On August 13th, 2009, CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, helmed a two-hour event documentary, "Generation Islam", on the battle for the hearts and minds of the youth of the Muslim world.
With the story of one child and his family, Amanpour illustrates what’s at stake. Last year, as nearly one thousand Afghan civilians were accidentally killed by U.S. forces, the Taliban began in earnest to re-establish its influence among people crushed by poverty and war.
Just one year ago, a starving 12 year-old Nassim appeared on the doorstep of an orphanage run by American Marnie Gustavson in Afghanistan. Nassim had survived beatings, slave labor and a harrowing month-long journey having been cast out of his home after his father took a new wife. Nassim’s 15 year-old brother Alahdad may have suffered an even worse fate. Alahdad was taken in by a fundamentalist madrassa near Herat, Afghanistan, a region considered Taliban country.
Click here to watch the video.
Click here to read more about Nassim the orphan.
Click here to read more about Christiane in Afghanistan.
Click here to read Marnie's commentary about Afghanistan on CNN.
October 2011
