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In Afghanistan
Is the Taliban a part of al-Qaeda?
NO. They are fundamentally different organizations. It just so happened that the Taliban were the government in power of Afghanistan when al-Qaeda was using that country f…or its training camps. They did have some ideological similarities as well, but no actual organizational link. More on the Differences: Al-Qaeda is an international post-national terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda's mission is to bring about the Fall of the West and the Islamicization (both cultural and religious) of Western Nations. Their organization sought refuge in several Arab and Muslim countries and found space to grow in Afghanistan until the American Invasion in 2001. Since that point, they have grown cells in numerous other countries, but focused their greatest efforts in franchising. Franchising means that a nondescript Arab militant group will begin to call themselves Al-Qaeda and advocate for Al-Qaeda's goals without actually being connected to Al-Qaeda's central command structure. In return, Al-Qaeda will donate funds to this militant group to pursue its aims. As a result, people who identify as Al-Qaeda may not even be connected to the Al-Qaeda leadership in the same way that the individual owners of McDonald's Restaurants do not necessarily have a connection with McDonald's Executives. The Taliban is a specific political Islamist Party/Militant Organization. The Taliban has certain political aims: the control of Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan. The Taliban also were able to hold national control in Afghanistan and ruled it according to some of the most barbaric interpretations of Shari'a Law. As a result, they spread out through national channels such as police and justice departments. The Taliban, consequently, has very limited aims that came in direct contravention of American interests only in 2001 when the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban, while supporting Al-Qaeda, were not (prior to 2001) interested in the latter's goal of attacking and Islamicizing the West. They are still opposed to exerting resources to achieve these goals, but do focus their efforts on removing the Northern Alliance government of Afghanistan and leading that country again. (MORE)
