Abubakar Siddique is a journalist with Radio Free Europe in Prague, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has spent the past decade researching and writing about security, political, humanitarian and cultural issues in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Pashtun heartland along the border region where he was born. In 2006 he co- authored a report with Professor Barnett Rubin for the US Institute of Peace that was the first analytical work to address the importance of Pakistan's tribal areas, 'Resolving the Pakistan-Afghanistan Stalemate'.
'A thoroughly readable account of the Pashtuns.'
*The Economist*
'Westerners misunderstand Pashtun society in part because they are
often fixated on romantic ideas about Pashtunwali - the tribal code
that is said to prize honour, revenge and hospitality above all
other virtues. Understandably irritated that British imperialists
and today's foreign correspondents have reduced his culture to an
Orientalist fantasy, Siddique points out that, far from relishing
the chance to murder one another, most Pashtuns, just like everyone
else, would be very happy to live in peace.'
*London Review of Books*
'After years of dedicated scholarship and often-risky field
research, Abubakar Siddique makes an articulate and timely plea on
behalf of the long-misunderstood Pashtun people of Afghanistan and
Pakistan, while offering a timely road map to peace. I have no
doubt that The Pashtun Question will become an indispensable guide
for those seeking solutions to the bitterly-intertwined conflicts
of the region. A must-read.'
*Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for the New Yorker, author of Che
Guevara: A Revolutionary Life*
'The difference between this book and all the others written on the
troubled frontier regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan is that
Abubakar Siddique is himself a tribesman from the region, has
studied his people closely and offers us insights which are simply
not available anywhere else. We are in the hands of a master of
knowledge of his region and the wars that have taken such a
terrible toll over the past decade. Siddique writes lucidly,
provocatively and with enormous knowledge and insight. We know we
are in the hands of a master social scientist and story teller from
the first pages of this enlightened book.'
*Ahmed Rashid, journalist and author of Pakistan on the Brink: The
Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan*
'This is the book to read for a comprehensive and definitive
understanding of the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and
insight into the roots of Islamic militancy in their borderlands.
Siddique's scholarly yet highly readable study offers a much
welcomed, often first-hand account of contemporary Pashtuns'
troubled history and society, driving ideologies, and radical
progeny - the Taliban.'
*Marvin Weinbaum, Middle East Institute*
'This is a study of the cultural values and current political
affairs of the Pashtuns on both sides of the Durand Line. Siddique,
a native of Waziristan, offers a fascinating description not only
of his own kinsmen, but of all Pashtuns whom he has visited in
various times in their lands. He has has interviewed their key
figures with the result that the work is rich in valuable
information and insights that can not be found elsewhere. All this
makes it an outstanding work of its kind. Its appearance at a time
when the Pashtun heartland is the focus of special attention will
be of great value for all, especially for those who have to deal
with this fascinating and still largely misunderstood part of the
world.'
*Mohammad Hassan Kakar, former professor of History at Kabul
University*
'The Pashtun Question offers a comprehensive report of Pashtun
history and present-day politics. Siddique's storytelling skills as
a journalist save the book from sinking under its evident
scholarship, and by writing of his own people, he offers a genuine
understanding that far too many commentators miss because they only
focus on whatever political crisis brought them there.'
*Gulf News*
'The Pashtun Question informs readers of the complex political
landscape of the Pashtun regions and explores the various hues of
political players in an objective and insightful manner. ...
Siddique provides an insider's perspective to a body of literature
otherwise dominated by a handful of British colonial accounts.'
*Business Standard*
'The Pashtun Question looks carefully at the problem of growing
extremism in Pakistan's tribal region. By delving into the history
and culture of the Pakhtuns on both sides of the Durand Line,
Siddique explores reasons that compelled a peaceful tribal people,
who had lived in relative isolation until five or six decades ago,
to turn their borderlands into an incubator of extremism ...
Siddique's work adds value because of his first-hand knowledge and
well thought out analysis.'
*Dawn*
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