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Taliban targets descendants of Alexander the Great
telegraph.co.uk ^ | 21 Sep 2009 | Dean Nelson in New Delhi and Emal Khan in Peshawar

Posted on 09/21/2009 12:09:41 PM PDT by Nikas777

Taliban targets descendants of Alexander the Great

For centuries, the blond-haired, blue-eyed people of the Kalash tribes of North West Pakistan have lived a libertine lifestyle.

By Dean Nelson in New Delhi and Emal Khan in Peshawar

Published: 6:48PM BST 21 Sep 2009

Children of the Kalash tribe in Northern Pakistan Photo: EPA

The group, believed to be descendants of Alexander the Great's invading army, were shielded from conservative Islam by the steep slopes of their remote valleys.

While Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians were slowly driven out of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province by Muslim militants, the Kalash were free to drink their own distilled spirits and smoke cannabis.

But the militant maulanas of the Taliban have finally caught up with them and declared war on their culture and heritage by kidnapping their most devoted supporter.

Taliban commanders have taken Professor Athanasion Larounis, a Greek aid worker who has generated £2.5 million in donations to build schools, clinics, clean water projects and a museum.

They are now demanding £1.25 million and the release of three militant leaders in exchange for his safe return.

According to local police, it was Professor Larounis's dedication to preserving Kalasha culture that Taliban commanders in Nuristan, on the Afghan side of the border that made him a target.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; godsgravesglyphs; greeks; kalash; mhmmdnsm09212009
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Islam is about to wipe out the last traces of the Greek colonists in Asia. The Buddhist statues that the Taliban destroyed date from the Greco-Bactrian empire.

Greece needs to evacuate these people like the Jews did for their Ethiopians brothers.

1 posted on 09/21/2009 12:09:41 PM PDT by Nikas777
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To: SunkenCiv

Remnant peoples ping


2 posted on 09/21/2009 12:11:41 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Nikas777
BBC - In the footsteps of Alexander (The Kalash)

In the footsteps of Alexander the Great:

In this award winning adventure Micheal Wood embarks on a 2000 mile journey in the foot steps of Alexander's triumphal march from Greece to India.

3 posted on 09/21/2009 12:13:46 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Nikas777

Stop Jihad Now!


4 posted on 09/21/2009 12:15:37 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Big Ears + Big Spending --> BigEarMarx, the man behind TOTUS)
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To: Nikas777
Micheal Moore's Freedom Fighters.

And remember, to liberals, the west is the bad culture. All other cultures are equal or better to include the taliban and islam.

5 posted on 09/21/2009 12:16:08 PM PDT by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: Nikas777
If these are the descendants of Alexander, maybe they remember how to fight. Sounds like a problem with an air drop solution.
6 posted on 09/21/2009 12:17:38 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Nikas777
Greece needs to evacuate these people like the Jews did for their Ethiopians brothers.

Why? There's nothing even remotely Greek about these people.

Kalash- Genetic Origins
7 posted on 09/21/2009 12:25:45 PM PDT by Rodebrecht (Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.)
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To: Nikas777
The Buddhist statues that the Taliban destroyed date from the Greco-Bactrian empire.

Nope. They were built by the Kushan Empire in 500 to 550 AD, most of a thousand years after the Greco-Bactrian Empire disappeared.

While its neat to think these people are descended from Greeks, and it is possible, over the centuries there have been many Aryan tribes in this area. When a tribe was defeated, it always fled into the mountains, if it could. Throughout the mountains of Asia there are valleys with remnants of otherwise disappeared ethnic groups and cultures.

8 posted on 09/21/2009 12:28:20 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Rodebrecht
From your link: "...Greek y-chromosome admixture could be as high as 20% to 40%..."
9 posted on 09/21/2009 12:32:04 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Nikas777

0bama will be retained as their attorney. Move along nothing to see here.


10 posted on 09/21/2009 12:32:04 PM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid! (Obama, the first ever 3 in a half year, lame duck TOTUS)
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To: Nikas777

Even if there is a tiny bit of genetic similarity, which is doubtful, did you read anything about these peoples’ customs and religion? It’s completely incompatible with modern Greek society and is more fitting in Vedic India.


11 posted on 09/21/2009 12:35:31 PM PDT by Rodebrecht (Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.)
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To: Sherman Logan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire

The earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler was Heraios. He calls himself a “Tyrant” on his coins, and also exhibits skull deformation. He may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises.

The Kushans adopted elements of the Hellenistic culture of Bactria. They adopted the Greek alphabet (often corrupted) to suit their own language (with the additional development of the letter Þ “sh”, as in “Kushan”) and soon began minting coinage on the Greek model. On their coins they used Greek language legends combined with Pali legends (in the Kharoshthi script), until the first few years of the reign of Kanishka. After that date, they used Kushan language legends (in an adapted Greek script), combined with legends in Greek (Greek script) and legends in Pali (Kharoshthi script).....they absorbed the strong remnants of the Greek Culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming at least partly Hellenised.


PS: “Kushan” = “Kalash” ? (The group that retained the old Vedic polytheist religion while the rest of the tribe when Buddhist?


12 posted on 09/21/2009 12:37:38 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Rodebrecht
I think it is more the that these people were Hellenized locals, like the Nabataeans who built Petra.

When the Hellenistic kingdoms were swept away these must have been the remnants. Not Greeks per DNA but per culture.

13 posted on 09/21/2009 12:40:12 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Nikas777
Greece needs to evacuate these people like the Jews did for their Ethiopians brothers.

Ship them better weapons instead.

14 posted on 09/21/2009 12:42:05 PM PDT by SampleMan (Socialism enslaves you & kills your soul.)
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To: Rodebrecht
It’s completely incompatible with modern Greek society and is more fitting in Vedic India.

Excellent point.

I just want to save these people and India is the best choice.

15 posted on 09/21/2009 12:43:06 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: SampleMan

There are only 3,000 of them left.


16 posted on 09/21/2009 12:43:50 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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To: Nikas777

Hey it is the culture of the Islamists in Afghanistan to wipe out other cultures, have some compassion for them


17 posted on 09/21/2009 12:48:29 PM PDT by GraceG
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To: Nikas777
There are only 3,000 of them left.

Then send them really good weapons.

18 posted on 09/21/2009 12:50:08 PM PDT by SampleMan (Socialism enslaves you & kills your soul.)
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To: Nikas777
The group that retained the old Vedic polytheist religion while the rest of the tribe when Buddhist?

Unlikely. The Kushans were invaders from Central Asia, not Aryan Hindus or Vedists. Genetically they were a lot closer to the Huns or Mongols. They probably had a similar rudimentary shamanistic religion prior to adopting Buddhism. The Mongols themselves later mostly became Buddhists, except in the west where they went Muslim.

19 posted on 09/21/2009 12:51:22 PM PDT by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Sherman Logan
I apologize for using wikipedia as a source but from my readings this account is how I remember the information. They were an Indo-European people - in terms of language at least. Is the deformed head of the Kuhans mentioned the Central Asian practice of forehead elongation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushan_Empire Chinese sources describe the Guishuang (Ch: 貴霜), i.e. the "Kushans", as one of the five aristocratic tribes of the Yuezhi, also spelled Yueh-chi,[7] (Ch: 月氏), a loose confederation of supposedly Indo-European peoples.

20 posted on 09/21/2009 1:00:05 PM PDT by Nikas777 (En touto nika, "In this, be victorious")
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