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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Taliban graves are Pashtun shrines |
| 2004-10-27 |
| Standing before the rows of graves, Afghan men open their hands to the sky. Their lips move in silent prayer to honor the dead. These dead are fighters of the Taliban and al-Qaida, killed in 2001 when an American bomb crushed the mosque nearby where they had mustered outside the eastern Afghan city of Khost. Since then, U.S. officials have paid for the mosque to be rebuilt. It stands freshly painted, but empty, a few hundred yards down the road. There has been building, too, at the fighters' grave site. Donations by visitors have paid for brick walls and decorative iron grates around the graves, and there are plans for a roof over the enclosure. Unlike the American-funded mosque, the shrine draws a steady stream of visitors from eastern Afghanistan and from neighboring Pakistan. Three years after America's military defeat of the Taliban and al-Qaida, graves of their dead — here and elsewhere — have become shrines for the ethnic Pashtuns who live in much of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The shrines underscore a reality for the U.S. effort to encourage democracy in both countries — an effort that formally defines the Taliban as an enemy. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #9 Raj, shouldn't you and tu be cracking a couple of beers right about now? I agree with tu3031 - not yet, at least in celebration. I remember Game 6 in 1986 all too well. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-10-27 6:27:10 PM |
| #8 Bulldoze the place, haul all the rubble off to the ocean and, sink it offshore. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-10-27 6:22:23 PM |
| #7 Better them then you, right Achmed? And Seafarious: Not yet. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-10-27 6:11:34 PM |
| #6 these are completely opposite to taliban Islamic practice. Wahabis/Deobandis oppose graveyard practices and have used such theological opposition to justify attacks against other Sunnis and Sufi's as defense of the religion against heretics. Go figure |
| Posted by: WhiteCat 2004-10-27 4:45:17 PM |
| #5 Note now using a mosque for a military site carries absolutely no stigma. |
| Posted by: gromky 2004-10-27 4:33:51 PM |
| #4 Raj, shouldn't you and tu be cracking a couple of beers right about now? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-10-27 4:32:03 PM |
| #3 Two local men, one of them mentally disabled, keep the shrine swept clean. If you vote for the Taliban, and they win, you're still a fuckin' retard. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-10-27 4:25:53 PM |
| #2 More like some kind of cell meeting. We need to imbed pressure sensitive weapons in the headstones to drop the co-terorists when they come to hero worship. That would give Amnesia International something to really complai8n about. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-10-27 8:50:18 AM |
| #1 Not sure these are exactly Islamic traditions. More like pre-Islamic folk religion, which is at odds with puritanism. |
| Posted by: V is for Victory 2004-10-27 8:40:14 AM |