The armed resistance to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan

The main violent threat to the Taliban regime comes from the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) armed group, but the Taliban regime will also have to deal with armed resistance from ethnic groups in Afghanistan that already feel threatened by the new regime. ISIS – K presents a serious challenge to the Taliban's regime in Afghanistan as the group operates in cells across the country. ISIS – K doesn't possess the capabilities to overthrow the Taliban government. Still, they can damage the credibility of the Taliban, which has claimed that it is the only group that can bring peace and stability to the country. The ethnic groups (the Shia Hazara and Uzbek and Tajik ethnic groups) are already under pressure in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. These groups that in the 1990s formed the "Northern Alliance" that fought against the Taliban are organizing to defend themselves against Islamic State attacks and Taliban persecution and in the future could become a significantly armed opposition to the Taliban regime.

Anthropology is companion studies: A study of violent relations during fieldwork with my family

Companions in the field influence ethnography, thus affecting research position whilst providing research insights. The research of violence takes place within the relations of violence being studied. Family companions who used to live in a field site are entwined in those violent relations. Capacity for violent threat or suffering is connected to the companions of family. Reporting on companions is problematic. Where anonymity is compromised, key information has to be withheld, which in turn leads readers to question integrity. The ethical balance between author, companions and reader reveals more about the relationality of violence. As anthropology turns towards analysing a relational positioning between multifarious companions, the study of family companions expands to consider how intimate companions, of one kind or another, unavoidably shape ethnography. The paper contributes to understanding violence, the research of violence, accompanied fieldwork and methodology in relational anthropological frameworks.

Discrimination, Genocide, and Politicide

The first generation of genocide scholars emphasized the role of discrimination in the onset of genocide and politicide. However, second-generation scholars discount such claims and have not found quantitative support for the discrimination hypothesis. We return to first-generation theories linking discrimination to genocide and politicide. We argue that while such policies set the stage for genocide, they do not influence the onset of politicide. This is because genocide is a policy aimed at eradicating the “other” while politicide is a policy designed to eliminate violent threat to the regime elites. Therefore, we encourage scholars not to conflate the logics of genocide and politicide. Statistical analysis of discrimination and government mass murder from 1955 to 2005 reveals that while some causes of genocide and politicide are similar, ethnic discrimination influences genocide but not politicide, as we expect.

Palatable Sharia: 'Killing Two Birds with One Stone'

Based on observation in the District of Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia shariatization was a form of local re-packaging sharia where the term ‘sharia’ has been replaced with ‘Akhlaq al-Karimah’ (noble character). It then had the effect of not only silencing critical groups but also moderating sharia to become more open and inclusive. More importantly, the local-branded sharia became a common ground for the various Islamist groups to coalesce and, indeed, suppress vigilante action to renounce violent threat, at the very least, and served to lessen the divides between them. In this regard, the so-called sharia was like ‘killing two birds with one stone’ that on one side was a form of moderation to the critical groups but, on the other, was designed to be a common ground for various Islamist groups to coalesce. [Berdasarkan penelitian di Kabupaten Cianjur, Jawa Barat, shariatisasi di Indonesia telah mengambil bentuk lokal dengan mengganti istilah ‘shariah’ dengan ‘akhlaq al-karimah’. Hal ini tidak hanya membungkam kelompok kritis, tetapi juga memoderasi syariah menjadi lebih terbuka dan inklusif. Terpenting adalah lokalisasi syariah menjadi landasan bersama bagi berbagai kelompok Islam untuk berkoalisi, dan alih – alih menekan aksi massa yang bisa menimbulkan kekerasan, dan yang menimbulkan perpecahan diantara mereka. Dalam hal ini, perumpamaannya seperti ‘sekali lempar, dua burung terjatuh’, yang mana satu sisi merupakan bentuk moderasi kelompok kritis, satu sisi yang lain menjadi pondasi bersama koalisi berbagai kelompok Islam.]

Disrupted Genre, Disrupted Lives: „Adieu Gary” and the Post-9/11 Banlieue as Ghost Town

The War on Terror was made global in 2001 through U.N. Resolution 1373. Nassim Amaouche’s 2009 Adieu Gary appears distant from this transformation in international law. Yet its French-Arab protagonists negotiate mass media envisionings of the “terrorist” in ways that highlight the pressures the controversial resolution placed upon Arab and racially mixed populations. Adieu Gary subversively refashions the Western aesthetic and its iconic heroes for this post-9/11 context to signify not strength but weakness. In its appropriation of the ghost town convention, the film thus becomes a unique example of the disrupted, transnational Western which visualizes the disrupted lives of banlieue youth, articulating the psychological disempowerment of an ethnic group framed in legal terms as a potentially violent threat. My paper unveils the richness of this singular film’s commentary on French public discourse through an interdisciplinary framework that combines analysis of Resolution 1373’s impact in France, an awareness of the film’s intertextual gestures to classic Hollywood Westerns, and a post-colonial theoretical perspective. A vision of the terrorist Other, codified in law and propagated in popular culture, affects the French-Arab’s self-perception in the film. The sheriff of the Western, emblematized by Gary Cooper’s lawman from High Noon who seems to haunt the setting, reinforces the banlieue inhabitant’s powerless state. Conservative Islam then becomes the sole route for an autonomous identity; however, the film’s ambivalence reveals how this embrace of Islam further condemns the French-Arab subject to a life in limbo, trapped in an existential ghost town somewhere between life and death.ROZBITY GATUNEK, ROZBITE ŻYCIE — ADIEU GARY I „POSTJEDENASTOWRZEŚNIOWE” PRZEDMIEŚCIE JAKO WYMARŁE MIASTOWojna z terroryzmem stała się globalna w 2001 roku w wyniku rezolucji ONZ nr 1373. Film Nassima Amaouche’a Adieu Gary z 2009 roku wydaje się daleki od tej transformacji w międzynarodowym prawie. Jednakże jego francusko-arabscy protagoniści negocjują massmedialne wyobrażenia „terrorysty” w sposób, który rzuca światło na presję, jaką ta kontrowersyjna rezolucja wywarła na arabskiej i rasowo mieszanej ludności. Adieu Gary subwersywnie przemodelowuje zachodnią estetykę i jej ikonicznych bohaterów funkcjonujących w owym „postjedenastowrześniowym” kontekście, żeby podkreślić nie siłę, lecz słabość. W swoim przyswojeniu konwencji wymarłego miasta film ten staje się wyjątkowym przykładem rozbitego transnarodowego westernu, który wizualizuje rozbite egzystencje przedmiejskich młodocianych, artykułując psychologiczne pozbawienie autorytetu etnicznej grupy, ujmowanej w prawniczych terminach jako potencjalna groźba przemocy. Mój esej ukazuje bogactwo komentarza filmu na temat francuskiego publicznego dyskursu, komentarza opartego na interdyscyplinarnej podbudowie, który łączy analizę oddziaływania rezolucji 1373 na Francję, świadomość filmowego intertekstualnego nachylenia ku klasycznemu hollywoodzkiemu westernowi i postkolonialną teoretyczną perspektywę. Wizja terrorystycznego INNEGO, skodyfikowana przez prawo i propagowana w popularnej kulturze, oddziałuje na wzajemne postrzeganie się w filmie Francuzów i Arabów. Szeryf z tego westernu, symbolizowany przez człowieka prawa granego przez Gary’ego Coopera z filmu W samo południe, który zdaje się nawiedzać okolicę, wzmacnia tkwiących w bezsilności mieszkańców przedmieścia. Konserwatywny islam staje się więc jedyną drogą autonomicznej jednostki; jednakowoż dwuznaczność filmu odsłania, jak owe kleszcze islamu skazują francusko-arabskich obywateli na życie w otchłani, złapanych w pułapkę egzystencjalnego wymarłego miasta, gdzieś między życiem a śmiercią. Przeł. Kordian Bobowski

A Violent Threat to Conservation of Wetlands and the Existing Laws of Bangladesh: A Critical Analysis

In Bangladesh, wetlands are nursing areas for fresh water species. The freshwater wetlands have been considered an inexhaustible source of its wealth, but are now overexploited and undervalued. Sound wetlands could contribute to a healthy and sustainable economic condition. The focal point of this article is to conserve natural resources with special attention to the freshwater wetlands. Even the ponds or reservoirs under the private ownership except certain circumstances would come within the term ‘conservation of wetlands’, though the personal rights and enjoyments are being hampered. Therefore, the wetlands should be utilized for welfare of the people by protecting those from ruination and preserving biodiversity through proper and time-befitting work plans. Moreover, the article contains a broad discussion of current laws regarding the conservation of wetlands. But very unfortunately, there is no specific provision of law for the sustainability of such wetlands, but to declare ecologically critical area while in a vulnerable situation.Philosophy and Progress, Vol#53-54; No#1-2; Jan-Dec 2013