News Just In: The Taliban Suck, Look Forward to Extended Tartarian Stay

People in the blogosphere have gone a great job so far of highlighting a terrible occurrence in the world of the Kalash: Professor Athanasion Larounis, a Greek aid worker assisting them, has been kidnapped by the Taliban. The Taliban are asking the Kalash to pay them a huge ransom—half to two-thirds of the $2.5 million Professor Larounis has raised to assist the Kalash—and return three arrested Taliban leaders.

Alternatively, according to someone on Hellenic_Recons who has asked around in Greece, the Kalash can all convert to Islam and the Taliban will drop the ransom and return the professor unscathed.

If true, this is an outrage to polytheists and indigenous tribes all around the world. For those who don't know, the Kalash are one of the last polytheistic holdouts in the Muslim world. They worship an Indo-European pantheon with divine names similar to Greek and Hindu deities, and they claim that they descended from Alexander the Great's soldiers.


The Taliban, in pressuring the Kalash to change their faith and/or give the Taliban funding, have proven that they're not afraid of sinking to new depths of slime and pollution to fuel their agenda of hate.

If the Kalash pay the ransom and negotiate with the Taliban—yup, that's their brilliant plan right now—they are providing money to a terrorist organization that will be used to buy more bombs and weapons to hurt people. Paying up will also show the Taliban that they can count on abducting aid workers to the Kalash to raise their much-desired funds. THIS IS A REALLY BAD IDEA!

We need to be a lot louder about this, guys, if there's any hope of an alternative solution to securing Professor Larounis. If you haven't blogged about this yet, please say something.

To learn more:

Taliban targets descendants of Alexander the Great - Telegraph (UK)
Kalasha Peoples Call For Cultural Survival - Kalash

Image Credit: Kalashapeople.org - This comes from one of their recent protest images, showcasing the beautiful cultural dress of Kalasha women.