Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia | 
 enlarge | Author: Ahmed Rashid
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 12788
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 294
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0300089023
Dewey Decimal Number: 958.104
EAN: 9780300089028
ASIN: 0300089023
Publication Date: March 1, 2001
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Amazon.com
This is the single best book available on the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic regime in Afghanistan responsible for harboring the terrorist Osama bin Laden. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist who has spent most of his career reporting on the region--he has personally met and interviewed many of the Taliban's shadowy leaders. Taliban was written and published before the massacres of September 11, 2001, yet it is essential reading for anyone who hopes to understand the aftermath of that black day. It includes details on how and why the Taliban came to power, the government's oppression of ordinary citizens (especially women), the heroin trade, oil intrigue, and--in a vitally relevant chapter--bin Laden's sinister rise to power. These pages contain stories of mass slaughter, beheadings, and the Taliban's crushing war against freedom: under Mullah Omar, it has banned everything from kite flying to singing and dancing at weddings. Rashid is for the most part an objective reporter, though his rage sometimes (and understandably) comes to the surface: "The Taliban were right, their interpretation of Islam was right, and everything else was wrong and an expression of human weakness and a lack of piety," he notes with sarcasm. He has produced a compelling portrait of modern evil. --John Miller
Product Description
Shrouding themselves and their aims in deepest secrecy, the leaders of the Taliban movement control Afghanistan with an inflexible, crushing fundamentalism. The most extreme and radical of all Islamic organizations, the Taliban inspires fascination, controversy, and especially fear in both the Muslim world and the West. Correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban into sharp focus in this enormously interesting and revealing book. It is the only authoritative account of the Taliban and modern day Afghanistan available to English language readers.
Based on his experiences as a journalist covering the civil war in Afghanistan for twenty years, traveling and living with the Taliban, and interviewing most of the Taliban leaders since their emergence to power in 1994, Rashid offers unparalleled firsthand information. He explains how the growth of Taliban power has already created severe instability in Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and five Central Asian republics. He describes the Taliban’s role as a major player in a new “Great Game”—a competition among Western countries and companies to build oil and gas pipelines from Central Asia to Western and Asian markets. The author also discusses the controversial changes in American attitudes toward the Taliban—from early support to recent bombings of Osama Bin Laden’s hideaway and other Taliban-protected terrorist bases—and how they have influenced the stability of the region.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
 Timely, but getting outdated August 21, 2008
It's hard to think of a book that was published with as much good timing as Ahmed Rashid's Taliban. The book itself is heavily academic and therefore largely unexciting, but remains the best treatment of the Taliban up to 2001. Readers wanting analysis of events afterward will obviously have to look elsewhere.
 A half quack arm chair expert March 1, 2008
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
This fellow is an arm chair quack. He grew up in Pakistan, but that's all about it. Now he makes his living saying cocophony about Pakistan and that region of the world on US TV networks. And with so many networks looking to fill up their airtime, he is having no trouble making this living. He has no clue of what the conditions are on the ground in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Says that Musharraf could have 'nipped the evil in the bud' if he had acted sooner in Swat. If Musharraf had done that, then Mr Rashid would have accused Musharraf of being trigger happy. So if you can see, Mr. Rashid is just a monday morning quarter back. All he is doing is second guessing whatever Musharraf does. And in a couple of months he'll be doing the same with the new govt. in Pakistan, because that's what the US TV networks want him to say.
Why would you pay to read baloney from such a quack?
 Interesting, now read "Detained Differences" November 24, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This was a great novel, go buy Detained Differencesby J. Robert Rowe. It is about Detainee Operations inside Afghanistan.
All about religion and Mullah Omar fundamentalism ... October 18, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you want to understand Afghanistan latest history, this is a great choice. The narrative is center on the Talibans of course, how this group was invented after the end of the cold war and after fighting against the Soviets in a united front known as the Mujaheddin. It is clear to all of us that the Taliban are Islamic Fundamentalist and that its presence on Afghanistan has rendered the country on a violent and unstable path.
Again we found here the endemic problem of some countries of the middle east and central Asia: several ethnics groups with different Islamic religion flavours, Sunni and Shi'ite, with external players trying to consumate the country to a sole religion, and I am referring to external players like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan representing the Sunni side and Iran defending shiism. This is the pitiful case of Afghanistan and in this book all these importants facts are depicted by the author so you become aware of the difficult geography of this country, the ethnics groups that inhabit it and the relation to neighbouring countries, especially Pakistan and Iran.
In my opinion, a worthy person that had the character, education and leadership to run Afghanistan future was the Lion of the Panjshir, Masud, but he was also killed either by the pickup warriors or by Bin Laden terrorist, with the latter the most likely. Now president Karzai, has a very difficult task to deal with, to pacify the country and the spirits, finish the war against the Taliban, improve the economy and the relations with their neighbours and of course help the people of Afghanistan. Is my belief that in order to do that, external aid is absolutely needed for a long time, in particular from the UN which must include more countries apart from the current ones. It is important to improve education for all, so these people do not based its life only on religion and to stabilize the country so Central Asia Energy projects can successful be realized, using Afghanistan as a transit for the gas and oil to South East Asia. I hope Afghanistan finally choose Peace as its way of living and get accustom to it.
An excellent analysis on the talibans before the USA intervention September 12, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
A very well written book detailing the rise of the taliban movement and the immediate political crisis that followed. These ignorant warriors were thought to be liberators of the afghan people but demonstrated to be highly inadequate to pacify the country and govern it. Also astonishing the complete lack of central asian policy from the USA government after the cold war ended. This was seminal for the growth of extremist movements and was a major cause in the strenghtening of Al-Qaida. Clinton government has a major responsability for tide of the modern day terrorism. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are the best funders of terrorism and extremism but still they are the best allies of USA in the region...Highly recommended.
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