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IN THIS ISSUE
- Featured Issue: It’s Time We Humanize Afghans and Afghanistan
- This Week at MPAC: The Forums at MPAC - Repercussions of Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan: What The U.S. Should Do
- ICYMI: “The Nexus of Anti-Palestine Campaigns and Islamophobia” brought to you by MPAC and ICSC
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Image Credit: IOM/Muse Mohammed
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It’s Time We Humanize Afghans and Afghanistan
By: Prema Rahman, MPAC Policy Analyst
“I just read the meeting minutes of the Taliban’s latest meeting, and I can’t tell you how professional their meeting minutes were and how focused their agenda was on banking, liquidity, on economy--this is a much more sophisticated Taliban than 20 years ago.”
Maryam Qudrat’s warning is a chilling wake-up call to the reality of Afghanistan today: the Taliban that has taken control of the nation is no longer the ragtag, barbaric militant group that terrorized Afghans throughout the ‘90s. The Taliban is now a fully-functioning political force set to govern Afghanistan. To put the gravity of this situation into perspective, this is a terrorist organization notorious for its gross human rights violations, gender-based violence, and draconian code of conduct that will govern over 38 million Afghans. Those are 38 million people to whom the United States had promised democracy, education, progress, and security two decades ago, when it launched the Afghanistan War in retaliation to the 9/11 attacks. Today, their lives and homes are on the brink of destruction and darkness because of our failure to deliver on those promises. It is imperative upon us to right those wrongs.
Read the full article →
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Repercussions of Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan: What The U.S. Should Do
On August 15, 2021, just shy of the two-decade anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the efforts to create a country governed by the Afghan people, for the Afghan people collapsed into complete failure. The past four U.S. presidential administrations of both parties have devoted blood and more than $2,000,000,000,000 ($2 trillion) to ensure the Taliban do not return to power, promising they will not allow such a day to come. The Taliban retook complete control of the nation, while former Afghan leaders sought refuge in nearby countries.
We sat down for a panel discussion with experts who shared their experiences as Afghan-Americans and their work in senior roles in government and civil society and discussed what we needed to do to secure the lives of Afghan citizens who were facing near-certain death and torture.
In discussion was Farhat Popal, Immigrant Affairs Manager for the City of San Diego and former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), Haris Tarin, Senior Policy Advisor at the Department of Homeland Security and former MPAC Director of the DC Office, and Dr. Maryam Qudrat, Director of the Writer and Communication Resource Center at California State University, Long Beach, and former Adviser to the Ministry of Higher Education of Afghanistan.
Watch the recording →
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“The Nexus of Anti-Palestine Campaigns and Islamophobia” brought to you by MPAC and ICSC
We brought diverse voices to the table for informative discussions on the Palestinian struggle for peace. In our final installment of our Palestine lecture series in collaboration with Islamic Center of Southern California, we spoke with Sarah Eltantawi on 'The Nexus of Anti-Palestine Campaigns and Islamophobia'. Watch the recording here.
Watch the full Palestine Speaker Series -->
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GOOD TO KNOW
- At Least 13 US Service Members Killed, More Than 60 Afghans Are Dead And At Least 140 Wounded In Kabul Airport Attack
- With More Than 100,000 People In The Hospital With COVID-19 In The US, This August Is Worse Than Last, Expert Says
- One Year After Kenosha Protest Shootings, Kyle Rittenhouse's Case Has A Long Way To Go
- The National Football League's First Muslim Head Coach, Robert Saleh, Debuts This Season
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- THIS WEEK IN HISTORY -
Aug 22, 1953 - Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi returns to Tehran; Aug 23, 1978 - Iranian students occupies Iranian embassy at Wassenaar; Aug 23, 1979 - Iranian army opens offensive against Kurds; Aug 23, 1990 - US begins call up of 46,000 reservists to the Persian Gulf; Aug 23, 1996 - Osama bin Laden issues message entitled "A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places"; Aug 24, 1516 - Battle of Marj Dabiq: Ottoman forces decisively beat the Mamluk Sultanate; Aug 24, 1994 - Israel & PLO initialed accord giving autonomy to Palestinians in West Bank in education, health, taxation, social welfare & tourism; Aug 25, 1945 - Jewish immigrants are permitted to leave Mauritius for Palestine; Aug 25, 1988 - Iran & Iraq begin talks to end their 8 year war; Aug 26, 1071 - Battle of Manzikert: Seljuq Turks led by sultan Alp Arslan beat and capture Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes; Aug 27, 1941 - Shah of Iran Rezā Shāh Pahlavi abdicates throne in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; Aug 27, 1941 - Shah of Iran Rezā Shāh Pahlavi abdicates throne in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; Aug 28, 1998 - Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.
Aug 22, 1762 - First female (Ann Franklin) US newspaper editor, Newport, Rhode Island; Aug 24, 1814 - British forces capture Washington, D.C. and destroy many landmarks (War of 1812); Aug 24, 1349 - 6,000 Jews, blamed for the Plague, are killed in Mainz; Aug 24, 1912 - District of Alaska becomes an organized incorporated territory of the United States; Aug 24, 1814 - British forces destroy Library of Congress, containing 3,000 books (War of 1812); Aug 26, 1873 - First free kindergarten in the U.S. started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri; Aug 26, 1996 - US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in welfare policy; Aug 27, 1918 - Spanish flu arrives in Boston, beginning of the second wave and deadliest wave in the US; Aug 27, 1967 - Naomi Sims is 1st black model on US cover (Fashion of the Times); Aug 27, 2008 - Barack Obama becomes the first African-American to be nominated by a major political party for President of the United States; Aug 28, 1833 - Britain abolishes the slave trade as the Slavery Abolition Act gains royal assent; Aug 28, 1917 - Ten suffragists arrested as they picket the White House; Aug 28, 1955 - Chicago black teenager Emmett Till is kidnapped, beaten and shot dead by white men in Money, Mississippi. His killers are eventually acquitted, but the case helps ignite the US civil rights movement; Aug 28, 1957 - US Senator James Thurmond (Rep, SC) begins 24-hr filibuster against civil rights bill; Aug 28, 1963 - Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech addressing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom civil rights march at Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.; Aug 26, 1874 - 16 blacks kidnapped from Gibson County Jail and lynched in Trenton, Tennessee.
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