edition by Barnett R. Rubin ISBN: 0300095198 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics by Martin Ewans ISBN: 0060505079 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 19 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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