Former army interpreter released on bail while fighting for right to remain in the UK

Channel 4, Former army interpreter released on bail while fighting for right to remain in the UK

'Voice of the Caliphate'

Zia-U-Rahman Hasrat, Noor Zahid, VOA, IS Radio Broadcasts Re-emerge in Afghanistan, 10 May 2016 "The radio channel, which broadcasts from a remote mobile transmitter in the mountains along the Pakistan border, has returned with new programming to its lineup. It can now be heard in the Arabic and Punjabi languages besides its former programs in Pashto and Dari, the two official languages of Afghanistan. The programs encourage people to join IS and air religious chanting."

Women's Orchestra in Kabul

Afghanistan's first female rapper upbeat on future

BBC News - Afghanistan's first female rapper upbeat on future  "In a country where women's' rights are still fiercely contested, Soosan Firooz has added a strong new voice to the debate in Afghanistan.

"Aged just 23, the Afghan actress has become the nation's first female rapper, making her debut with a song that speaks directly to other Afghans who have shared her experiences of pain and exile as refugees."

also see Soozan Firooz on YouTube

Skateistan

Video: Skateistan teaches girls in Afghanistan how to skateboard | Avaaz 

Adultery Execution ‘Un-Islamic’: Scholars

Adultery Execution ‘Un-Islamic’: Scholars - Asia-Pacific - News - OnIslam.net:  ""A public execution of an Afghan woman on accusations of adultery is inviting a storm of outrage across Afghanistan, with Muslim scholars condemning the practice as running against the teachings of Islam."

Afghan photographers shoot to glory

Al Jazeera English, Afghan photographers shoot to glory:

This interesting article is illustrated with a slideshow of excellent photos.

'Afghans aim to defuse failed suicide bombers with Koran'

Reuters UK, Afghans aim to defuse failed suicide bombers with Koran, 11 Jun 2012 "In a room full of would-be suicide bombers at a high security detention centre in the Afghan capital, an elderly cleric quietly reads out verses from the Koran, telling the young men the act of killing oneself is itself a crime in Islam." Interesting article, contains photos from inside the detention centre.

Marines' YouTube clip controversy

msnbc.com, 'Deplorable': U.S. defense chief condemns urinating Marines video, 12 Jan 2012 "An Internet video showing what appear to be U.S. forces in Afghanistan urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters will not affect efforts to broker peace talks, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban said Thursday."

Afghan shrine blasts

BBC News, Shias targeted in deadly Afghan shrine blasts, 6 Dec 2011 "At least 60 people killed in twin attacks targeting Shia Muslims marking Ashoura in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif."

'U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors'

NY Times, U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors, 12 June 2011 [picked up via yesterday's Observer]

"In one of the most ambitious efforts, United States officials say, the State Department and Pentagon have spent at least $50 million to create an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on protected military bases inside the country. It is intended to offset the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services, seemingly at will.

"The effort has picked up momentum since the government of President Hosni Mubarak shut down the Egyptian Internet in the last days of his rule. In recent days, the Syrian government also temporarily disabled much of that country’s Internet, which had helped protesters mobilize."

In relation to this, I found Deutsche Welle, Austrian 'FunkFeuer' helps American 'Internet-in-a-suitcase' project, 17 Jun 2011 "An Austrian wireless networking project that plants Wi-Fi antennae across rooftops is a key element in an American government "liberation technology" project designed to circumvent and thwart Internet filters, censorship and surveillance."

Sounds interesting. When I've got more time, I'll provide some further information.

Afghanistan and Pakistan

Kristin Deasy, Farishta Jalalzai, RFE/RL, Kids With Bombs: In Afghanistan And Pakistan, A Child With A Dream Can Be Deadly "An alarming number of children in Pakistan and Afghanistan believe immortality is at their fingertips -- provided they're pressing a button detonating the bombs strapped to their bodies.

"And while most people associate a bomb blast with the finality of the grave, one young would-be suicide bomber told RFE/RL that he associates it with "heaven.""

Kabul madrassa report on CNN

"CNN's Stan Grant takes a rare look into a closed world when he visits a madrassa -- an Islamic religious school -- in a poor Kabul neighborhood. Here, children as young as six are taught to dislike the United States."

Taliban Employs Modern Weapons In 'War of Words'

Bashir Ahmad Gwakh, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Taliban Employs Modern Weapons In 'War of Words', 16 Mar 2011: "'Wars today cannot be won without media. Media aims at the heart rather than the body, [and] if the heart is defeated, the battle is won.'

"This conclusion, reached by Abdul Sattar Maiwandi in an interview published recently on the website Al-Emarah, is not groundbreaking. The importance of winning the 'war of words,' as Maiwandi describes it, to winning an actual war has long been understood.

"But consider the source. Maiwandi is the editor in chief of Al-Emarah, which is an official Taliban website. And while the Taliban officially banned photography, movies, and the use of the Internet when it was in power in Afghanistan -- considering them un-Islamic -- today the militant group cannot deny the potential of such media as tools of propaganda and recruitment.""

Useful article, with screenshots and analysis. I write about some of this in iMuslims and other work. Also check out some of the feedback ...

Afghan photos

Reuters, U.S. army apologizes over "repugnant" Afghan photos, 21 Mar 2011

"Germany's Der Spiegel magazine published pictures Monday of American troops posing over the bloodied body of a man it said had been killed illegally in Afghanistan, drawing an apology from the U.S. army."

Bowe Bergdahl

mtexpress.com, Bergdahl shown in new Taliban video: Reports conflict as to who is holding soldier captive, 10 Dec 2010 "A new video that has not been widely distributed on the Internet has been reported by international news media to include four seconds of footage of Hailey-area native Bowe Bergdahl, a missing U.S. Army soldier captured in June 2009."

review: Zahid Hussain's The Scorpion's Tail

Joshua Foust, foreignpolicy.com, O&G Book Review: Zahid Hussain's The Scorpion's Tail "In The Scorpion's Tail: The Relentless Rise of Islamic Militants in Pakistan-And How It Threatens America, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Zahid Hussain charts a sobering history of the Pakistani state's relationship to Islam, Islamism, and Islamic radicalism. While the radicalist form of Islam -- the kind America really cares about -- didn't take root in Pakistan until the 1980s during the war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, it was, Hussain argues, the result of decades of Pakistan's elites politicizing Islam to shore up their rule of the country. Starting with the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and moving through the tumultuous history of coups, countercoups, and new constitutions, Hussain walks the reader through Pakistan's steady Islamization."

Sounds like a useful book...

Wikileaks US embassy cables (update)

Guardian, WikiLeaks US embassy cables: live updates, 29 Nov 2010

I'm still wading through the articles here and elsewhere

I'm particularly interested (in relation to this blog's core theme) in:

Guardian, Siprnet: where America stores its secret cables

Guardian, Datablog, WikiLeaks embassy cables: download the key data and see how it breaks down

Guardian, US embassy cables: Diplomats bemoan Bin Laden's 'folk hero' status

Guardian, US embassy cables: Washington requests personal data on Hamas

Guardian, WikiLeaks cables: Bin Laden's PR is better than ours, Americans complained


"The message urged Washington to consider a new raft of anti-Bin Laden propaganda through the Voice of America radio station, interviews with Bin Laden victims, "commissioned articles" in the local press and an anti-Bin Laden website.

""Although that would appear to be counterintuitive – that the masses don't use the internet – almost all Islamic and Islamist groups do indeed have internet access and use it extensively.""

'The Taliban troop with an east London cab driver in its ranks'

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Guardian, The Taliban troop with an east London cab driver in its ranks, 24 Nov 2010 "Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Afghanistan meets a growing community of part-time expat jihadists." Part 1 of Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's excellent series.

Also see Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, Guardian, Five days inside a Taliban jail, 25 Nov 2010

"Special report: Guardian reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was with a group of Taliban last month when US and Afghan forces attacked. In the second of a three-part series, he tells how, after the assault, he ended up being imprisoned by the fighters he had come to interview."

Afghanistan net crackdown

Reuters, Afghan Journal, Afghanistan cracks down on Internet cafes for allowing porn, 24 Oct 2010 "Seventeen internet cafes have been shutdown in the Afghan capital Kabul, for allowing their clients to surf porn websites and access other unspecified “un-Islamic websites”, the local Pajhwok news agency reported."

Also see Muhammad Hassan Khitab, pajhwok.com, ATRA shuts down 17 net cafes in Kabul, 18 Oct 2010"The net cafes had been warned last week not to allow customers to look at porn or other un-Islamic websites in their venues or face action, Muhammad Ibrahim Abbasi, a member of Afghan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ATRA), said."