The Taliban Sources Project - Incite at Columbia University

Completed Project

The Taliban Sources Project

  • Team Anand Gopal Alex Strick van Linschoten Felix Kuehn
  • Funded by Thesigers

The Taliban Sources Project was a joint effort by Anand Gopal, Alex Strick van Linschoten, and Felix Kuehn to collate, digitise and translate primary source documents associated with the Afghan Taliban movement.

In 2017, the three researchers released the article “Ideology in the Afghan Taliban” that examined the documents and concluded that the Afghan Taliban’s ideology is a) the result of a sophisticated internal logic that has changed in subtle but important ways over the years, b) the origins of the Taliban’s ideology lie in the southern Pashtun village, not the Pakistani refugee camp, and 3) their thinking is heavily infused with Sufism.

Incite provided administrative support to Gopal through a two-year grant from Thesigers.

Related Works

More Projects

  • go to Sojourners for Justice Press
    Sojourners for Justice Press
    Connecting emerging and established Black publishers with alternative techniques, networks, and knowledge production—as well as each other. Part of Assembling Voices
  • go to Hey Neighbor
    Hey Neighbor
    Connecting communities from all five boroughs of New York City around storytelling and portrait photography. Part of Assembling Voices
  • go to Abolish ACS Fashion Show
    Abolish ACS Fashion Show
    Hosting an event series to support political education, organizing, and mutual aid among those most impacted by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services. Part of Assembling Voices
  • go to Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality Oral History
    Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality Oral History
    Detailing the history of feminism at Columbia University through the memories of an historic organization. Funded by Columbia University's Office of the President