Article

2009-03-23 Afghanistan

NATO: Taliban commander among 10 killed in strike

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Posted by tu3031 2009-03-23 12:13|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 So, police officer Wali Jan stopped him. ID'd him. Then gave the ok for the drone atack? Sounds pretty eficient to me.

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2009-03-23 12:35|| 2009-03-23 12:35|| Front Page Top

#2 One little, two little, three little Taliban.

Posted by Anonymoose 2009-03-23 13:10|| 2009-03-23 13:10|| Front Page Top

#3 Do we get the feeling that the neighbors aren't happy with the Talibs moving in? We're getting awfully good location intel on these guys.

Posted by mojo 2009-03-23 15:10|| 2009-03-23 15:10|| Front Page Top

#4 I googled:

"Maulawi", "Maulavi" and "Maulana" are all three the same person, idea, and concept. They come from the Arabic word "maula", which means "leader, master, lord", and "Maulana" means "Our leader, lord, or master". It is a term generally used for a learned man or a scholar of Islam.

Ideally, a trained Mullah (from the Farsi) will have studied Islamic traditions (hadith), and Islamic law (fiqh). They are often hafiz, i.e. have memorized the Qur'an. However, uneducated villagers often recognize a literate Muslim with a less than complete Islamic training as their "mullah" or religious cleric. Mullahs with varying levels of training lead prayers in mosques, deliver religious sermons, and perform religious ceremonies such as birth rites and funeral services. They also often teach in a type of Islamic school known as a madrasah. This triumvirate of knowledge is applied mostly in interpreting Islamic texts (ie. the Quran, Hadiths, etc.) for matters of Shariah, ie Islamic law.

The term is most often applied to Shi'ite clerics, as Shi'a Islam is the predominant tradition in Iran. However, the term is very common in Urdu, spoken throughout Pakistan, and it is used throughout the Indian subcontinent for any Muslim clergy, Sunni or Shi'a. Muslim clergy in Russia and other former Soviet republics are also referred to as mullahs, regardless of whether they are Sunni or Shi'a.

The term is seldom used in Arabic-speaking areas, where its nearest equivalent is shaykh (implying formal Islamic training), imam (prayer leader; not to be confused with the Imams of the Shiite world), or `ālim (plural `ūlamā') (scholar; see ulema). In the Sunni world, the concept of "cleric" is of limited usefulness, as authority in the religious system is relatively decentralized.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-03-23 15:50|| 2009-03-23 15:50|| Front Page Top

#5 Interesting etymology, tw. But, as Shakespeare said, a doofus by any other name...

Posted by SteveS 2009-03-23 16:19|| 2009-03-23 16:19|| Front Page Top

#6 Thanks for the info, tw. That, to me, is one of the (many) problems with Islam. There is no central, guiding authority. So one imam can say "Death to the infidels" and another can, with a straight face, claim that Islam is a religion of peace. If you point the conflict out to either of them, they can both claim to be experts on the Koran and the hadiths, and both claim to be right.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia 2009-03-23 20:35|| 2009-03-23 20:35|| Front Page Top

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