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Jessica V

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belief in the prophets and messengers of god

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nation of islam online religion what is islamic beliefs new muslim new muslims quran online koran online moslems web sites websites beliefs home page homepage women

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This Islamic guide is for non-Muslims to help them better understand Islam, Muslims, and the Quran. This page is on: Some Basic Islamic Beliefs: God, Angels, Revealed Books, Prophets, Day of Judgment, Al-Qadar

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For a decade and more, one country has dominated the news
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Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST
headlines more than most - Afghanistan. Mention this country and what comes to mind? Probably Taliban and terrorism, bur k as and beards. But Afghanistan is much more. Beyond the headlines of war, there is another country where ancient traditions endure and a new country is emerging, says Lyse Doucet.
1. Afghans celebrate their new year, Nawroz, on 21 March, the first day of spring. Thousands travel to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif to welcome in Nawroz, a pre-Islamic festival. Local strong men raise a great Janda, an Islamic banner, to herald the beginning of spring and the start of the new year. If it is lifted in one smooth motion, it is seen as a good omen for the months to come. (You have to hold on to something when you live in a country that has already survived more than 30 years of war.)

2. Afghanistan would like its national game, buzkashi, or goat-grabbing, to be an Olympic sport. Regarded as the world's wildest game, it involves riders on horseback competing to grab a goat carcass, and gallop clear of the others to drop it in a chalked circle. It has been played on Afghanistan's northern steppe for centuries. The game used to be the sport of rich rival warlords but is now also financed by Afghan mobile phone companies and private airlines. But it is still not a sport for the faint-hearted, and women should not apply.

3. Mobile phone coverage is expected to reach 90% of the country this year, even though the percentage of Afghans with access to electricity is still one of the lowest in the world. Mobile phones are transforming Afghan lives and culture. Even Taliban have fancy smartphones with e-mail and skype. They are status symbols, too - if you have cash or contacts you can get a memorable number including, for example, one that has the letters of your name. (Mine has my lucky number from when I used to play basketball.)

4. Poetry is a cherished part of Afghan culture. Afghans have told their stories in verse for more than 1,000 years. Thursday night is "poetry night" in the western city of Herat - men, women and children gather to share ancient and modern verse, listen to traditional Herati music, and enjoy sweet tea and pastries long into the night.

5. Alexander the Great was the first to build Herat's ancient citadel when he captured the city in 330BC. The only woman to capture the heart of the Macedonian empire builder was the beautiful Roxanne, from the northern Afghan province of Balkh. She bore him his only son before Alexander died at the young age of 33.

6. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the poster boy for legions of young Afghan men. Photographs of a muscled Arnold in his prime hang from the walls of hundreds of body building centres across the country. Some Afghans say the action-star-turned US governor looks like an Afghan.

7. Afghan cuisine is more sophisticated than kebabs and rice. This landlocked country has been at the crossroads of major civilisations for centuries and that is reflected in what is on the menu. Sample its delicate ashak, a ravioli stuffed with leeks, and topped with minced meat and yogurt, or Mantu pasta filled with lamb and onions. And new influences are still emerging as Afghanistan opens its doors to the world. If you yearn for something lighter, former Japanese journalist-turned chef Hiromi (now known as Mursal which means Rose in Persian) fell in love with the country, married an Afghan and is training Afghans to make mouth-watering sushi.

8. Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan is said to be the busiest single runway airstrip in the world. No wonder it is also the place Nato has its first complete air traffic capability in a non-Nato country. Last year's arrival of more than 30,000 extra US troops, along with more civilian personnel, added to constant landings on a base also used by non-US militaries. Of course, lots of journalists and dignitaries also fly in to one of Afghanistan's most volatile cities, the most decisive battle in this war. Afghans have long said whoever controls Kandahar, controls Afghanistan.

9. The world's first oil paintings were drawn not in Renaissance Europe but in the caves of Bamiyan, in the central highlands of Afghanistan around 650BC. Bamiyan boasted a flourishing Buddhist civilisation from the 2nd Century up to the Islamic invasion of the 9th Century. This is where the world's two largest standing Buddhas once stood, until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001. A newly opened tourism company is trying to attract tourists back to beautiful Bamiyan. Last year, they had a grand total of two (along with Afghans and foreigners who live in the country). But the people of Bamiyan remain hopeful.

10. Oh, and please remember, Afghanis is the currency, not the people. They are called Afghans. And they have a country that, for all of its hardship and heartache, they are still proud to call home.

Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two, Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST

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For a decade and more, one country has dominated the news Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST headlines more than most - Afghanistan. Mention this country and what comes to mind? Probably Taliban and terrorism, bur k as and beards.

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Ten facts you may not know about Afghanistan

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Ten facts you may not know about Afghanistan

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Women are not allowed to play any sport for the faint-hearted.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13931608

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Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST

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Honey moon if Afghanistan?

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A Taliban attack on a group of foreign tourists in Afghanistan, that left at least six people wounded, is not the first of its kind in the country.

However, while civilian casualties in Afghanistan have reached their highest-recorded level, attacks on tourists are rare.

The fact Afghanistan attracts tourists at all may come as a surprise to some, but a number of companies offer tours to the country where there were more than 11,000 casualties of violence last year.

The UN World Tourism Organization does not receive statistics from the Afghan government on tourist numbers, so it is difficult to track how many visitors are making it there.

But Afghanistan does send the UNWTO data on tourist expenditure.

Those figures show a big drop in the amount of money spent by tourists in the country - from $168m (£128m) in 2012 to $91m in 2014, the most recent year's statistics available.

Muqim Jamshady is chief executive of Kabul-based Afghan Logistics And Tours, which helps organise trips and treks for visitors in safe parts of the country.

He told the BBC that up to 300 tourists used their services in 2003, but the number had now dropped to about 100 a year.

The fall in visitors has come as deaths from violence in Afghanistan have increased.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against travelling to most parts of Afghanistan, adding that "there is a high threat from terrorism and specific methods of attack are evolving and increasing in sophistication".

The US State Department goes even further, warning there is a risk of "kidnapping, hostage taking, military combat operations, landmines, banditry, armed rivalry between political and tribal groups, militant attacks, direct and indirect fire, suicide bombings, and insurgent attacks, including attacks using vehicle-borne or other improvised explosive devices".

Huge areas of Afghanistan are no-go areas for visitors, said Bilal Sarwary, an Afghan journalist who does his part to promote the 'Afghanistan You Never See' on his Facebook page, but that is not to say everywhere is inaccessible.

"The State Department, the FCO, all advise it is not safe. It is not Sri Lanka or the Maldives, but it's not Libya or Syria either," he said.

"There are places in Afghanistan that are totally safe for tourists. If you fly into Kabul, then fly to Bamiyan or Herat, that's the safe way.

"What attracts people to Afghanistan is its diverse landscape - from mountains to deserts to lakes."
In pictures: Bamiyan valley
If you are visiting Afghanistan, Bilal's advice is to carry out plenty of research and avoid roads by flying to your destination.

"Most people I know who've been as tourists had a friend or family member who was an aid worker," he said. "It's not totally impossible."

The attack on the tourists, who were travelling with security forces, happened on a road between Ghor and Herat in the west of the country.

While Herat itself is seen as relatively safe, Bilal expressed his surprise that tourists were travelling on that particular road.

The BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, who has been travelling to Afghanistan since 1988, said: "There are areas unaffected by the Taliban where you can enjoy Afghans' hospitality, kindness and gentleness, see beautiful sights and stay in decent hotels."

The risk, Lyse said, was not necessarily being in any one place, but in travelling between safe places.

"You can't say that any whole country is unsafe," she said. "But that's where local knowledge comes in.

"Even if you are going on a trip to Italy, you get the best advice - well you have to ask the same questions in Afghanistan, but you need to ask them in a much more comprehensive way to make sure the sources of your knowledge are good."
Putting Bamiyan back on the map
The attack comes at a time when Herat, a city once occupied by Alexander the Great in 330BC, is seeking to capitalise on its relatively safe image to bring in more tourists.

"It's a country that's so cut off from the rest of the world when it comes to trade and tourism," Lyse said.

"So for those Afghans who want to see a better future, it's really depressing and demoralising, because every time they take a step up, they have to take a step back down."

Muqim Jamshady, of Afghan Logistics and Tours, is one of those taking another step back. "I'm really sad," he said. "And angry."

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A Taliban attack on a group of foreign tourists in Afghanistan, that left at least six people wounded, is not the first of its kind in the country. However, while civilian casualties in Afghanistan have reached their highest-recorded level, attacks on tourists are rare.

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Ten facts you may not know about Afghanistan

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Ten facts you may not know about Afghanistan

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Women are not allowed to play anysport for the faint-hearted, and women should not apply.

FIND OUT MORE

Image copyright

BBC

Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13931608

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Mitch Hatz

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Culture of Afghanistan - history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social

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Culture of Afghanistan - history, people, clothing, women, beliefs, food, customs, family, social A-Bo

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Prior to the Soviet–Afghan War.

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Mr. Khalilzad would be the first to acknowledge that Afghanistan was always fractious politically, and that there were assassinations and coups even during the era of relative peace. But the current downward spiral did not begin until 1978, when the president, Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, was killed in a Communist coup, setting off three decades of conflict.

In 1979, the Soviets invaded, occupied Afghanistan for the next decade and were finally driven out by American-backed mujahedeen fighters, some of whom went on to form the Taliban, an Islamic student militia, which took control in Kabul in 1996. The Taliban in turn were toppled by the Americans in 2001, but fighting continued.

And by the end of the 1970s, many of the educated elite had fled and resettled across Europe, Asia and the United States. Gone with them was the promise of those earlier decades, when Kabul solicited foreign aid from both Washington and Moscow that brought in electricity, dams and irrigation, and when a young Parliament was trying out a fledgling democracy.

"There was definitely what was developing to be a newer tradition of a more open society and trained people" in those earlier years, said Paula Newberg, director of Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, who was an adviser to President Hamid Karzai's government in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2004.

J. Alexander Thier, an expert on Afghanistan at the United States Institute of Peace who lived in the country during the takeover by the Taliban in the 1990s, said that some Afghans returned to the country after 2002, but that many still lived abroad. He said he was not "incredibly optimistic" about Afghanistan after eight years of the current war, but that he supported robust reconstruction aid and American help to bolster regional governments throughout the country. "I lived in Afghanistan in the absolute darkest days, when if Afghanistan was ever going to break apart into separate states, it would have happened," he said. Now, he said, "the alternatives are so much more bleak and dangerous for us that we do need to keep trying."

Frederick W. Kagan, a military expert at the American Enterprise Institute, made a related point: "Our enemies," he said, "believe that Afghanistan is governable in its current state, because that's what they're trying to do."

For now, administration officials say that much of the debate in the Situation Room is centered on whether the United States should focus less on the weak central Afghan government or put more money and effort into the provinces, where warlords have traditionally ruled. "We shouldn't worry so much about Karzai, we should worry about empowering the governors and getting better district chiefs and police chiefs," said a senior State Department official.

"I think Afghanistan is governable," the official said, "but the question is at what level?"

Correction: October 25, 2009

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Mr. Khalilzad would be the first to acknowledge that Afghanistan was always fractious politically, and that there were assassinations and coups even during the era of relative peace. But the current downward spiral did not begin until 1978, when the president, Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, was killed in a Communist coup, setting off three decades of conflict.

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Free Ebooks Newsletters The Purpose of Life Understanding Muslims Islam Beliefs and Practices Hajj Guides More Resources

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Afghanistan's national game is goat-grabbing on horseback

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For a decade and more, one country has dominated the news
FIND OUT MORE

Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST
headlines more than most - Afghanistan. Mention this country and what comes to mind? Probably Taliban and terrorism, bur k as and beards. But Afghanistan is much more. Beyond the headlines of war, there is another country where ancient traditions endure and a new country is emerging, says Lyse Doucet.
1. Afghans celebrate their new year, Nawroz, on 21 March, the first day of spring. Thousands travel to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif to welcome in Nawroz, a pre-Islamic festival. Local strong men raise a great Janda, an Islamic banner, to herald the beginning of spring and the start of the new year. If it is lifted in one smooth motion, it is seen as a good omen for the months to come. (You have to hold on to something when you live in a country that has already survived more than 30 years of war.)

2. Afghanistan would like its national game, buzkashi, or goat-grabbing, to be an Olympic sport. Regarded as the world's wildest game, it involves riders on horseback competing to grab a goat carcass, and gallop clear of the others to drop it in a chalked circle. It has been played on Afghanistan's northern steppe for centuries. The game used to be the sport of rich rival warlords but is now also financed by Afghan mobile phone companies and private airlines. But it is still not a sport for the faint-hearted, and women should not apply.

3. Mobile phone coverage is expected to reach 90% of the country this year, even though the percentage of Afghans with access to electricity is still one of the lowest in the world. Mobile phones are transforming Afghan lives and culture. Even Taliban have fancy smartphones with e-mail and skype. They are status symbols, too - if you have cash or contacts you can get a memorable number including, for example, one that has the letters of your name. (Mine has my lucky number from when I used to play basketball.)

4. Poetry is a cherished part of Afghan culture. Afghans have told their stories in verse for more than 1,000 years. Thursday night is "poetry night" in the western city of Herat - men, women and children gather to share ancient and modern verse, listen to traditional Herati music, and enjoy sweet tea and pastries long into the night.

5. Alexander the Great was the first to build Herat's ancient citadel when he captured the city in 330BC. The only woman to capture the heart of the Macedonian empire builder was the beautiful Roxanne, from the northern Afghan province of Balkh. She bore him his only son before Alexander died at the young age of 33.

6. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the poster boy for legions of young Afghan men. Photographs of a muscled Arnold in his prime hang from the walls of hundreds of body building centres across the country. Some Afghans say the action-star-turned US governor looks like an Afghan.

7. Afghan cuisine is more sophisticated than kebabs and rice. This landlocked country has been at the crossroads of major civilisations for centuries and that is reflected in what is on the menu. Sample its delicate ashak, a ravioli stuffed with leeks, and topped with minced meat and yogurt, or Mantu pasta filled with lamb and onions. And new influences are still emerging as Afghanistan opens its doors to the world. If you yearn for something lighter, former Japanese journalist-turned chef Hiromi (now known as Mursal which means Rose in Persian) fell in love with the country, married an Afghan and is training Afghans to make mouth-watering sushi.

8. Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan is said to be the busiest single runway airstrip in the world. No wonder it is also the place Nato has its first complete air traffic capability in a non-Nato country. Last year's arrival of more than 30,000 extra US troops, along with more civilian personnel, added to constant landings on a base also used by non-US militaries. Of course, lots of journalists and dignitaries also fly in to one of Afghanistan's most volatile cities, the most decisive battle in this war. Afghans have long said whoever controls Kandahar, controls Afghanistan.

9. The world's first oil paintings were drawn not in Renaissance Europe but in the caves of Bamiyan, in the central highlands of Afghanistan around 650BC. Bamiyan boasted a flourishing Buddhist civilisation from the 2nd Century up to the Islamic invasion of the 9th Century. This is where the world's two largest standing Buddhas once stood, until the Taliban destroyed them in 2001. A newly opened tourism company is trying to attract tourists back to beautiful Bamiyan. Last year, they had a grand total of two (along with Afghans and foreigners who live in the country). But the people of Bamiyan remain hopeful.

10. Oh, and please remember, Afghanis is the currency, not the people. They are called Afghans. And they have a country that, for all of its hardship and heartache, they are still proud to call home.

Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two, Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST

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For a decade and more, one country has dominated the news Lyse Doucet presents Afghanistan: The Unknown Country on BBC Two on Wednesday 6 July at 2100 BST headlines more than most - Afghanistan. Mention this country and what comes to mind? Probably Taliban and terrorism, bur k as and beards.

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45% of rural people are poor.