什麼是塔利班；神學士

阿富汗的政治宗教教派，擁有軍事力量，曾在1990年代中期執掌阿富汗政權。塔利班的波斯語意爲「學生」，因該組織成員主要皆來自回教神學學生而得名。1989年蘇聯勢力撤出阿富汗（參閱Afghan Wars）之後，他們因不滿全國陷入混亂而展開反抗行動，在奧馬爾（Mullah Mohammad Omar）的領導下，1994至1995年間，塔利班的勢力由僅僅據有一個城市，擴張到幾乎控制了半個國家，並在1996年攻陷首都喀布爾（Kabul），建立嚴苛的回教政權。在1999年以前，塔利班控制了幾乎整個阿富汗，但卻未能獲得國際承認，原因在於統治政策粗暴（例如幾乎完全禁止婦女在公共場所活動）以及他們爲回教極端分子提供掩護，這些極端分子包括阿拉伯籍流亡在外的賓拉登（Osama bin Laden），也就是據傳涉及多起國際恐怖活動的回教軍事網絡的領導人。2001年9月11日美國世貿大樓及五角大廈發生恐怖攻擊後，塔利班拒絕美國交出賓拉登的要求，遭到美國及盟國的軍事報復。亦請參閱fundamentalism, Christian。

Taliban

Political and religious faction and militia that came to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. Following the Soviet Union's 1989 withdrawal from Afghanistan (see Afghan Wars), the Taliban (Persian: "Students")－whose name refers to the Islamic religious students who formed the group's main recruits－arose as a popular reaction to the chaos that gripped the country. In 1994-95 under the leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban extended its control in Afghanistan from a single city to more than half the country, and in 1996 it captured Kabul and instituted a strict Islamic regime. By 1999, the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan but failed to generate international recognition for its regime because of its harsh social policies－which included the almost complete removal of women from public life－and because it provided a haven for Islamic extremists, including an expatriate Saudi Arabian, Osama bin Laden, the alleged leader of a network of Islamic militants accused of numerous acts of international terrorism. The Taliban's refusal to extradite bin Laden to the United States following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon prompted a military confrontation with the U.S. and allied powers. See also Islamic fundamentalism.