Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia

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Sloped spine. Wear present.Discolouration present.Fold creasing present.Foxing.Scruff marks and small marks present on the front cover and back cover.Scruff mark present at the sides of pages.Small mark present on a few pages. Slight tearing present.Small dent marks present on the front and back cover. Seller Inventory # E0202373

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Synopsis: The tragic events of September 11th brought the Taliban into sharp focus as the most radical and extreme Islamic movement in the world, but little is still known about them because of the deep secrecy that always surrounded their organization and leadership. Ahmed Rashid, who has been reporting on Afghanistan since 1979, is one of the few international journalists to have interviewed the Taliban leadership. His book "Taliban" has been translated into over 20 languages. In this revised edition, Rashid has expanded his account to cover the defeat of the Taliban government and their resort to guerrilla warfare in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan. He examines the bewildering complexity of Afghan politics while western nations and companies are competing to build oil and gas pipelines to western and Asian markets.

Review: 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

Bibliographic Details

Title: Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game ...
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Publication Date: 2002
Binding: hardcover
Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Unclipped