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SUMMARY:Close Encounters with Pakistan’s Taliban - Dr David L. Gosling\,
  Life Member &amp\; Former Spalding Fellow\, Clare Hall
DTSTART:20120208T130000Z
DTEND:20120208T140000Z
UID:TALK36943@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Graham Allen
DESCRIPTION:The view of Muhammad Ali Jinnah\, Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azam (S
 upreme Leader) that an individual’s religion is no business of the state
 \, might have prevailed had he lived longer (he died a year after Independ
 ence\, in 1948)\, and had he and his successors not labelled their new nat
 ion an Islamic Republic. It was the military regime of General Zia-ul Haq 
 (1977-88) who filled in the Islamic content of the title\, and in the proc
 ess fused the military together with talibs (students) at madrasas along t
 he Afghan border to create a counteroffensive against the Russians\, who i
 nvaded Afghanistan in 1980. The emergent Taliban\, funded by the CIA and a
 ssisted by Inter-Services Intelligence – powerful and unaccountable to P
 arliament – has dominated both sides of the Pak/Afghan border ever since
 .\n\nThe speaker has lived in the border capital\, Peshawar\, for the last
  four years as principal of a university college\, originally founded by B
 ritish administrators and missionaries a hundred years ago\, and has witne
 ssed and experienced the progressive intensification of extremist activity
  in the region\, including a personal death threat. But it remains possibl
 e to talk to the Taliban\, and once the Coalition forces leave Afghanistan
  in 2016\, he believes that there are tentative prospects for peace in the
  region.\n
LOCATION:Combination Room\, Wolfson College
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