Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 17:51:21 +0500
Subject: Re: Why throw Americans out of the Middle East....by Taliban


I should say there are lot more people settled in between the US and Taliban than
we would have liked to imagine. Violence, however subtle and sophisticated, calls
for unconditional NO.
My point is that what they do in power fields cannot distract one to look over
real lives of people rather than making a formal reading of muslims, for example.
If we go by the diversity of cultures muslims live, there are scores of points
that will frustrate Huntington's essentialist fellows. Or, there is a desired
course set in (a particular) history, that is the western?

As particularly for Taliban, I wonder why these killing guns 'Mujahideen' (Freedom
Fighters), as they were called yesterday in the anti-USSR days, are turned into
primitive cannibals today. The answer is simple: you are good as far as you serve
(as mercenaries).

Let the power brokers, be they in Washington or in Kabul, play their cruel games _
they will for their 'Mono' designs. What is needed from the List is to be much
deep understanding and formulation of some basic ethics of discourse.

Cheers,
iqbal

F.Khan wrote:

> Dear Prof. Pons,
> I do agree with you that the article we see to be discussing about does
> present very extreme views and as a Muslims, I disagree with many of the
> essentialist arguments presented in it. However, you mentioned their
> 'repulsive' treatment of the women.which I think is totally unjustified.as
> what they are trying to do is more to do with their culture and not the
> religion. They are doing something in much more crude manner what is also
> being practiced in your own country.the desire of those in power to force
> others to 'assimilate' (the case in point, the whole controversy of the
> Muslim girls' wearing 'hijab' to school)so I think that you should have
> mentioned that as well in your post
>
> About your readiness to accept the attacks on sovereign nations, well,
> again, I think that your country has an illustrious history of thatthe
> case in point, Algeria and the brutal and of course 'justified' means with
> which France dealt with those who dissented..
>
> About the paranoia of the Muslims, well, I think that you should give a
> little ground on that, for when is it ever that one hears of Muslims, if
> not during the acts of terror, brutality and crudeness.... what kind of an
> image do the Muslims have in your country or in the United States? What
> kind of portrayal do they have in the popular media? When the actions of a
> few demented people are used to hold hostage the whole of a community. Why
> is it that we hear of the religious affiliations of terrorists only when
> they are Muslims. How many times have you heard of Buddhist, Catholic,
> Protestant or Jewish terrorists and compare it with the number of times
> Muslim terrorist's religious affiliation is made a part of their actions.
> So, I think that one should be a little more flexible in one's argument.
>
> I think that one also needs to examine where these 'terrorists' (the
> Taliban) have come from? How did Bin Laden end up in Afghanistanwhose
> military hardware is he using.. it is was perfectly OK for these people to
> use military force for these people to repel the Russians from their
> country..(even though the Russians had been 'called in' by the government
> of that time. Just like the American presence in Saudi Arabia..)why do you
> think that it should arouse so much anger, now that people are demanding
> that Americans withdraw from Saudi Arabia? Could it be that the Saudis
> want to preserve their way of lifejust like the Americans which country do
> you think  has killed more people than anyone else in the world to
> preserve their way of life. I can assure you it is not Afghanistan?
>
> Bye
>
> Furrukh
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Furrukh Khan
> Centre for Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
> Rutherford College
> University of Kent
> Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX
> UK
>
> Fax:   44 01227 827001
> E-mail:fk2-AT-ukc.ac.uk
>
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