Durrani Empire

The Durrani Empire (Pashto: د درانیانو واکمني, also referred to as the Afghan Empire) was a monarchy centered in Afghanistan and included northeastern Iran, the modern state of Pakistan as well as the Punjab region of India. It was established at Kandahar in 1747 by Ahmad Shah Durrani, an Afghan military commander under Nader Shah of Persia and chief of the Abdali tribe. After the death of Ahmad Shah in about 1773, the Emirship was passed onto his children followed by grandchildren and its capital was shifted to Kabul. Ahmad Shah and his descendants were from the Sadozai line of the Abdalis (later called Durranis), making them the second Pashtun rulers of Kandahar, after the Ghilzai Hotakis.

With the support of tribal leaders, Ahmad Shah Durrani extended Afghan control from Meshed to Kashmir and Delhi, from the Amu Darya to the Arabian Sea.Next to the Ottoman Empire, the Durrani was the greatest Muslim Empire in the second half of the eighteenth century The Durrani Empire is considered the foundation of the current state of Afghanistan,with Ahmad Shah Durrani being credited as "Father" of Afghanistan.]Even before the death of Nader Shah of Persia in 1747, tribes around the Hindu Kush region had been growing stronger and were beginning to take advantage of the waning power of their distant rulers.

Nader Shah's Turkmen Afsharid rule ended in June 1747 after being murdered by his Persian soldiers.[10] In October of 1747, when the chiefs of the Afghans met at a loya jirga (grand council) in Kandahar to select a new ruler for the Abdali confederation, the young 25-year-old Ahmad Shah Abdali was chosen. Despite being younger than other claimants, Abdali had several overriding factors in his favor:

• He was a direct descendant of Asadullah Khan, patriarch of the Sadozai clan, the most prominent tribe amongst the Pashtun people at the time;

• He was unquestionably a charismatic leader and seasoned warrior who had at his disposal a trained, mobile force of 4,000 loyal cavalrymen

• Not least, he possessed a substantial part of Nadir Shah's treasury.

One of Abdali's first acts as chief was to adopt the title Padshah durr-i durrān ('King, "pearl of the age" or "pearl of pearls"). The name may have been suggested, as some claim, from Abdali's dream, or as others claim, from the pearl earrings worn by the royal guard of Nadir Shah. The Abdali Pashtuns were known thereafter as the Durrani, and the name of the Abdali confederation was changed to Durrani.

Ahmad Shah began his rule by capturing Ghazni from the Ghilzais, and then wresting Kabul from the local ruler. In 1749, the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh, the Punjab region and the important trans Indus River to Ahmad Shah in order to save his capital from Afghan attack. Having thus gained substantial territories to the east without a fight, Ahmad Shah turned westward to take possession of Herat, which was ruled by Nader Shah's grandson, Shah Rukh of Persia. Herat fell to Ahmad after almost a year of siege and bloody conflict, as did Mashhad (in present-day Iran). Ahmad Shah next sent an army to subdue the areas north of the Hindu Kush mountains. In short order, the powerful army brought under its control the Turkmen, Uzbek, Tajik and Hazaras tribes of northern Afghanistan. Ahmad invaded the remnants of the Mughal Empire a third time, and then a fourth, consolidating control over the Punjab and Kashmir regions. Then, early in 1757, he sacked Delhi, but permitted the Mughal dynasty to remain in nominal control of the city as long as the ruler acknowledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty over Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir. Leaving his second son Timur Shah to safeguard his interests, Ahmad Shah left India to return to Afghanistan.

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1979: Soviet invasion

On October 31, 1979 Soviet informants to the Afghan Armed Forces who were under orders from the inner circle of advisors under Soviet premier Brezhnev, relayed information for them to undergo maintenance cycles for their tanks and other crucial equipment. Meanwhile, telecommunications links to areas outside of Kabul were severed, isolating the capital. With a deteriorating security situation, large numbers of Soviet airborne forces joined stationed ground troops and began to land in Kabul on December 25. Simultaneously, Amin moved the offices of the president to the Tajbeg Palace, believing this location to be more secure from possible threats. According to Colonel General Tukharinov and Merimsky, Amin was fully informed of the military movements, having requested Soviet military assistance to northern Afghanistan on December 17.[49][50] His brother and General Dmitry Chiangov met with the commander of the 40th Army before Soviet troops entered the country, to work out initial routes and locations for Soviet troops.

On December 27, 1979, 700 Soviet troops dressed in Afghan uniforms, including KGB and GRU special force officers from the Alpha Group and Zenith Group, occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including their primary target - the Tajbeg Presidential Palace.

That operation began at 19:00 hr., when the Soviet Zenith Group destroyed Kabul's communications hub, paralyzing Afghan military command. At 19:15, the assault on Tajbeg Palace began; as planned, president Hafizullah Amin was killed. Simultaneously, other objectives were occupied (e.g. the Ministry of Interior at 19:15). The operation was fully complete by the morning of December 28, 1979.

The Soviet military command at Termez, Uzbek SSR, announced on Radio Kabul that Afghanistan had been liberated from Amin's rule. According to the Soviet Politburo they were complying with the 1978 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Good Neighborliness and Amin had been "executed by a tribunal for his crimes" by the Afghan Revolutionary Central Committee. That committee then elected as head of government former Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal, who had been demoted to the relatively insignificant post of ambassador to Czechoslovakia following the Khalq takeover, and that it had requested Soviet military assistance.

Soviet ground forces, under the command of Marshal Sergei Sokolov, entered Afghanistan from the north on December 27. In the morning, the 103rd Guards 'Vitebsk' Airborne Division landed at the airport at Bagram and the deployment of Soviet troops in Afghanistan was underway. The force that entered Afghanistan, in addition to the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, was under command of the 40th Army and consisted of the 108th and 5th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions, the 860th Separate Motor Rifle Regiment, the 56th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, the 36th Mixed Air Corps. Later on the 201st and 58th Motor Rifle Divisions also entered the country, along with other smaller units. In all, the initial Soviet force was around 1,800 tanks, 80,000 soldiers and 2,000 AFVs. In the second week alone, Soviet aircraft had made a total of 4,000 flights into Kabul. With the arrival of the two later divisions, the total Soviet force rose to over 100,000 personnel.

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Soviet war in Afghanistan

The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist puppet government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistanagainst the indigenous Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, China and other nations. The Afghan war became a proxy war in the broader context of the late Cold War.

The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has sometimes been referred to as the Soviet Union's Vietnam War.

The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was formed after the Saur Revolution on 27 April 1978. The government was one with a pro-poor, pro-farmer and socialistic agenda. It had close relations with the Soviet Union. On 5 December 1978 a friendship treaty was signed with the Soviet Union. Wary of this alliance, the capitalist bloc started conspiring to oust this government. On July 3, 1979 USA's President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. The aim of USA was to drag the Soviet Union into the "Afghan trap" as US Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski termed it.

Russian military involvement in Afghanistan has a long history, going back to Tsarist expansions in the so-called "Great Game" between Russia and Britain. This began in the 19th century with such events as the Panjdeh Incident, a military skirmish that occurred in 1885 when Russian forces seized Afghan territory south of the Oxus River around an oasis at Panjdeh. This interest in the region continued on through the Soviet era, with billions in economic and military aid sent to Afghanistan between 1955 and 1978.

In February 1979, the Islamic Revolution ousted the American-backed Shah from Afghanistan's neighbor Iran and the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped by Setami Milli militants, and was later killed during an assault carried out by the Afghan police, assisted by Soviet advisers. The death of Ambassador Adolph Dubs led to a major degradation in Afghanistan – United States relations.

The United States then deployed twenty ships to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea including two aircraft carriers, and there was a constant stream of threats of warfare between the US and Iran.

March 1979 marked the signing of the US-backed peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Soviet leadership saw the agreement as a major advantage for the United States. One Soviet newspaper stated that Egypt and Israel were now "gendarmes of the Pentagon". The Soviets viewed the treaty not only as a peace agreement between their erstwhile allies in Egypt and the US-supported Israelis but also as a military pact.In addition, the US sold more than 5,000 missiles to Saudi Arabia and also supplied the Royalists in the North Yemen Civil War against the communist rebellion. Also, the Soviet Union's previously strong relations with Iraq had recently soured. In June 1978, Iraq began entering into friendlier relations with the Western world and buying French and Italian-made weapons, though the vast majority still came from the Soviet Union, their Warsaw Pact allies and China.

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Osama bin Laden

During the war, bin Laden forged connections with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the militant group linked with the 1981 assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat. Under the influence of this group, bin Laden was persuaded to help expand the jihad and enlist as many Muslims as possible to rebel against so-called infidel regimes. In 1988 he and the Egyptians founded Al Qaeda, ("The Base"), a network initially designed to build fighting power for the Afghan resistance. Al Qaeda would later become known as a radical Islamic group with bin Laden at the helm, and with the United States as the key target for its terrorist acts.

After the war, bin Laden was touted as a hero in Afghanistan as well as in his homeland. He returned to Saudi Arabia to work for the Binladin Group, but he remained preoccupied with extremist religious politics. Now it was his homeland that concerned him. In 1990 Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, worried about a possible invasion by Iraq, asked the United States and its allies to station troops that would defend Saudi soil. Eager to protect its interests in the oil-producing kingdom, the United States complied. Bin Laden, euphoric after the Afghan victory and proud of the power of Muslim nations, was outraged that Fahd had asked a non-Muslim country for protection. He now channeled his energy and money into opposition movements against the Saudi monarchy.

As an outspoken critic of the royal family, bin Laden gained a reputation as a troublemaker. For a time, he was placed under house arrest in Jedda. His siblings, who had strong ties to the monarchy, vehemently opposed his antics and severed all ties—familial and economic—with their upstart brother. "He was totally ostracized by the family and by the kingdom," Daniel Uman, who worked with the Binladin Group, told an interviewer for the New York Times. The Saudi government, ever watchful of bin Laden, caught him smuggling weapons from Yemen and revoked his passport. No longer a Saudi citizen, he was asked to leave the country.

With several wives and many children, bin Laden relocated with his family to Sudan, where a militant Islamic government ruled. In Sudan, he was welcomed for his great wealth, which he used to establish a major construction company as well as other businesses. He also focused on expanding Al Qaeda, building terrorist training camps and forging ties with other militant Islamic groups. His primary aim had become to thwart the presence of American troops in Muslim countries.

Bin Laden regarded even American humanitarian efforts as disgraces to Muslim countries. The first terrorist attack believed to trace back to bin Laden involved the December 1992 explosion of a bomb at a hotel in Aden, Yemen. American troops, en route to Somalia for a humanitarian mission, had been staying at the hotel, but they had already left. Two Austrian tourists were killed. Almost a year later, 18 American servicemen were shot down over Mogadishu in Somalia. Bin Laden initially claimed not to be involved in the attack, yet he later admitted to an Arabic newspaper that he had played a role in training the guerrilla troops responsible for the attack.

Several months later, on February 26, 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring more than 1,000. Though it has not been proven, bin Laden is widely suspected of being the mission's ringleader. Many believe it was the terrorist leader's first attempt to destroy the towers, which suicide hijackers succeeded in toppling in 2001. United States and Saudi leaders pressured the Sudanese government to expel bin Laden. In 1996 he left the country voluntarily, according to Sudanese officials.

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Osama bin Laden

The Islamic fundamentalist leader Osama bin Laden (born 1957), a harsh critic of the United States and its policies, is widely believed to have orchestrated the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, as well as the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. But it is his role as the apparent mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that have made bin Laden one of the most infamous and sought-after figures in recent history.

The 6-foot-5, lanky, bearded leader—soft-spoken and effeminate, even when he rails against America—is a man of tremendous wealth, and makes an unlikely spokesman for the poor and oppressed people of Islam whom he claims to represent. Nevertheless, his call for a jihad, or holy war, against the United States and Israel, has been heeded by like-minded fundamentalist Muslims.

Born in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden was the son of Mohammad bin Laden, one of the country's wealthiest business leaders. Some sources state that he is the seventh son, while others claim that he is the seventeenth of some 50 children born to the construction magnate and his various wives. Young bin Laden led a privileged life, surrounded by pampering servants and residing in air-conditioned houses well insulated from the oppressive desert heat. He may have heard tales of poverty from his father, who started his career as a destitute Yemeni porter. He moved to Saudi Arabia and eventually become the owner of the kingdom's largest construction company.

Mohammed bin Laden's success was in part due to the strong personal ties he cultivated with King Saud after he rebuilt the monarch's palaces for a price much lower than any other bidder. Favored by the royal family, Mohammed served for a time as minister of public works. King Faisal, who succeeded Saud, issued a decree that all construction projects go to Mohammed's company, the Binladin Group. Among these construction projects were lucrative contracts to rebuild mosques in Mecca and Medina. When Mohammed died in a helicopter crash in 1968, his children inherited the billionaire's construction empire. Osama bin Laden, then 13 years old, purportedly came into a fortune of some $300 million.

Young bin Laden attended schools in Jedda, and was encouraged to marry early, at the age of 17, to a Syrian girl and family relation. She was to be the first of several wives. In 1979 he earned a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul-Aziz University. He seemed to be preparing to join the family business, but he did not continue on that course for long.

Former classmates of bin Laden recall him as a frequent patron of Beirut nightclubs, who drank and caroused with his Saudi royalty cohorts. Yet it was also at the university that bin Laden met the Muslim fundamentalist Sheik Abdullah Azzam, perhaps his first teacher of religious politics and his earliest influence. Azzam spoke fervently of the need to liberate Islamic nations from foreign interests and interventions, and he indoctrinated his disciples in the strictest tenets of the Muslim faith. Bin Laden, however, would eventually cultivate a brand of militant religious extremism that exceeded his teacher's.

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http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Osama_bin_Laden.aspx

The afghanistan war

Afghanistan War 1978-92, conflict between anti-Communist Muslim Afghan guerrillas (mujahidin) and Afghan government and Soviet forces. The conflict had its origins in the 1978 coup that overthrew Afghan president Sardar Muhammad Daud Khan, who had come to power by ousting the king in 1973. The president was assassinated and a pro-Soviet Communist government under Noor Mohammed Taraki was established. In 1979 another coup, which brought Hafizullah Amin to power, provoked an invasion (Dec., 1979) by Soviet forces and the installation of Babrak Karmal as president.

The Soviet invasion, which sparked Afghan resistance, intially involved an estimated 30,000 troops, a force that ultimately grew to 100,000. The mujahidin were supported by aid from the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia, channeled through Pakistan, and from Iran. Although the USSR had superior weapons and complete air control, the rebels successfully eluded them. The conflict largely settled into a stalemate, with Soviet and government forces controlling the urban areas, and the Afghan guerrillas operating fairly freely in mountainous rural regions. As the war progressed, the rebels improved their organization and tactics and began using imported and captured weapons, including U.S. antiaircraft missiles, to neutralize the technological advantages of the USSR.

In 1986, Karmal resigned and Mohammad Najibullah became head of a collective leadership. In Feb., 1988, President Mikhail Gorbachev announced the withdrawal of USSR troops, which was completed one year later. Soviet citizens had become increasingly discontented with the war, which dragged on without success but with continuing casualties. In the spring of 1992, Najibullah's government collapsed and, after 14 years of rule by the People's Democratic party, Kabul fell to a coalition of mujahidin under the military leadership of Ahmed Shah Massoud.

The war left Afghanistan with severe political, economic, and ecological problems. More than 1 million Afghans died in the war and 5 million became refugees in neighboring countries. In addition, 15,000 Soviet soldiers were killed and 37,000 wounded. Economic production was drastically curtailed, and much of the land laid waste. At the end of the war more than 5 million mines saturated approximately 2% of the country, where they will pose a threat to human and animal life well into the 21st cent. The disparate guerrilla forces that had triumphed proved unable to unite, and Afghanistan became divided into spheres of control. These political divisions set the stage for the rise of the Taliban later in the decade.

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Afghanistan War

A record 60 percent of Americans say the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting, a grim assessment -- and a politically hazardous one -- in advance of the Obama administration's one-year review of its revised strategy.

Public dissatisfaction with the war, now the nation's longest, has spiked by 7 points just since July. Given its costs vs. its benefits, only 34 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the war's been worth fighting, down by 9 points to a new low, by a sizable margin

Negative views of the war for the first time are at the level of those recorded for the war in Iraq, whose unpopularity dragged George W. Bush to historic lows in approval across his second term. On average from 2005 through 2009, 60 percent called that war not worth fighting, the same number who say so about Afghanistan now. (It peaked at 66 percent in April 2007.)

As support for the Iraq war went down, approval of Bush's job performance fell in virtual lockstep, a strongly cautionary note for President Obama. Presidents Truman and Johnson also saw their approval ratings drop sharply during the wars in Korea and Vietnam.

The public's increasingly negative assessment comes after a new strategy, including a surge of U.S. and allied forces, led to the Afghanistan war's bloodiest year. According to icasualties.org, nearly 500 U.S. soldiers have been killed and 4,481 wounded in 2010, compared with 317 killed and 2,114 wounded in 2009, and 155 killed, 793 wounded in 2008.

HANDLING IT -- While opposition to the war has grown, Obama himself gets more mixed reviews for handling it. This survey, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, finds that 45 percent approve of Obama's work on Afghanistan, matching his low, while 46 percent disapprove, a scant 2 points from the high. Still, that's considerably better than Bush's ratings for handling Iraq in his second term -- on average, 63 percent disapproved of how he did.

One apparent reason is Obama's pledge to start withdrawing U.S. forces next summer. Fifty-four percent of Americans support that time frame -- up by 15 points since it was announced a year ago. An additional 27 percent say the withdrawal should begin sooner; just 12 percent say it should start later, down 7 points from a year ago.

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, has known little peace since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded. Now it is the scene of what has become the central military struggle for the United States, as American forces try to help a weak and corrupt government tame a stubborn insurgency.

Aftghanistan's strategic location, at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East, has long granted it a pivotal role in the region, while its terrain and population have stymied would-be conquerors for centuries. The country's population is 34 million. Its capital is Kabul.

The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, when it led an invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda. The group had been given safe haven in the country by the Taliban, the extremist Islamic group that had seized control in 1996 after years of civil war.

The 2001 invasion succeeded in dislodging Al Qaeda and removing the Taliban from power, but not in eradicating either group. With American military efforts focused on Iraq, the Taliban made a steady comeback, fueled by profits from the opium trade and dissatisfaction with the weak and often corrupt new Afghan government. By 2009, Kabul was encircled by Taliban forces and there was talk of the capital's falling to the insurgents.

President Obama has made Afghanistan the central military focus of his administration, drawing troops out of Iraq and increasing the number in Afghanistan by almost 50,000. He put Gen. David H. Petraeus, the architect of the 2007 "surge'' in Iraq, in command of American forces in Afghanistan, and the pace of American operations stepped up enormously, initially in the Taliban's strongholds in the south.

In March 2011, General Petraeus said that NATO forces have been able to halt or reverse Taliban gains not only in the south but also around Kabul, and even in the north and west of the country. And President Hamid Karzai is to announce on the Afghan New Year, March 21, the beginning of the transition to Afghan control of some districts around the country, part of the plan to pass responsibility for security to the Afghan government by 2014.

But between tactical success on the ground and the strategy of handing off to Afghan forces lies what one colonel called "the great disconnect.'' The Taliban and the groups it collaborates with remain deeply rooted; the Afghan military and police remain lackluster and given to widespread drug use; the country's borders remain porous; Kabul Bank, which processes government salaries, is wormy with fraud, and Mr. Karzai's government, by almost all accounts, remains weak, corrupt and erratically led. And the Pakistani frontier remains a Taliban safe haven.

Even a successful military campaign is seen from the ranks as unlikely to untangle this knot of dysfunction, much less within the deadlines discussed in Washington.

The relationships between the United States, the Afghan government and the Afghan people have often been tense, and repeatedly damaged by civilian casualties. On April 1, 2011, thousands of protesters, angry at the burning of a Koran at a Florida church, overran the compound of the United Nations in a northern Afghan city. Seven U.N. workers were killed in the attack, and at least 24 others died during protests which continued across the country for days.

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Afghanistan, pushed to the edge

Deadly protests sweeping Afghanistan in reaction to the Quran-burning by Florida Pastor Terry Jones are a defeat for those on all sides fighting for Afghanistan's peaceful future. They could not come at a worse time for the war effort in Afghanistan or the push to win greater support for the war here in the United States.

For the last two weeks, Afghan media have reported both on the Quran-burning and the horrific charges that American soldiers created "kill teams" that targeted Afghan civilians for sport and captured their murders on video, in some cases even posing with their corpses.

Many Afghans don't realize that these few do not stand for the majority of Americans, who respect Islam and vocally condemn the desecration of a holy book by a rogue, publicity-seeking pastor. And that Americans feel overwhelming shame and outrage at the killing of innocents at the hands of U.S. soldiers, a sentiment particularly strong among those in uniform who see such crimes as a brutal desecration of their own standards and values.

In the last several days, American television has rediscovered Afghanistan, following weeks in which the nuclear disaster in Japan and turmoil in the Middle East dominated the airwaves. Disturbing images of throngs of men in the street shouting against the United States and chilling reports of murderous protesters attacking innocent United Nations employees in Mazar-e-Sharif -- and a girls' high school in Kandahar -- are the only pictures from Afghanistan that Americans have seen recently.

Many Americans don't realize that these few do not stand for the majority of Afghans, who condemn the killing of innocents and feel horror and shame at the attack on United Nations personnel. And that in a December 2010 opinion poll, about 60 percent of Afghans said they continue to support the U.S. military presence in their country and oppose the Taliban, despite growing insecurity.

On either side of this war, America's longest ever, a gulf of understanding gapes ever wider. Increasingly, this chasm separating the two publics is filled by pictures that widen the divide even further. War-weary Americans wonder why in the world they should offer their blood and treasure to a country that burns their flag. Afghans exhausted by war wonder how they can support an American presence that does not even respect their most basic beliefs. Television cannot be relied upon to provide context, but it is expert in igniting emotion.

In the past week, men peddling hate and anger have scored thumping victories. The extremist few have ably outmaneuvered the peaceful many, their heinous acts amplified by repellent images played over and over on television. Those who traffic in destruction have won -- at least for the moment.

On the losing side: men and women of goodwill acting valiantly and quietly each day to build a stronger and more secure country. Among the most soundly defeated are those fighting on all sides for a better future for Afghanistan.

The battle for hearts and minds is not waged in one direction. Right now it is being lost in both.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/04/04/lemmon.afghanistan.protests/index.html

Peace with Criminals, war with People

By inviting criminals like the Taliban, the leaders of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's party and other "Jehadi leaders" to be part of a "Consultative Peace Jirga," Mr. Karzai is committing yet another treason against the Afghan people. Like any puppet, anti-people ruler, he initially compromised with all the murderers associated with April 27th 1978 (former Russian puppets) and April 28 1992 (the Northern Alliance warlords) and installed them in key posts of his government. He then went to the extent of assigning the two most notorious warlords Karim Khalili and Qasim Fahim as his vice presidents. Now, he calls the Taliban and Hekmatyar party terrorists "Afghan sons" and tries to either share power with them, or offer them the opportunity of asylum and amnesty to their leaders in any country of their choice. He is also offering jobs to their gunmen so he can prolong his mafia-style rule with ease of mind.

A known terrorist from Hekmatyar's Islamic Party called Farooq Wardak has been awarded the responsibility of running theJirga. Additionally, the delegates from Hekmatyar's blood-thirsty party in Kabul were received like showbiz celebrities with local Afghan media being offered in their service. The infamous criminals Mullah Wakil Ahmad Motawakal, Mullah Zaef, Humayun Jarir, Abdul Hadi Arghandewal, Sabaoon, Mullah Rocketi and many other such terrorists of the Taliban and Islamic Party have had their reputations sugarcoated in the past few years. All these things not only illuminate the true nature and goal of this Jirga, but also constitute an insult to our people who have sought their liberation in the prosecution and punishment of Khaliqi, Parchami, Jehadi and Taliban criminals, but instead still feel the heavy load of these brutal enemies on their wounded bodies.

Without receiving a green light from their US masters, the puppet government of Afghanistan could never raise a hue and cry about this "Consultative Peace Jirga." It could also not consider making peace with the Taliban and Islamic Party assassins while they are apparently still on the "Black List" of the US government. This in itself proves that the US doesn't just want a puppet government, but also a stable and efficient government to easily change Afghanistan into a strong military base in Asia, extend its grip on the oil and gas of the Central Asian Republics and maintain its supremacy in competition with rivals such as China and other regional powers. For the US and allies, the deeply criminal, treacherous, anti-democracy and anti-independence essence of this puppet regime has no significance at all. Apart from a handful of sold-off intellectuals of Afghanistan, this reality is crystal clear to even our children that the claim of the US about bringing "democracy" and "women's liberation" to Afghanistan was the biggest lie of the century. In fact, it was even more striking than the claims of the US about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and more comic than its pretence of having an opposition to fundamentalist bands and governments.

At the height of a piercing outcry over a "Peace Jirga," the Taliban intensified their inhuman brutalities by killing school children, teachers, men, and women of Kabul and other cities, but Karzai and his spokesmen expressed with detestable indifference that, "Inshallah, with national unity soon we will emerge from these problems"! If their own sister, mother or daughter were raped, killed publicly or torn to pieces by suicide bombings, would they still call these killings "problems" they have with Taliban, their "disaffected brothers"? But considering the power-lust and impunity of the ruling mafia, they may still not call the Taliban criminals, and their acts as crimes, because despite having some differences, in the final stage they regard themselves from the same ranks and deem it necessary to become united in order to run the state machinery in front of people's wrath. Both the Taliban and the ruling mafia know well that the day US/NATO occupation forces leave Afghanistan; all the tribes of Afghanistan will consider unity amongst themselves to topple their bloody rule.

While the US is trying to unite its lackeys through the "Peace Jirga" and other means, it is afraid of unity and integration among Afghan people. Therefore, through its puppet government and Northern Alliance agents, the US is trying hard to sow disruption and animosity among the different tribes of Afghanistan. For example, in Behsood and Daimirdad they inflamed fighting between Hazaras and Nomads and similarly in Northern Afghanistan among Tajiks, Pushtoons and Uzbeks so they can continue the occupation of a divided and disarrayed nation.

The so-called intellectuals of Afghanistan who directly or indirectly hope that the Taliban will end the US occupation, are carving a dark mark of history on their forehead. They are like those who rely on the US and the bloodthirsty Iranian regime to emancipate them from the yoke of the Taliban. If such people are not foolish, then they are spineless because they neither remember the marks of the Taliban flogging our mothers, sisters and fathers nor the beheading of our children and poor women (in the name of rooting out "spies"), or the spraying of acid on innocent school-girls. If they believe that by relying on tribal issues, corruption, and looting of the puppet regime they can find an argument for their support of the brutal Taliban, then by what trick can they ignore the ISI-born nature and medieval mentality of the Taliban? Can they point out any example anywhere in the world of such an anti-democratic and anti-women group dominated by drug lords and dependent on the intelligence agency of a foreign country that dares to struggle for independence and liberation? The intellectual supporters of the Taliban are possibly agents of the US CIA and other agencies who by upholding the Taliban and calling them a "resistance movement" want to pave the way for their joint domination with President Karzai and the "National Front" mafia.

In the past, through the meddling of Zalmay Khalilzad and Hamid Karzai as representatives of UNOCAL, the US dealt with the Taliban and pumped tens of millions of dollars into their pockets. Today if the Taliban once again comes to power, the US will easily "work" with them and prefer their bloody and suffocating rule of Afghanistan to an independent, pro-democracy and pro-women's rights government, because the US counts on them as the most loyal group to safeguard its interests in the region. The Taliban also will not forget that the US was their creator, trainer and mentor through Pakistan's ISI god-fathers.

The current conflict between the US, Taliban, and Northern Alliance is in fact a family matter between them which will be solved sooner or later. When that happens, the ranks of friends and enemies of our people will become clear and the illusion spread by pro-Taliban, pro-April 27 and April 28 treacherous intellectuals will be countered. Under such conditions, it is the duty of pro-independence, pro-democracy and pro-women's rights intellectuals to increase their organized efforts for a coordinated uprising of our people against all traitors to Afghanistan.

Let the puppet mafia government of Karzai bring together all its agents in the "Peace Jirga" and similar ridiculous shows and by organizing luxury meetings, dance over the dead bodies of our innocent people, but the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), alongside the aggrieved Afghan people thinks that such deceitful games mean throwing salt on the wounds of our people caught in the US/NATO bombings, insecurity, poverty, unemployment and desperation all over Afghanistan.

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

CIRCUITOS DE RADIO FRECUENCIA

http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2010/06/01/peace-with-criminals-war-with-people.html

Museo de kabul

Durante miles de años, Afganistán fue una encrucijada para el comercio de la India, Irán y Asia Central.Como resultado, muchos tesoros y artefactos han sido descubiertos y recogidos. El Museo de Kabul, que se encuentra el registro más completo de la historia de Asia Central.Muchas de sus piezas han sido datados ya en tiempos prehistóricos. Una de las mayores exhibiciones del museo, fue la magnífica colección de Bagram. Descubierto en 1939 por los arqueólogos que excavaban un fuerte Kushan, que contenía un sorprendente 1.800 piezas procedentes de la India, Roma, Grecia, Egipto y Asia Central. El Museo de Kabul también tenía una de las mayores muestras de monedas griegas y romanas que se encuentran cerca de Kabul.Esta colección es un tesoro histórico, ya que contenía monedas de numerosas civilizaciones que datan del siglo 8 aC hasta finales del siglo 19.

Estos tesoros y muchos otros se perdieron trágicamente cuando el Museo de Kabul fue bombardeada en 1993. Al principio, sólo las galerías superiores sufrieron pérdidas y saqueos.Los artefactos restantes, fueron trasladados a menor nivelada, de acero con puertas de bóvedas.En 1994, las Naciones Unidas trataron de detener el saqueo por parte de la reparación de las puertas y las ventanas enladrillado.Lamentablemente, estos intentos fracasaron, y los saqueadores siguió el saqueo del 90% de las colecciones del museo. Ambos coleccionistas privados y anticuarios de lugares tan lejanos como Tokio, ha comprado robado piezas de museo. artefactos saqueados han aparecido en todo el mundo, y traen en grandes sumas de dinero a los delincuentes.

A principios de marzo de 2001, los talibanes decidieron destruir todas las estatuas preislámicas y objetos en Afganistán, después de un decreto fue anunciada por su líder, el mulá Omar a finales de febrero. Los talibanes destruyeron numerosas estatuas en el museo que sobrevivieron a los saqueos anteriores y la destrucción como resultado de la guerra. Los talibanes también destruyeron los dos budas gigantes del siglo quinto en Bamiyán, y otras estatuas antiguas histórico en Ghazni. Uno de los Budas de Bamiyan fue el más alto del mundo de Buda de pie.

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

CIRCUITOS DE RADIO FRECUENCIA

http://www.zeroland.co.nz/afghanistan_art.html

El museo de París obtiene exhibición de arte perdido de Afganistán

El Museo Guimet de París presenta desde el pasado 6 de diciembre la muestra "Afganistán, tesoros reencontrados. Colecciones del Museo nacional de Kabul". Tesoros arqueológicos que se creían perdidos, símbolos de la riqueza y de la diversidad de la cultura milenaria afgana.

Joyas de oro y turquesa, estatuas de marfil, copas de vidrio decoradas, cobres, bronces. Más de 200 piezas de Afganistán se exponen en el Museo Guimet de París. Una exhibición única en la que el visitante viaja desde la edad de bronce hasta el imperio de los Kouchana. Todas las obras de arte expuestas vienen del Museo Nacional de Arte de Kabul. Algunas de ellas escaparon a los pillajes y las masacres de los últimos años gracias a que fueron escondidos en unos cofres del Banco Central del país, de ahí el nombre de la exhibición "Afganistán, los tesoros reencontrados". La exhibición persigue un objetivo claro: celebrar la recuperación y la conservación de esas obras de arte y, a través de su divulgación, impedir la destrucción de obras maestras como sucedió con los Budas de Bamiyán en 2001.

El director del museo Guimet, Jean-François Jarrige, hizo a RFI una descripción de los objetos expuestos: La exhibición muestra objetos encontrados en tres sitios Fulol. El primero de ellos Ai-Khanoum, en uzbeco la "Dama Luna", una ciudad griega de entre el siglo IV y el II antes de cristo de la que se pueden ver frisos y estatuas que da testimonio del avance del helenismo al corazón de Asia central y su influencia en esta región. La necrópolis de Tillia Tepe, la colina de Oro del siglo Primero, de donde se muestran las joyas que portaban seis príncipes nómadas, . Y por último, los tesoros de Begram, la llamada Alejandría del Cáucaso año 200 de nuestra era, en la que confluyen tres mundos: Grecia, China y la India. Entre las figuras más emblemáticas de las obras, tres estatuas de marfil que dan prueba de esta diversidad cultural.

La exposición "Afganistán, tesoros reencontrados" se puede visitar en el Museo Guimet de París hasta el 30 de abril de 2007. Durante esos meses, se han organizado la proyección de documentales sobre Afganistán y conciertos de música tradicional afgana como Khaled Arman.

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

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http://www.redbubble.com/explore/afganistan

Monoteísmo contra el Politeísmo

Todos los eruditos islámicos dicen que la orden más importante que Dios da al hombre es que este reconozca su absoluta unicidad (en árabe: توحيد Tawhid) y esto significa que lo adore únicamente a Él,17 y esta adoración no es válida excepto del monoteísta,18 por lo tanto Mahoma divulgó su mensaje entre hombres que tenían diferentes tipos de adoración: algunos adoraban ángeles, otros adoraban profetas y hombres piadosos, otros adoraban árboles, piedras, y entre ellos había quien adoraba al sol y a la luna. A todos ellos el Profeta les reprendió sus actos invitándolos al islam sin hacer distinción alguna.19

¡Oh, humanos! Adorad a vuestro Señor, quien os creó a vosotros y a quienes os precedieron, para que así seáis piadosos. Él hizo de la Tierra un lugar habitable para vosotros y del cielo un techo, e hizo descender la lluvia del cielo con la que hace brotar frutos para vuestro sustento. No asociéis, pues, copartícipes a Allah, siendo que sabéis [que Él es el único Creador].

Corán 2:21-22

Di: Él es Allah, la única divinidad. Allah es el Absoluto [de Quien todos necesitan, y Él no necesita de nadie]. No engendró, ni fue engendrado. No hay nada ni nadie que se asemeje a Él.

Corán 112:1-4

La prohibición más seria en el islam es considerada como politeísmo20 (en árabe: شرك shirk) y los actos siguientes son considerados como tal: tomar intermediarios ante Dios, suplicarle a los profetas, muertos o santos, las supersticiones, utilizar amuletos, piedras o talismanes para alejar el mal, sacrificar para otro que no sea Dios, la magia, consultaradivinos, la astrología, pedirle a cualquier tipo de imagen o estatua, jurar por otro que no sea Dios, hacer actos de adoración para aparentar, pedirle a Mahoma, etc.21

No invoques, en lugar de invocar a Allah, lo que no puede beneficiarte ni dañarte. Si lo hicieras, entonces, serías de los impíos. Si Allah te aflige con una desgracia, nadie sino Él podrá librarte de ella. Si Él te desea un bien, nadie podrá oponerse a Su favor. Se lo concede a quien Él quiere de Sus siervos. Él es el Indulgente, el Misericordioso.

Corán 10:106-107

Allah no perdona que se Le asocie nada a Él; pero fuera de ello perdona a quien Le place. Quien asocie algo a Allah comete un pecado grave.

Corán 4:48

La prohibición más seria en el islam es considerada como politeísmo20 (en árabe: شرك shirk) y los actos siguientes son considerados como tal: tomar intermediarios ante Dios, suplicarle a los profetas, muertos o santos, las supersticiones, utilizar amuletos, piedras o talismanes para alejar el mal, sacrificar para otro que no sea Dios, la magia, consultaradivinos, la astrología, pedirle a cualquier tipo de imagen o estatua, jurar por otro que no sea Dios, hacer actos de adoración para aparentar, pedirle a Mahoma, etc.21

No invoques, en lugar de invocar a Allah, lo que no puede beneficiarte ni dañarte. Si lo hicieras, entonces, serías de los impíos. Si Allah te aflige con una desgracia, nadie sino Él podrá librarte de ella. Si Él te desea un bien, nadie podrá oponerse a Su favor. Se lo concede a quien Él quiere de Sus siervos. Él es el Indulgente, el Misericordioso.

Corán 10:106-107

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

CIRCUITOS DE RADIO FRECUENCIA

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam

Cultura Afganistana

La cultura de Afganistán refleja sus antiguas raíces y su posición como una encrucijada para invadir los grupos étnicos y tradiciones. Poco a los afganos que no es atractivo, incluso bolsas de grano común para llevar productos al mercado son a menudo bordados para hacerlos más hermosos. Una caravana de camellos de los nómadas a menudo se parece a un desfile de circo, con los animales engalanados con adornos tejidos. Las tradiciones islámicas de la caligrafía fina y artes gráficas son evocados en la florece filigrana fina que adornan muchos edificios. La poesía y los poetas son venerados.Aunque el pueblo de Afganistán pueden haber sido muy subrayada por siglos de guerra y un entorno difícil, su arte han prosperado, no obstante.

Afganistán contiene sorprendentes restos arquitectónicos de todas las edades, incluidas las estupas budistas y griegos (santuarios o relicarios) y monasterios, arcos, monumentos, complejos minaretes islámicos (las torres de altura, delgado en las mezquitas), templos y fortalezas. Entre los sitios más famosos son las grandes mezquitas de Herat y Mazar-e Sharif, el minarete de una mezquita en el Jam en la sierra central del oeste, los 1000 años de edad, Gran Arco de Bost Qal'eh-ye, la Zina Chel ( Cuarenta pasos) y el rock inscripciones hechas por el emperador mogol Babur en Kandahar, el Gran Buda de Bamiyán (55 m/180 pies de altura), las Torres de la Victoria "en Ghazni, y la tumba de emperador Babur y la gran fortaleza de Bala Hissar en Kabul.

En las artes menores, magnífico trabajo ligero disparó azul-verde del azulejo es famoso en Herat, junto con otros trabajos finos en la iluminación de libros, ilustración, bronce, piedra y madera. la vida cultural de Afganistán se caracteriza por las artes tradicionales y pasatiempos, joyas de oro y plata, bordados decorativos maravilloso, y diversos productos de cuero todavía se hacen en los hogares. Con mucho, las formas de arte más ampliamente conocido de Afganistán son el persa estilo tejido alfombras afganas.

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

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http://translate.google.co.ve/translate?hl=es&langpair=en|es&u=http://www.afghanistans.com/information/people/culture.htm

El arte de Afganistán, disperso por la guerra

NUEVA YORK (The New York Times).- En una reciente visita a un anticuario de Londres, a David Kamansky, director del Museo Asiático del Pacífico, de Pasadena, California, se le mostró una caja de zapatos donde cubiertos con papel se encontraban fragmentos de un cofre de marfil decorado con tallas indias, sin duda parte de la famosa colección Begram que alguna vez perteneció al museo de Kabul, en Afganistán. "Para alguien como yo fue como si me hubieran dado la "Mona Lisa en pedazos"", aseguró Kamansky. "Allí había uno de los grandes tesoros de la humanidad envuelto en papel higiénico." Como sabe que comerciar obras de arte pertenecientes a un museo es ilegal, según las leyes de Estados Unidos y de acuerdo con tratados internacionales, Kamansky rechazó la pieza, valuada en cientos de miles de dólares. Esa fue la última aparición de los marfiles de Begram. "No sé dónde están ahora -agregó-. Escuché que estaban en algún lugar de Nueva York para la venta, pero no tengo idea."

Veinte años de guerra

Mucho antes de que comenzara la última guerra se consideró que los fabulosos tesoros de Afganistán, dejados ahí por sucesivas culturas -griega, budista e islámica-, presumiblemente no estaban más, destruidos por 20 años de guerra, desesperación económica y, más recientemente, por los fundamentalistas talibanes. Durante la última década gran parte del arte salió de Afganistán hacia Norteamérica, Europa occidental y, en particular, Japón. Es el final de la ruta de las piezas contrabandeadas que son robadas por las facciones en guerra en Afganistán, pasan a Paquistán o a tierras de la ex Unión Soviética hacia el Norte y salen así al mercado de arte internacional. La guerra de los talibanes contra los "falsos ídolos", que en marzo destruyó los dos Budas gigantes de Bamiyán, sumó urgencia al mercado de antigüedades de origen afgano elevando la demanda y los precios.

Alarmada por las acciones de los talibanes, la Unesco, basada en el caso de Afganistán, determinó una política de 30 años para desalentar la exportación no aprobada de patrimonio cultural.

Edward Wilkinson, experto de Sotheby´s, dijo que los precios de las esculturas de Gandharan, que representan una gran civilización del antiguo Afganistán, aumentaron un 30% durante el año pasado. Desde marzo dice haber recibido ofertas semanales mayormente de Paquistán e India, para vender objetos de Afganistán.

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

CIRCUITOS DE RADIO FRECUENCIA

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=349089

Vestimenta Tradicional de Afganistán

La vestimenta en afganistan varia dependiendo del sexo del individuo Los atavíos tradicionales masculinos de los afganos se resumen en el Pakul (sombrero), el turbante y un Chapán (paletó).

Los avatios tradicionales femeninos se pueden definir como el burka o burqa 1 (del árabe, برقع burqa`) puede referirse a dos formas de ropa tradicional usadas por mujeres en países del mundo árabe, y otros de religión islámica, principalmente Afganistán, donde es la vestimenta tradicional de las mujeres afganas pashtunes.

1 La primera es un tipo de velo que se ata a la cabeza, sobre un cobertor de cabeza y que cubre la cara a excepción de una raja en los ojospara que la mujer pueda ver a través de ella.

2 La otra es una prenda conocida como burka completo, burka afgano o, en ocasiones, chador (چادر), el cual cubre el cuerpo y la cara por completo. Ambas clases de burka son utilizados por algunas mujeres musulmanas como una interpretación del código de vestido del hiyab.

Este tipo de prenda encuentra su origen en los desiertos mucho antes de la llegada del Islam. Tenía dos funciones principales: primero actuaba como protección contra los vientos fuertes. Hombres y mujeres la llevaban en aquellos tiempos y aún lo hacen, y su segunda función está ligada a la protección de las mujeres, ya que el uso de la máscara completa se utilizaba por mujeres únicamente cuando un grupo era asaltado por otro. Estos asaltos involucraban el rapto de mujeres en edad de procrear. El protegerse detrás de esta tela reducía considerablemente la probabilidad de ser raptadas por no ser distinguidas fácilmente de jóvenes o de ancianas en el tumulto del asalto.

Muchos musulmanes creen que el Corán, el libro sagrado del Islam, y las tradiciones recopiladas sobre la vida de Mahoma (llamadas "Hadith") imponen a los hombres y mujeres vestirse y comportarse de forma humilde en público. Sin embargo, esta imposición (hijab) ha sido interpretada en muchas formas distintas por los teólogos islámicos y las comunidades musulmanas, ya que el uso del burka no es mencionado específicamente en el Corán.

Mujeres iranies con un burka vanguardista.

El burka completo fue hecho obligatorio en Afganistán bajo el mandato de los talibanes, imponiéndose de esta forma un tipo de prenda, ya que cubre los ojos con un 'velo tupido' que impide que quien la usa pueda ver normalmente, puesto que el ´enmallado´ que la compone limita la visión lateral haciendo perder la ubicación espacial. El burka afgano ejerce una fuerte presión (peso) sobre la cabeza. La extensión promedio de esta prenda es hasta la altura de los pies.

La introducción de esta prenda se produjo en Afganistán a principios del siglo XX, durante el mandato de Habibullah (1901-1919), quien impuso su uso a las mujeres que componían su numeroso harén para evitar que la belleza del rostro de éstas tentara a otros hombres. Así pues, el burka se convirtió en una vestimenta utilizada por la clase alta, que de este modo se "aislaba" del pueblo llano, evitando así su mirada. En la década de los 50 su uso se generalizó en la mayoría de la población, si bien seguía siendo una prenda de las clases acomodadas. Como ya se ha dicho, se extendió entre todas las capas sociales en un acto de imitación de la clase alta, ya que se consideraba un símbolo positivo de estatus social

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http://www.google.co.ve/#hl=es&biw=1280&bih=632&q=+vestimenta+afganistan&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=2cdc936e1589afc3

Islam

El islam (en árabe الإسلام, al-Islām ▶?/i) es una religión monoteísta abrahámica cuyo dogma se basa en el libro del Corán, el cual establece como premisa fundamental para sus creyentes que «No hay más Dios que Alá1 y que Mahoma es el mensajero de Alá».2 La palabra árabeAllah, castellanizada como Alá, significa 'Dios' y su etimología es la misma de la palabra semítica El, con la que se nombra a Dios en laBiblia. Los eruditos islámicos definen al islam como: «La sumisión a Dios el Altísimo a través del monoteísmo, la obediencia y el abandono de la idolatría».3 El libro sagrado del islam es el Corán,4 dictado por Alá a Mahoma a través de Yibril (el arcángel Gabriel). Los seguidores del islam se denominan musulmanes (del árabe muslim مسلم, 'que se somete'). Atestiguan que Mahoma es el último de los profetas enviados por Dios y sello de la Profecía.5

Se aceptan como profetas principalmente (pero no limitándose) a Adán, Noé, Abraham, Moisés, Salomón y Jesús. Además del Corán, los musulmanes de tradición sunita siguen asimismo los hadices y la sunna del profeta Mahoma, que conforman el Registro histórico de las acciones y las enseñanzas del Profeta. Se aceptan también como libros sagrados la Torá (el Antiguo Testamento de los cristianos), losLibros de Salomón y los Evangelios (el Nuevo Testamento).

El islam es una religión abrahámica monoteísta que adora exclusivamente a Alá sin copartícipes. Se estima que hay en la actualidad entre 1.000 y 1.200 millones de musulmanes en el mundo. Según el Vaticano, el islam (conjuntamente con todas sus ramificaciones) es la religiónmás extendida del mundo, ya que recientemente ha superado el número de católicos,6 y la segunda religión del mundo si se suma el número de fieles de las distintas confesiones del cristianismo.

El islam se inició con la predicación de Mahoma en el año 622 en La Meca (en la actual Arabia Saudita). Bajo el liderazgo de Mahoma y sus sucesores, el islam se extendió rápidamente. Existe discrepancia entre los musulmanes y no musulmanes de si se extendió por imposición religiosa o militar, o por conversión de los pueblos al islam.

Etimología y significado

La palabra Islām, de la raíz trilítera s-l-m, deriva del verbo árabe aslama, que significa literalmente 'aceptar, rendirse o someterse'. Así, el islam representa la aceptación y sometimiento ante Dios. Los fieles deben demostrar su sumisión venerándolo, siguiendo estrictamente sus órdenes y aboliendo el politeísmo. En palabras del arabista Pedro Martínez Montávez:

Se dice habitualmente que islam significa sumisión total a Dios, lo que es indudablemente cierto, aunque no es menos cierto que ello corresponde a la traducción de sólo una parte de la palabra. Queda una segunda parte por traducir, atendiendo a la raíz lingüística de la que deriva, que cubre el campo semántico del bienestar, de la salvaguarda, de la salud, de la paz. Quiere esto decir, sencilla y profundamente, que el creyente se somete a Dios, se pone en sus manos, porque tiene la seguridad de que así se pone a salvo. Obsérvese también que islam y salam —que es como en lengua árabe se dice paz— son términos hermanos, al derivar ambos de la misma raíz.7

La palabra está dada por numerosos significados en el Corán. En algunos versos (ayat, en castellano aleyas), la calidad del islam como una convicción interna es acentuada: «A quien quiera que Dios se desee dirigir, él ampliará su pecho al islam». Otros versos conectan la palabra islām y dīn (traducido usualmente como 'religión' o 'fe'): «Hoy, he perfeccionado su religión (dīn) para usted; he completado mi bendición sobre usted; he aprobado el islam para su religión.» Todavía, algunas facciones describen el islam como una acción de devolver a Dios, más que solamente una afirmación verbal de fe.

Doctrina del islam

La doctrina islámica tiene cinco pilares en su fe que forman parte de las acciones interiores de los musulmanes. Los pilares principales son:

1. La profesión de fe, es decir, aceptar el principio básico de que sólo hay un Dios y que Mahoma es el último y más importante de sus profetas.

2. La oración.

3. El zakat o azaque (traducido a veces como limosna), es decir, compartir los recursos con los necesitados.

4. El ayuno en el mes de ramadán.

5. La peregrinación a la Meca (para quien pueda) al menos una vez en la vida.

Sin embargo, islam chiita cuentan con otros cinco pilares, distintos a los de las otras ramas, más abstractos e internos.

A éstos añaden algunos musulmanes el sexto pilar del yihad o esfuerzo en defensa de la fe. En términos estrictamente religiosos, se entiende fundamentalmente como un esfuerzo espiritual interior de cada creyente por vivificar su fe y vivir de acuerdo con ella. A esto se le llama yihad mayor, mientras que existe un yihad menor que consiste en predicar el islam o defenderlo de los ataques. De este último concepto nace la idea de yihad como lucha o guerra que se ha popularizado en todo el mundo.

Además, conforme al Corán todos los musulmanes tienen que creer en Dios, sus ángeles, sus libros, sus profetas, la predestinación y en la próxima vida.

Dios en el corán se nombra a sí mismo como Allah, nombre derivado de la raíz semítica El. Aunque el término es conocido en Occidente como referencia al Dios musulmán, para los hablantes en árabe (de cualquier religión, incluidos cristianos y judíos) se emplea como referencia a "Dios".9 10 11 La creencia en Dios dentro del islam consiste en cuatro aspectos:

1. En Su existencia. Esto primeramente por guía del Creador a Su siervo,12 posteriormente por evidencias del instinto natural del ser humano, la razón, los sentidos, signos en la creación y como prueba principal; los textos sagrados.

2. En que Él es el único, en Sus actos y dominio de este Universo, es decir: Él único Creador, Sustentador, Soberano, etc.

3. En que Él es la única divinidad y sustentador de las cualidades divinas, por lo tanto solamente Él es el merecedor de la adoración.

4. En Sus nombres y atributos: Consiste en afirmar de Dios lo que ha afirmado de Sí mismo en el corán o a través del profeta Mahoma, sobre sus nombres y atributos divinos, sin distorsión, negación, o asemejarlo a algo de este mundo.

Dado que se trata del mismo Dios de cristianos y judíos, las cualidades que los musulmanes le atribuyen son básicamente las mismas que le atribuyen aquellos, pero hay diferencias considerables. Es reseñable, sin embargo, que el islam, a semejanza del judaísmo pero alejándose del cristianismo, insiste en su radical unidad (tawhid), es decir, que es uno y no tiene diversas personas (como afirma en cambio la mayoría de las corrientes cristianas con el dogma de la Trinidad) en su carácter incomparable e irrepresentable.

El islam se refiere a Dios también con otros noventa y nueve nombres, que son otros tantos epítetos referidos a cualidades de Dios, tales como El Clemente (Al-Rahmān), El Apreciadísimo (Al-'Azīz), El Creador (Al-Jāliq). El conjunto de los 99 Nombres de Dios recibe en árabe el nombre de al-asmā' al-husnà o 'los más bellos nombres', algunos de los cuales han sido utilizados asimismo por cristianos y judíos o han designado a dioses de la Arabia preislámica. Algunas tradiciones afirman que existe un centésimo nombre que permanece incognoscible, que es objeto de especulaciones místicas, y que se define en ocasiones como el Nombre Inmenso (ism al-'Azam), o como el Nombre de la Esencia, figura que existe igualmente en el judaísmo, y que ha tenido una gran importancia en el sufismo. Otras veces, se utiliza simplemente la palabra rabb (señor).

Mahoma dijo que Dios tenía 99 nombres; en este versículo del Corán se mencionan algunos:

Es Alá "no hay más Dios que Dios", el Conocedor de lo oculto y de lo patente. Es el Compasivo, el Misericordioso. Es Alá "no hay más dios que Dios", el Rey, el Santísimo, la Paz, Quien da Seguridad, el Custodio, el Poderoso, el Fuerte, el Sumo. ¡Gloria a Alá! ¡Está por encima de lo que Le asocian! Es Allhá, el Creador, el Hacedor, el Formador. Posee los nombres más bellos. Lo que está en los cielos y en la tierra Le glorifica. Es el Poderoso, el Sabio.

Corán 59:22-24.

La palabra Allāh está en el origen de algunas palabras castellanas como "ojalá" (wa shā llāh: 'y quiera Alá'), "olé" (wa-llāh: 'por Alá') o "hala" (yā llāh: 'oh, Alá').

ROSSANA HERNANDEZ

CIRCUITOS DE RADIO FRECUENCIA

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam