The Guest

by Christie
(Buxton, ME USA)

I am not Afghani, but I thought it would be interesting to share this true story. A group of US soldiers were fighting the Taliban several years ago when they were ambushed. There were about 5 of them, and all were killed except for one soldier who pretended to be dead, though he was badly wounded. When the Taliban left, he attempted to walk back to his base when he came upon a shepherd. The shepherd was afraid, but saw he was injured so he led him back to his village. There he was taken in, his wound treated to the best of what the family could do and fed and cared for. When the Taliban heard he was in this local man's house, they went and demanded that the man turn over the soldier. He refused, stating: ''He is a guest''. The shepherd was able to contact the US military and the soldier was taken back to his base for further medical treatment. I thought this was amazing..very brave and very hospitable people, Afghans The article was first published in liveleak.com.



Thanks
Christie

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The Guest

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starstarstarstarstar 		Muslim culture
by: Embee

'very brave and very hospitable people'

I don't pretend to be an expert on the topic but i'm fairly certain that this type of hospitality is fairly standard throughout the Muslim world. As the guest of a family in Morocco some years ago, I was treated like royalty! Here in the UK, such levels of hospitality and courtesy are generally unheard of.

I've frequently read and seen references to it. There's a pretty explicit portrayal in the Afghan war movie, 'The Beast'. In fact, Christie's 'Guest' may have experienced the same code of conduct that was portrayed in this movie. It's called Nanawatai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanawatai)

Somebody told me that this loyalty and comradeship toward unknown guests was borne out of the need for mutual aid amongst north Africa's nomadic Saharan tribes but i don't know if that's true.

All I know is that in my experience, Islamic culture is far more civilized than the average mainstream UK newspapers would have us believe!
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starstarstarstarstar 		No doubt,
by: Michael

I have read the article and there is no doubt about Afghans as brave people. They have shown their bravery to the world while their country was invaded by British, Russians and now US. I hope this invasion comes to an end soon and I wish peace for people of Afghanistan!

Christie, thanks for sharing the story :)

Michael

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