Afghanistan

Week 1: Afghanistan (Official name is Islamic Republic of Afghanistan 2002)

2009 Est Population: 28.2 Million (roughly the same amount of people as Southern California)

Size: 251,000 sq. miles (1.75 times as large as California) No lakes, Seas or major water sources.

Largest Cities: The only city over one million is Kabul.

Ethnicity: The two major races are Pushtan and Tajik

Location: Afghanistan is located in South Central Asia. It's neighbors with Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,

Capital: Kabul

Language: Persian

Religion: 99% Muslim (75% Sunni, 20% Shi'a, 5% other) Shi'a is the major Muslim sect in Iran and Iraq. Sunni is the major Muslim sect around the world.


Sunni rulers around the world have marginalize the Shia minority and imprisoned, persecuted, and killed Shias. The persecution of Shias throughout history by Sunni co-religionists has often been characterized by brutal and genocidal acts.

Historically is Afghanistan the Shi'a held political power until U.S. invasion.

Saddam Hussein pursecuted Shi'a in Iraq.

Osoma Bin Ladin is the leader of a smaller sect of Islam dedicated to purifying the Islam community and establishing Afghanistan as the "True Islamic Country". He despises Shi'a Muslims.

al-Qaeda is a fundamental Sunni-Muslim Group. Founders of al-Qaeda were members of a group of Afghanistan resistance, that fought and defeated the Soviet Union in the late 80's. Surprisingly, the U.S. was among the first financial supporters of this group, along with Saudi Arabia and individual Muslim supporters. al-Qaeda was founded in Pakistan but most active in Afghanistan until recently.

Taliban was the government of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 which supported al-Qaeda and its fundamental view of Muslim. They were removed from power by the U.S. in 2001 but are still an influencial power in Afghanistan and operate several civic courts currently. Most of the leaders were trained in Pakistan and continue to receive support by the Pakistani government.

Economy:
The Afghanistan economy is one of the lowest in the world. They have been ravaged by civil war since 1979 and remain one of the least developed and poorest nations in the world. 65% of the population lives on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day.

Since 2001 the economy has shown signs of growth and the general livelihood has improved. Unemployment was 40% in 2007.
The drug/Opium industry produces as much as 35% of the National Product. The trade and opium industry has increase over the past decade and grew by 20% in 2007 alone.

One of the main drivers for the current economic recovery is the return of over 4 million refugees from neighboring countries and the West, who brought with them fresh energy, entrepreneurship and wealth-creating skills as well as much needed funds to start up businesses. What is also helping is the estimated US 2–3 billion dollars in international assistance every year, the partial recovery of the agricultural sector, and the reestablishment of market institutions.



Source: Wikipedia.org and CNN.com