16 replies to this topic

[thebeast]

http://www.youtube.c...v=mcyU4GY3UAw#!

Salam,
I just came across a series of lecture by Yvonne Ridley, british journalist, taliban captive and a convert. In these videos she shares her wonderful experiences with the taliban, their generosity and mercy. She tries to justifies their actions. I mean seriously, are the taliban the same people she has described? Why does her statements contradict the ruthless nature that we have witnesssed in history? Why is she so proTaliban? Whats her angle in all of this?

[hameedeh]

Yvonne Ridley
Last Updated: Saturday, 1 May, 2004, 11:25 GMT 12:25 UK

Yvonne Ridley was the journalist captured by the Taliban while reporting undercover in Afghanistan, soon after 9/11.

Held on spying charges, she feared she would be stoned. Instead, she was treated with respect.

She promised her captors that, after her release, she would study Islam.

She read the Koran looking for an explanation of the Taliban's treatment of women, only to find there wasn't any. "It's a magna carta for women!"

She converted last summer and has found that her new faith has helped put behind her three broken marriages and a reputation as the "Patsy Stone of Fleet Street."

But she still can't persuade her mum that converting was a good idea.



Source: http://news.bbc.co.u...mes/3663771.stm

Edited by hameedeh, 14 February 2012 - 12:54 PM.

[Haydar Husayn]

Maybe they were nice to her? It's amazing what good akhlaq can do sometimes.

[thebeast]

Thanks everyone for ur comments so far...one quick question? even if we consider that the taliban were just to her, can all of their past actions be justified? This is how Dr. Zakir Naik elaborates on the innocence of the Taliban through Yvonne Ridley:

[hameedeh]

 thebeast, on 14 February 2012 - 12:35 PM, said:

Thanks everyone for ur comments so far...one quick question? even if we consider that the taliban were just to her, can all of their past actions be justified? This is how Dr. Zakir Naik elaborates on the innocence of the Taliban through Yvonne Ridley:

Taliban are killers. Nobody likes them. When she went to Afghanistan, she was wearing hijab as a disguise. She didn't want to look like an American tourist. It might have been that the Taliban treated her with respect because of her hijab. They certainly tortured her mentally. She never trusted them. She said that she thought she would be executed the next morning.

Can you take your question to the Multilingual forum? Sorry I don't know the language he is speaking. If you can tell us what he said about Yvonne Ridley, we can comment.

Edited by hameedeh, 14 February 2012 - 12:53 PM.

[Muhammed Ali]

Sister hameedeh, it's best not to put her old pictures up. She is now a muhajibah and she may not want people to see them.

Btw I have heard from people who personally know her that she has been quite anti-shia, although she has softened her stance more recently.

Edited by Muhammed Ali, 14 February 2012 - 12:49 PM.

[hameedeh]

 Muhammed Ali, on 14 February 2012 - 12:47 PM, said:

Sister hameedeh, it's best not to put her old pictures up. She is now a muhajibah and she may not want people to see them.

Btw I have heard from people who personally know her that she has been quite anti-shia, although she has softened her stance more recently.

Ok, bro, I removed them, but the link to the 2004 BBC news story shows her with no hijab. She hasn't told the BBC to take it off that webpage.

Edited by hameedeh, 14 February 2012 - 12:56 PM.

[thebeast]

 hameedeh, on 14 February 2012 - 12:44 PM, said:

Taliban are killers. Nobody likes them. When she went to Afghanistan, she was wearing hijab as a disguise. She didn't want to look like an American tourist. It might have been that the Taliban treated her with respect because of her hijab. They certainly tortured her mentally. She never trusted them. She said that she thought she would be executed the next morning.

Can you take your question to the Multilingual forum? Sorry I don't know the language he is speaking. If you can tell us what he said about Yvonne Ridley, we can comment.

Let me help you with that. He recalls Ridley's experience with the Taliban and how she converted after being impressed with their "akhlaq" and their just treatment. She was impressed by their modest behavior towards her. He concludes by quoting Ridley that the Taliban are innocent people victims of oppression and seekers of justice. He further states that the ruthless image created in our mind is due to the propoganda of the western media as an opposite point of view has been presented by someone who has watched them closely.

[hameedeh]

 thebeast, on 14 February 2012 - 01:04 PM, said:

Let me help you with that. He recalls Ridley's experience with the Taliban and how she converted after being impressed with their "akhlaq" and their just treatment. She was impressed by their modest behavior towards her. He concludes by quoting Ridley that the Taliban are innocent people victims of oppression and seekers of justice. He further states that the ruthless image created in our mind is due to the propoganda of the western media as an opposite point of view has been presented by someone who has watched them closely.

Thank you for explaining the Mr. Naik video. He is mistaken. Taliban are murderers. The whole world hates them.

[thebeast]

 hameedeh, on 14 February 2012 - 01:27 PM, said:

Thank you for explaining the Mr. Naik video. He is mistaken. Taliban are murderers. The whole world hates them.

I would agree but why do most people see the taliban solely as freedom fighters?Why do they tend to ignore the indecencies they have carried out?Why do they always start this debate about the good taliban and the bad taliban?Are the Afghani Taliban, a cohesive whole or are they really divided into factions?Why do people discriminate between the actions of the Afghani and Pakistani Taliban, although they are different parties but their doctrine and practices appear to be the same?

[Gypsy]

She is a white Christian Journalist. Of course the Taliban are going to treat her with kindness and generosity. Now, she is selling Taliban propaganda.

I wouldn't waste a single cent buying her book. Rather, donate your money to Afghan relief fund so you are really helping someone.

[thebeast]

 Haydar Husayn, on 14 February 2012 - 12:06 PM, said:

Maybe they were nice to her? It's amazing what good akhlaq can do sometimes.

I would really like to see what more u can offer. I have read your stuff and found it to be pretty reasonable and logical. So please elaborate...

[Haydar Husayn]

 thebeast, on 14 February 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

I would really like to see what more u can offer. I have read your stuff and found it to be pretty reasonable and logical. So please elaborate...

I don't really have many thoughts on this, since I haven't read a detailed account of what exactly happened. I just vaguely remember reading some articles and seeing a couple of interviews. But obviously the way they treated her must have impressed her to some extent. As to how she can support the Taliban, despite the atrocities they commit, I don't find that particularly surprising. Once a person has decided he is going to support a particular group, then it is often easy to overlook the crimes they commit, to make excuses for them, or to buy into propaganda against the people they are fighting against. Look at all the people supporting Bashar al-Assad on here. No matter what evidence is presented against him, they either say it is propaganda, outright fabricated, or that the people he is fighting against deserve it.

[hameedeh]

As far as I know, Yvonne Ridley is not friendly with the Taliban, she is just getting bad press from the Western media. When she was released by the Taliban, Afghanis took her to the border and handed her over to the Pakistan authorities, and the international journalists, her own colleagues, asked how did the Taliban treat you? She said:  

Quote

"With respect and courtesy. This is not what the western media wanted, the western media wanted Abu Ghuraib tales, they wanted abuse, rape, torture, they wanted to see scars, they wanted to see tears. There was nothing I could give them but the truth."

That was not what the world was expecting to hear. What a let down! I'm sure she was saving all her story for her own book. After being kidnapped by the Taliban and surviving the shelling of the village by the Americans, she wanted to write her own story and make some money. No crime in that.

FYI: The Taliban kidnapped Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan in 1998 and martyred 11 of them. Killed in a bloody massacre. Believe me, Yvonne Ridley would not be working at Press TV if she was a Taliban lover, because Iranians would not hire anyone who associates with Taliban.

In The Agenda, she hosts a round table discussion with several people and they talk about current affairs. In R & R [Rattansi & Ridley, or is it Ridley & Rattansi] she cohosts with Afshin Rattansi in a current affairs program where the two of them speak to guests, one on one. I have seen both of those shows and she is professional at all times.

Yvonne Ridley supports Viva Palestina and has produced videos about Guantanamo and Gaza, etc. She has her detractors just as Lauren Booth has had, even more recently becoming a Muslim.

[Pascal]

Stockholm Syndrome

Even if it is true and a couple of her captors did treat her well like human beings, it doesn't mean the rest of the taliban isn't the heartless pigs they are. They and their affiliated groups have kidnapped. murdered and sometimes beheaded aid workers on a regular basis for Gods sake, people who were there to help.

They still bloodly kidnapped her in the first place.. they're no saints.

Not to mention the horrible situation in Afghanistan under the Taliban.. or how they are actually responsible for the vast majority of casualties in Afghanistan..

"According to the United Nations, the Taliban were responsible for 76% of civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2009, 75% in 2010 and 80% in 2011.^[32][155]"

Edited by kingpomba, 20 February 2012 - 06:20 AM.

[Master Chief]

^ That was the first thing that pop into my mind when I read the OP

[bolbol]

United Nations is responsible for the killings of millions with its mandates taken from Washington's regime cue.

The irony...