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Taliban-Who? Pathans are NOT Israelites!
(1) Introduction. The Queries About the Taliban Pathans and Afghans
The Pathans live in Afghanistan. They are the same group as the Afghans who comprise about half of the population.
Other groups also live in Afghanistan but historically they were usually dominated by the Afghans and Pathans.
They dominate the Taliban.
A lot of propaganda has been spread claiming that the Afghans and Pathans belong to the Ten Lost Tribes.
They do not.
We have answered these claims in detail in our book
The Khazars. Tribe 13
http://www.britam.org/Khazarbook.html
Shorter but sufficient answers concerning the Afghans may be obtained from our feature on this people.
Afghanistan and Israel
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesAfghanistan.html
Recently we received several queries about articles put out by Arutz-7 (Israel National News) and The Jerusalem Post (JP) concerning the Taliban and their alleged Israelite Origins.
We have written a Reply to The Following Queries:
(a) Yair, what do you think about this article? Pattie Gallegos in Spokane (sent the INN article)
(b) Marianne Connolly
(c) "Dr. David" SykesHi Yair,
Would you mind giving your opinion on this article? Thank you.
Marianne Connolly (sent the INN article)
Subject: Of interest (sent the INN article)
(d) Amnon Goldberg (sent the JP article)
Subject: Taliban Israelites?
What is your opinion of the claim for an Israelitish origin for the Taliban?!
(e) From: Christine Darg (sent the JP article)
Are Taliban descendants of Israelites?
(2) The INN Article
Taliban of Jewish Descent? Experts are Checking
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Experts at the National Institute of Immunohaematology in Mumbai, India believe a large group of Taliban Muslims might be descended of the lost Ten Tribes of Israel - and an Israeli rabbinical expert agrees.
Israel's government is partially funding a genetic study to establish if there is any proof of the link, bringing an Indian expert in DNA profiling and population genetics to the Technion in Haifa. The expert, Shahnaz Ali, will be supervised by Israeli genetic research expert Prof. Karl Skorecki.
Rabbi Eliyahu Avichayil, who has dedicated his life to seeking out descendants of the Ten Tribes and bringing them to Israel, says he does not need or trust genetic testing for this purpose: "Rashi's explanation to Jeremiah 31, 20 implies that the way to identify the Ten Lost Tribes will be via the Jewish customs that they maintain - and in this case, there are many of them."
Rabbi Avichayil says that the Jewish-like customs that have been found among the Pathans - many of whom are now of the Taliban tribe - include sidelocks, ritual circumcision at eight days, cities of refuge for accidental killers, four-cornered garments, ritual immersion for women, and more. They also practice levirate marriage - not according to Moslem custom, which allows for various relatives of the deceased to marry a widow, whether or not she has children, but rather closer to Jewish custom, in that only brothers can marry only childless-widows.
The very name of the Afridi tribe, of which many members belong to the Taliban, indicates its origin from the Israelite Tribe of Ephraim, Rabbi Avichayil says. "The Pathans, 22 million strong, include not only the Afridic tribe, some 7.5 million people, but also the Rabanis, the Gadis, the Asheris, etc. - indications that many of them are of the Ten Tribes."
Asked if we now have to consider the possibility of absorbing millions of Moslems from the east, including Talibanis, Rabbi Avichayil said, "I originally thought that it would be sufficient to merely have a small representation of each tribe, and then the Messiah could take care of the rest. But I was then encouraged by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to continue bringing more and more - but some basic conditions must still be met, such as good absorption arrangements - not as there were with the Ethiopians - and of course a willingness on their part. I met with some Afridi members in Washington, and they were very enthusiastic about what I was saying. If I saw that some of them were interested in converting and living a Jewish lifestyle, I would immediately do what I could to help them come here."
Regarding Al Qaeda terrorist leader and mass murderer Osama Bin Laden, Rabbi Avichayil said, "No need for concern; he's not from these tribes, but rather hails from Yemen and Saudi Arabia."
(3) Brit-Am Reply to INN Article
Prof. Karl Skorecki was the one who discovered Cohen Gene. This gene is found amongst ca. 50% of all Cohens but is also prevalent amongst other peoples who have no ancestral connections to the Jewish Nation.
In other words the gene does indicate something but exactly what no-one can really YET answer.
It is important to remember this.
As for the Afghans,
First of all the DNA results have not yet been presented.
I doubt that they will be significant. There may be some closeness to the Jews of today but no more (and probably much much less) than is found amongst other Middle East peoples such as the Armenians, Kurds, Turks of Turkey, and even Palestinians.
Historically there exist links between the present-day Afghans and the Armenians. Concerning the DNA we can wait and see.
Brit-Am is working towards its own appreciation of DNA studies and our conclusions will be different than what is conventionally presented in the popular press.
The peoples spoken about (Afridi, Pathans, etc) are merely a branch of the Afghans and we have discussed their alleged association with Israel elsewhere.
See the Brit-Am article:
Afghanistan and Israel
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesAfghanistan.html\
Rabbi Avichail said:
"Rashi's explanation to Jeremiah 31, 20 implies that the way to identify the Ten Lost Tribes will be via the Jewish customs that they maintain - and in this case, there are many of them."
He is referring to the verse in 31:21 in most English Bibles. This verse should be read together with the one preceding it.
[Jeremiah 31:20] IS EPHRAIM MY DEAR SON? IS HE A PLEASANT CHILD? FOR SINCE I SPAKE AGAINST HIM, I DO EARNESTLY REMEMBER HIM STILL: THEREFORE MY BOWELS ARE TROUBLED FOR HIM; I WILL SURELY HAVE MERCY UPON HIM, SAITH THE LORD.
[Jeremiah 31:21] SET THEE UP WAYMARKS, MAKE THEE HIGH HEAPS: SET THINE HEART TOWARD THE HIGHWAY, EVEN THE WAY WHICH THOU WENTEST: TURN AGAIN, O VIRGIN OF ISRAEL, TURN AGAIN TO THESE THY CITIES.
Brit-Am has shown from the simple Hebrew and the Classical Rabbinical Commentators that Jeremiah 31:20-21 is speaking of the Megalithic Stone Monuments that describe a Migratory Pathway Linking the Land of Israel to Western Europe and the British Isles. This is what the verses are expressly saying.
See our Commentary: on Jeremiah 31:20-21.
http://www.britam.org/Jeremiah29to32.html
Rashi however interpretes the verse as referring to Jews of Judah who went into exile to Babylon.
Rashi says (on Jeremiah 31:20):
# SET THEE UP WAYMARKS. Significant indications of your forefathers good deeds.
MAKE THEE HIGH HEAPS (Hebrew: Tamrurim - also understandable as meaning identifiable signs). Small sign post markers planted along the wayside to indicate the pathway. The simple meaning indicates that you should make marks to show the way you went from the Land of Israel to Babylon so that you may return along the same path, for you will certainly return from there...
Rashi is interpreting the verse as referring to Jews of Judah who went into exile to Babylon. This is contradictory to the preceding verse (Jeremiah 31:20 in English Bibles) that speaks explicitly of EPHRAIM meaning the Lost Ten Tribes.
The verse begins:
EPHRAIM MY DEAR SON?
Nevertheless, apart from his allocating the relevance to Jewish Exiles in Babylon Rashi interprets the verse more in the way Brit-Am does than what Rabbi Avichail says.
He has misquoted Rashi.
Perhaps he had another verse in mind and made a mistake?
The commentary of Rashi on the verses is not clear BUT it is in accordance with how the other Commentators (Radak etc) understood it. The Exiles were being told to set up waymarks along their paths of migration to prove in the future where they came from.
Rashi ALSO says this as do the other Commentators Brit-Am quotes from!
The verses are EXPLICITLY directed to Ephraim (Jeremiah 31:20).
The Exiles were being told to set up Megalithic Monuments (which they did) as Brit-Am explains in detail.
The keeping of Jewish customs amongst the Afgans is vastly exaggerated and does not prove very much as we have explained in our article:
Afghanistan and Israel
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesAfghanistan.html\
The Lubavitcher Rabbi (former leader of Chabad) is being misquoted.
We ourselves do not feel ourselves bound by The Lubavitcher Rabbi but we have quoted from him on different issues.
In other words we respect his opinion though we would not necessarily feel ourselves bound by it.
He was never in favor of the ideas of Rabbi Avichail but critically reserved.
In March 1992 the Lubavitcher Rabbi suffered a stroke and could not speak. He passed away in June 1994.
Between the time of his stroke and his departure things were said in his name that were not always consistent with what he had openly said before then when he had been able to speak. What Rabbi Avichail is referring to is a fax that issued forth from the Chabad office in a reply to Rabbi Avichail (concerning the Bnei Menasshe from Burma) some time after the Rabbi had had his stroke and was incapacitated being unable to speak or write.
The Taliban are bad and cruel people. They are enemies of the Jews and of the State of Israel.
Afghanistan and its people HAVE NOT GOT A GOOD RECORD as far as the Jews are concerned.
(4) The Jerusalem Post Article
Are Taliban descendants of Israelites?
By AMIR MIZROCH
Extracts:
Are the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan descendants of an Israelite tribe that migrated across Asia after it was exiled over 2,700 years ago?
This intriguing question has been asked by a variety of scholars, theologians, anthropologists and pundits over the years, but has remained somewhere between the realms of amateur speculation and serious academic research.
But now, for the first time, the government has shown official interest, with the Foreign Ministry providing a scholarship to an Indian scientist to come to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa and determine whether or not the tribe that provides the hard core of today's Taliban has a blood link to any of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and specifically to the tribe of Efraim.
Shahnaz Ali, a senior research fellow at the National Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai, has joined the Technion to study the blood samples that she collected from Afridi Pathans in Malihabad, in the Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, to check their putative Israelite origin.
Shahnaz, an expert in DNA profiling and population genetics, will be supervised by Prof. Karl Skorecki, director of Nephrology and Molecular Medicine at the Technion Faculty of Medicine. Skorecki is famous for his breakthrough work on Jewish genetic research.
Shahnaz's research, which is expected to last anywhere between three months and a year, will be supported by a scholarship from the Foreign Ministry for the 2009-2010 academic year.
While the vast majority of Afghan Taliban are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, the theory that they are descendants of the Afridi Pathans is widespread in the area. The theory is based on a variety of ancient historical texts and oral traditions of the Pashtun people themselves, but no scientific studies by any accredited organizations have upheld the claim. It continues to be believed by many Pashtuns, and has found advocates among some contemporary Muslim and (to a lesser extent) Jewish scholars.
Official confirmation of the link by the Technion would lend immense weight to the argument. Afridi Pathans have an age-old tradition of Israelite origin, which finds mention in texts dating from the 10th century to the present day, written by Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars.
According to some researchers, members of the tribe still observe many Israelite customs in their native places in eastern Afghanistan and in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, though they have lost all these traditions of theirs in India. In Afghanistan and Pakistan they are all Muslim today and form the core of the Taliban.
In his 1957 The Exiled and the Redeemed, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president, wrote that Hebrew migrations into Afghanistan began "with a sprinkling of exiles from Samaria who had been transplanted there by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria (719 BC)."
Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, when asked about his ancestors, claimed that the royal family descended from the tribe of Benjamin.
On the academic level, British researcher Dr. Theodore Parfitt has been conducting research on genetic effects and chromosome Y among numerous tribes around the world. In India he is assisted by a young researcher from the University of Lucknow - Dr. Navras Afreedi - who claims that his ancestors were Afreedi, descendants of the tribe of Efraim, and that many of the Pathans and other tribes are descendants of the Ten Tribes. Afreedi did his post-doctoral work at Tel Aviv University, titled "Indian Jewry and the Self-professed Lost Tribes of Israel in India."
Shahnaz's genetic research would examine Navras's theory that Afridi Pathans are descendants of the tribe of Ephraim, which was exiled in 721 BCE. The research uses DNA analysis to trace shared ancestries and origins of certain populations of interest in the eastern provinces of India, to map the cause of a certain disorder that is very frequent in the large populations of those provinces, and to see if the DNA mutations originate in a certain "founder event."
(5) Brit-Am Reply to Jerusalem Post Article.
The Technion can give scholarships to whoever it likes and does so. Israel needs all the friends it can find in certain areas of the world and it makes sense to encourage research of the kind stated. Even if nothing substantial is found (which is liable to happen) the good will created could be well worth it.
The research experience could also pay off in other directions.
All kinds of foreign students and scholars receive similar encouragements.
As we said before do not expect anything from the DNA study.
Most of the claims made in the article have already been answered by us in our article:
Afghanistan and Israel.
http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesAfghanistan.html\
and in our book:
The Khazars.Tribe 13
http://www.britam.org/Khazarbook.html
In short Jews who were forced to become Muslims, Israelites from the Lost Ten Tribes area, and members of a Gentile sect that adopted Jewish customs were all present in Afghanistan at one time. Most of the Israelites left as did the Jews but much later.
The Afghans have had a cultural predisposition for claiming to be descended from everybody else.
They also take in customs and practices from all those around them.
They have a reputation for being on some occasions very brave and noble but also cruel and treacherous.
They do not fulfill the Ephraimite Criteria
that determine whether or not a people belongs to theHebrew Nation.
http://www.britam.org/criteria.html
Why do the Beliefs of Brit-Am Not Receive Publicity in the Same Way as those of the Afghans Do?
Could it be that we do not fit in with the agenda of external elements like they do?
They who genuinely agree with Brit-Am should support us.
Brit-Am NEEDS your support because we have not got any organization or interest-group backing us.
Appendix 1:
Letter from an Afridi of Afghanistan