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Taliban Offer Question-and-Answer Service Online
First time accepted submitter nachiketas points out this story about a new online service offered by the Taliban. "Worried about whether Islamic verses on Facebook are allowed? Or that suicide bombers kill innocent civilians? Afghanistan's Taliban have set up a new question-and-answer section on their website to address such issues. The facility on Voice of Jihad, the official website of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — the Taliban's own name for their movement — allows readers to submit queries to spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. It is a demonstration of how far the insurgents' attitude towards technology has changed."
Neither TFS nor TFA link to the website in question, so here's it:
http://shahamat-english.com/
Unfortunately, it seems that the English version doesn't have a Q&A section, so you can't troll them unless you know Pashto. Too bad.
But is that due to speech / communication they didn't like, or because it was technology itself?
Be careful with that. "My hovercraft is full of eels." isn't much of an exaggeration.
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they liked airplanes
No. You're confusing the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The Taliban wasn't involved in 9/11 and they even condemned the attack.
Farsi is French for Persian.
No, Farsi is the Persian word for Persian. The French for Persian is apparently "persan".
Citation
And Arabic is not the Esperanto of the Islamic world - unless Arabic is the idealistic but extremely rare constructed language intended for auxiliary use but ultimately relegated to a small hopeful minority. Arabic is more the Latin of the Islamic world - the Holy Book is written* in it, so many people know it, even in areas where nobody speaks it historically.
* Yes, I know the Bible was not originally in Latin, but the most common version, especially in the Middle Ages, was.
No surprise since American Muslims tend to vote overwhelmingly Democrat.
"Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two" -- RFC 1925
OK, so they have a web site. It's hosted in Malaysia, runs Joomla content management, and uses Gmail for replies. They have Facebook and Twitter links. Their videos are on Youtube, and they have a movie site to provide a front for them. The video isn't too useful without translation.
"The Afghanistan Of Islam Rejects Pollution of Western Democracy" is interesting reading. It's a good summary of the theocratic position, and gives some insight into why this is such a tough war to end.