The name of Afghanistan was given by the British – designed to divide the people of Khorasan and weaken them through promoting the idea that the land is Pashtun land & that its language should be Pashto. Afghanistan means the ‘Land of Afghans, Awghan, Pathans or Pashtoons also spelt as Pashtuns. These names are variants of one name, Afghan. However, the modern day Afghanistan is a mosaic of various ethnic groups and the name Afghanistan is misleading and possessive. It is not representative of all and has destroyed the unity of the people and made them weak.
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August 2021
Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl delivers the Friday khutbah and jumu’a prayer at The Usuli Institute (www.usuli.org).
(English after 3:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGWSWc6wb14
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MINERALS
According to the New York Times, a mixed team of US military and geologists have discovered trillion-dollar mineral resources in Afghanistan. These would be enough to bring about radical changes in the Afghan economy and probably in the unfolding of the war itself. The reserves are of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and metals used in industry, such as lithium, the existence of which was not known, are very large and include many minerals crucial for the development of modern industry, thus Afghanistan can be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, according to US administration officials.
In the 19th century, the British Empire tried to conquer Afghanistan, starting in India. Between 1839 and 1842, the British failed to subdue the Afghan tribes. A second attempt by the British Crown (1878–1880) to subdue Afghanistan was a success. Finally, in 1919, Britain withdrew from Afghanistan forced by an insurgency by provincial tribes.
In 1919, the Afghan monarchy was recognized as independent.Afghanistan’s current problems began almost 40 years ago. In 1973, the king’s cousin, Daoud, staged a coup, proclaiming Afghanistan a republic and making him president. In the short period of Daoud’s rule, Afghanistan has enjoyed revenues from oil and gas exports. On April 27, 1978, Daoud was overthrown and assassinated by communists (the Sawr revolution) grouped around the Afghan People’s Democratic Party (PDPA).
The two military superpowers, the USSR and the USA, were also involved in all this civil war, the first supporting the power and the second the opposition, the mujahideen. As Afghan internal strife escalated, the Soviet Union felt compelled to help the threatened communist regime and invaded the country on December 27, 1979. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev believed troops could withdraw in about six months.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser, was sent to negotiate with Pakistan to deliver weapons to the Afghan opposition. Thus began the cooperation between the mujahedeen (“Soldiers of God”) and the Americans. The CIA was sending weapons to the Pakistani secret services that supplied the mujahideen. The camp of those who supported the mujahideen expanded and included Britain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt. During the 1980s, the involvement of the two superpowers increased. The United States has supplied thousands of tons of weapons to the Muhajids. The USSR sent more than 100,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Afghan lands have always been a touchstone for the great empires of the time throughout history. From the Persians, Macedonians, and Kushans to the British, Soviets, and Americans, they all encountered Afghan resistance, which crushed foreign troops who set foot in this country like a stone mixer. The geographical position of the country has attracted like a magnet the great powers throughout history.
https://historyofyesterday.com/afghanistan-the-land-eaten-by-war-cffb78822405
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Before the invention of the name “Afghanistan”, the land used to be known as other names: Ariana and Khorasan, with the most recent being Khorasan. The region was called Khorasan for 1400 years and the name was fairer and represented the region as well as the people better. It clearly doesn’t favor one ethnicity over another. As Khorasan means ‘Land of Sunrise’. The region was once an advancing civilization and embodied many ethnic groups. However, as the Pashtun nomads entered and invaded the regions, they scattered and spread over, imposing their existence as well as a need for a country.
Pashtuns are originally from the South so perhaps and they can rightly go back there and govern rightly over their own people and leave the North to itself. They did not bring any progress in the past—which is fairly obvious considering the condition of the country today—so logically, they won’t bring any progress in the future. And if the country is partitioned finally, there is no way it could get any worse.
Most of the problems that are present among non-Pashtuns are due to Pashtuns. In the past, pre-Afghanistan, the Persians (Hazara, Tajik, Aymaq), Uzbeks, Turkmens, Nuristanis etc. lived side by side in Khorasan. There was no threat of Communism or Terrorism. Terror started with the first footsteps of Pashtun Abdalis. By separating the North and the South that is the first step towards change. Right now, there is no stability in the country and its people. Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns do not have anything in common – neither historically or culturally.
Persians, Uzbeks, Turkmens and other non-Pashtuns were never and will never be Afghan. When the literal term of a word obviously means something you are not and you don’t even speak the language of an Afghan (supposedly Pashto) then why call yourself one? The three decades of civil war in Afghanistan caused state failure, linguistic conflict and the ethnicisation of politics. After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan experienced new patterns of ethnicisation, discrimination and violence.
The brutal rule of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001 scattered the ethnically embroiled mosaic of the country, undermined the ethnic balance and divided the nation into small pieces. There are those non-Pashtuns who don’t wish to go over or remember past events/bad memories—they want to take the easy way out and just start fresh.
If the chauvinistic and ethnic supremacist policies of the current predominantely Pashtun made up government continue there won’t be any way out other than a partition. The northern majority of Afghanistan doesn’t want to live and coexist with a violent tribe who support the atrocities of the Taliban and whose daily life is conducted by tribal laws which are primitive and extremely violent. There are two opposing factors, which is Persian langauge and Pashto (the minority language), after partition a huge part of the geography will adapt Persian as their only official language and so one of the biggest problems will be automatically solved. Pashtuns can do whatever they desire with their language in the south. Northern, Central and Western regions no longer desired or accept to be ruled by a tribal goon from the south.
https://hormozgan96.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/partition-of-afghanistan-for-freedom/
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ONAFHANKLIK 