Gone : Afghanistan's main ethnic groups

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Afghanistan's main ethnic groups

National Geographic Ethnic Map of Afghanistan

Hazara girl, uploaded on June 27, 2007 by aghaznawi.

See Aghaznawi's photoessay on the Hazara here.

Hazara history has it that this Central Asian people are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. Or maybe their ancestors were the people who constructed the Buddhas of Bamyan that the Taliban destroyed in 2001.

About me

In fall 2007, I started working for the Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank founded by Afghans based in Kabul, Afghanistan, to build Afghan policy research expertise.

In 2006 Palgrave published a book I cowrote, "Jihad and International Security," with Jalil Roshandel.

Now I'm watching what I see to be the last gasp of a nonviable movement: militant, insurgent jihadism. This movement has killed many more Muslims than polytheists, infidels, or non-Muslims. It has also done more to damage the image of Islam than any other force in 1400 years of Islamic history.

"Prior to 9/11, who in the modern West ever worried about Islam? The jihadists have succeeded in casting suspicion on an entire religion, a substantial percentage of the world’s population, and centuries of Islamic history, in addition to all the widows and orphans they have created.

"It is unfortunate that Muslims who don’t terrorize people can’t command headlines. But that’s the way the media operates, if it bleeds it leads."

Me, Sharon Chadha, in an interview by Pooja at Instablogs.