To his followers, Omar is Amir-ul-Momineen, which means Commander of the Faithful and is considered a respected scholar and leader of the Taliban movement. To The United States, he is a war criminal with a bounty of $25 M on his head for failing to turn over Osama Bin Laden who they implicate in the September 11th attacks on America. Even now, the US and its Coalition are actively pursuing him with all their military might however he has evaded capture so far.

The Taliban was birthed in 1993 when Omar, along with a group of approximately 30 religious students, started the Tehreek-al-Islami-at- Taliban or the Taliban Islamic Movement, as it is known today. They began slowly, attacking and securing city after city until they conquered Kandahar, where they implemented the Shariah Laws and ejected the warlords from the province. In 1996, the Taliban finally took over Kabul and Mullah Omar was unanimously accepted as the 'Ameer-ul-Mumineen' and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan came into existence.

The Taliban have been sharply criticized for their Islamic ideology, both inside and outside Afghanistan. Although the US and Pakistan welcomed the Taliban’s success to curb poppy growing and heroin refinement, their very narrow interpretation of the Shariah Law that rejected western technological advances like TVs, VCR, photography, films was harshly condemned. Dubbed as "obscurantist", the Taliban received unyielding criticism from the West, forcing other countries to refrain from recognizing them as the official government.

Capital punishment and the treatment of women brought strong reactions from human rights groups in Europe and the US. Ulrich Fischer of the Greens Party accused the Taliban of creating a "religious police state’ however their success in stabilizing the war torn country won them loyal support among large amounts of the population, which remains today. In fact, even though women are no longer required to wear the customary Burqa that the Tailban enforced, sales of the garments have risen sharply and the majority of women continue to wear them. Said one woman "I will consider taking my Burqa off only when peace comes to Afghanistan."

In the early days of the assault on the Taliban regime in the war on "terrorism", Omar declared that he and his Taliban forces would fight to the death rather than to submit to U.S. demands to turn over Osama bin Laden. He then abruptly shifted gears and agreed to surrender Kandahar and soon thereafter, the Taliban regime crumbled. Or did it? The Taliban, with years of experience in guerilla warfare fighting the Russians, are known to retreat in order to fight another day.

Late in December 2001, the Pentagon announced they were closing in on Omar and had him surrounded in southern Afghanistan. No sooner had this announcement be made throughout the world but Mullah Omar reportedly escaped from his hideout on a motorbike. The remaining Taliban were able to go free after handing over their weapons, which proved to be a costly mistake for US coalition forces in recent months.

Although Omar’s whereabouts are currently unknown, the Taliban continue to be an open wound to forces inside Afghanistan and potential threat to the new Afghan government. Pockets of Taliban resistance continue to pop up all over the country, and the US has experienced a sharp rise in casualties over the past month as the Taliban attack US targets “guerrilla style”. With coalition forces now on the ground inside Afghanistan, some speculate that the playing field has been leveled.

With the instability that has resulted through conflicts between local tribal leaders, the blowback of a US presence in this Islamic state, ongoing civilian casualties caught in the cross fire of war and divisions in Karzai’s interim government, the Taliban movement is currently regrouping inside both Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, with the help of local villagers who attribute the Taliban with the only peace and stability the country has had in their lifetimes.

The grand council of 500 Afghan tribal leaders is set to convene in June 2002 to choose an official government and a leader for the country. Afghanistan’s future and that of the Taliban, may be hanging in the balance.