Taliban (also Taleban) means those who study the book (meaning the Qur'an).

remember the destruction of the 2000 yo Buddhas in afghanistan in 2005?

just add this to the long history of islamic wars on the Kuffars which will continue until we begin to understand what the ideology of the Taliban and learn to to reason with it..

here is a small list of what has been going on and will continue until we learn to understand what exactly is going on here..

In 630, Muhammad led 10,000 Muslim soldiers into Mecca and turned the pagans’ most prominent spot, the Ka’aba, into the Masjid al-Haram Mosque.

In 634, Rightly Guided Caliph Umar conquered Syria and turned the Christians’ most prominent spot, the Church of Job, famous for being visited by Saint Silva in the fourth century, into the Mosque of Job.

In 637, Caliph Umar conquered Hebron and turned the second-most prominent spot in Judaism, the Cave of the Patriarchs, into the Ibrahim Mosque. (This was repeated by Saladin in 1188.)

In 638, Muslim generals Amr ibn al-As and Khalid ibn al-Walid conquered Gaza and turned the prominent fifth-century Byzantine church into the Great Mosque of Gaza.

In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem.

In 691, Caliph Al-Malik ordered the _Dome of the Rock_ built on the most prominent spot in Judaism, the Temple Mount, followed by Caliph Al-Walid building the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in 705.

In 651, Muslims conquered Persia and turned Zoroastrian temples in Bukhara and Istakhr into mosques.

In 706, after Muslims took Damascus from the Byzantine Empire, Caliph Al-Walid turned the prominent Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist into the Umayyad Mosque.

In 710, Gen. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Pakistan, defiled the prominent Sun Temple in Multan, which house the great idol “sanam,” and erected a mosque.

In 784, after the conquest of Spain, Emir Abd ar-Rahman turned the prominent Visigothic Christian Church of Saint Vincent into the Great Aljama Mosque of Cordoba.

After the conquest of Egypt, Caliphs al-Mamun (813-833) and al-Hakim (996-1021) turned prominent Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Cairo into mosques.

In 831, Muslims conquered Palermo, Sicily, and Asad ibn al-Furat turned the prominent Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption into the Great Mosque of Bal ‘harm.

In 1193, Muslims conquered Delhi, India, and Qutbuddin Aibak turned the Red Citadel in Dhillika, the most prominent spot of the last Hindu rulers, into the Qutb Minar Mosque.

From 1250-1517, Mamluk Muslims controlled the Golan Heights and used the ancient Synagogue of Katzrin as a mosque.

In 1387, Turkish Muslims conquered Thessaloniki and turned the Katholikon Monastery and the Church of Aghia Sophia, which housed the relics of Saint Gregorios Palamas, into mosques, as Symeon of Thessaloniki recorded:

“The greatest number of the buildings of the churches fell to them, of which _the first_ was the Holy Church of the Savior. … These were trampled underfoot and the infidels rejoiced in them. … Most of the religious buildings in the city were despoiled, while altars were demolished and sacred things profaned".

On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and turned the great Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, into the Ayasofya Mosque.

The _largest_ church in Christendom for a thousand years, the church’s four acres of gold mosaics was covered with whitewash and Quran verses.

In 1458, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Athens and turned the Greeks’ most prominent spot, the Parthenon on Acropolis hill, into a mosque. When Venetian Gen.

Francesco Morosini drove the Muslims out in 1687, a cannonball hit the gunpowder stored in the mosque, blowing it up. In the 15th century, Ottoman invaders turned Saint Clement’s Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Plaosnik, Balkans, into the Imater Mosque.

From 1519-1858, Muslim Mughal rulers gained control of India and turned over 2,000 Hindu temples into mosques, including demolishing the Temple of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ajodhya, the birthplace of Rama, and replacing it with the Babri Mosque.

India’s Mughal Muslim ruler, Jahangir (1605-1627), wrote in Tujuk-i-Jahangiri: “At the city of Banaras [was] a temple. … I made it my plea for throwing down thee temple … and on the spot, with the very same materials, I erected the great mosque.”

In 1543, Hayreddin Barbarossa’s 30,000 Muslim troops wintered in Toulon, France, and turned the prominent Toulon Cathedral into a mosque.

In 1570, under Sultan Selim II Khan, Muslims conquered Paphos, Cyprus, and Gov. Mehmet Bey Ebubkir turned the prominent Christian church into the Great Mosque of Paphos.

In 1571, Muslims invaded Famagusta, Cyprus, and turned Saint Nicolas Cathedral, a rare Gothic church, into the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia, constructed in 1228, into the Selimiye Mosque.

In 1588, Sultan Murat III turned the Eastern Orthodox Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Constantinople into the Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque.

In 1781, after having conquered the Old City of Acre, Ottoman Muslims turned the Roman Catholic Church built by Crusaders into the Jezzar Ahmet Pasha Mosque, where a hair from Muhammad’s beard is preserved.

In 1923, Muslims expelled Greeks from Turkey and turned Orthodox churches into mosques. In World War II, Nazis allied with Bosnians and turned the prominent Artists’ Gallery Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, into a mosque.

In the 1950s, Muslims expelled Jews from Arab lands and turned synagogues into mosques. Algerian Muslims warred against French colonial rule till France pulled out in 1962, after which the Cathedral of St. Philippe was turned into the Ketchaoua Mosque.

Violence against Jews caused 30,000 to flee and the Great Synagogue of Oran was turned into the Mosque Abdullah Ben Salem.

In 1974, Turkish Muslims invaded northern Cyprus, and prominent Greek Orthodox churches were turned into mosques.

In 1981, Muslim immigrants to the Netherlands converted Amsterdam’s historic Catholic Sint-Ignatiuskerk into the Fatih Mosque, and a synagogue in The Hague into the Aksa Mosqueee

Ian

I offer two generalised observations before making a comment.

1/.

After the first 'coalition' invasion of Iraq, the western media was roundly criticised for the way they reported the event. As it transpired, by being embedded with the US military, they reported the event as tools of the US military.

The criticism became amplified when comparison was made between the subject and content of that event was delivered by western reporters versus those by Al Jazeera.

The point here is that it is increasingly difficult to make an independent assessment of a large-scale troublesome matter - especially when it occurs at a distance. Each side will be issuing its propaganda to maximise public attention to its cause. How the propaganda is 'delivered' by the media will often reflect perceptions of audience 'interests'.

2/.

Following the Cuban 'crisis', Graham Allison provided an amazingly insightful text of the inadequacies of the US administration during that conflict. Titles "Essence of decisión: explaining the Cuban missile crisis", Allison showed that despite the view of Kennedy and his chief advisors, each of the various US administration departments were pursuing their secular interests - even at the expense of the national interest.

The point here is that despite propaganda by a national agency engendered to 'represent' the national interest, such propaganda may turn out to be a smokescreen for secret intentions &/or ambitions.

- - - -

You write on the conflict of Afghanistan as though the purpose of the 'coalition' is to harm the influence of the Taliban.

While that is a stated aim flowing from 'coalition' propaganda, there is more than enough evidence to show that the Taliban were never a 'force' capable of military strength as advocated by US propaganda. At best, they are an ideological collective fuelled by a fundamentalist religious fervour.

That is not to say the Taliban are not capable of controlling the region - they are. But, their 'tools of trade' are violence via religious fervour. And, even if the 'coalition' declare 'victory', it will likely be a hollow event.

There is no doubt the Taliban collective would prefer to end the aggression inflicted on it. But, also, aggression by the 'coalition' provides them with propaganda material.

My take is that the Taliban collective are engaging in regional dialogue not because they want an end to conflict - although they do. Rather, that by fostering a view that the Taliban is the target, the 'coalition' have enlarged the collective into a regional entity far greater than it ever was.

Notwithstanding this 'side issue', may I suggest the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan is not the primary reason why the 'coalition' ramped up military efforts in recent years.

If you read into US covert endeavours in central Asia and the Middle East, you will note that the US has been attempting to engage in a cold war style struggle to inhibit the advance of China through the region and into Africa.

The fear the US has is its continued access to Middle East crude oil. It wants to be assured that China is not in a position to politically influence that region.

China is contributing to Afghanistan via infrastructure development. It plays no part in the 'coalition' agenda. The collective known as the Taliban has 'ordered' itself to not impede Chinese nationals in the region.

To win hearts and minds, the Chinese use economic diplomacy, while the 'coalition' advances the US preference for aggression.

As you'd readily admit, the US can't say publicly that Afghanistan is part of the broader, bigger agenda to control Chinese expansion.

But, I suggest you would be unwise to continue to advance a view that Afghanistan is but a 'war on terror'.

Sadly, we Australians are being fed information - propaganda - that suits the overt interests of the 'coalition'.

Thus, I believe any discussion you make on on the geopolitics of impact of 'coalition' forces in Afghanistan needs to be situated into the broader aim to 'control' China.

Cheers