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Though it is becoming more and more apparent that the difference between the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in Pakistan/Afghanistan is very limited; although we must differ between al-Qa'ida and al-Jihad--al-Qa'ida, as only a very small percentage of the former belong to the latter, the former is going to be focused on the fight in Afghanistan while the latter is the International Terrorist ideology.
Okay but back to topic how to tell the difference between Taliban and al-Qa'ida in a very simple picturesque way; note that this information can be found various other places and really is just a concoction.
The first picture is the "Shadow Army" (Lashkar al Zil), which is a very elite al-Qa'ida trained "foreign" army.
The second picture is a bunch of Taliban militants circa 2003.
1) Notice the quality and assemblage of the clothing on the different fighters. al-Qa'ida is going to typically dress like they're backpacking through the wilderness, and the Taliban are going to dress more like they're at home; al-Qa'ida operatives typically have better outfits.
2) Notice the length of their garbs, the Taliban militant three dudes from the left has the bottom of his garb touching his shoes. This would not happen (unless the photographer caught him off guard) with a Wahabi militant, as it is consider un-Islamic to have your garb touching your shoes/ the ground. Note that the Shadow Army's garbs are around 6 inches above the ground.
3) Head-gear is typically something that you are going to see as a difference (even though Taliban forces are starting to adopt a more ski-mask approach for practicality). The Shadow army is hiding their identity because they are still foreigners and are sometimes treated as such. Also, the Taliban does not see itself as a terrorist organization, as has been attributed to A.Q.
4) Shoes! al-Qa'ida militants, typically those displaced from Arab-lands, wear tennis shoes, where the Taliban will wear either sandals or a generic traction shoe (as seen in the Taliban photo)
Whenever there is the term "foreigner" you can bet it was al-Qa'ida operatives. They will also expose themselves with higher amounts of chechnya soldiers, I like how it's put by LongwarJournal that chechnya soldiers are more or less the "boogey men" of the Jihadist--- should be taken with a grain of salt.
Okay but back to topic how to tell the difference between Taliban and al-Qa'ida in a very simple picturesque way; note that this information can be found various other places and really is just a concoction.
The first picture is the "Shadow Army" (Lashkar al Zil), which is a very elite al-Qa'ida trained "foreign" army.
The second picture is a bunch of Taliban militants circa 2003.
1) Notice the quality and assemblage of the clothing on the different fighters. al-Qa'ida is going to typically dress like they're backpacking through the wilderness, and the Taliban are going to dress more like they're at home; al-Qa'ida operatives typically have better outfits.
2) Notice the length of their garbs, the Taliban militant three dudes from the left has the bottom of his garb touching his shoes. This would not happen (unless the photographer caught him off guard) with a Wahabi militant, as it is consider un-Islamic to have your garb touching your shoes/ the ground. Note that the Shadow Army's garbs are around 6 inches above the ground.
3) Head-gear is typically something that you are going to see as a difference (even though Taliban forces are starting to adopt a more ski-mask approach for practicality). The Shadow army is hiding their identity because they are still foreigners and are sometimes treated as such. Also, the Taliban does not see itself as a terrorist organization, as has been attributed to A.Q.
4) Shoes! al-Qa'ida militants, typically those displaced from Arab-lands, wear tennis shoes, where the Taliban will wear either sandals or a generic traction shoe (as seen in the Taliban photo)
Whenever there is the term "foreigner" you can bet it was al-Qa'ida operatives. They will also expose themselves with higher amounts of chechnya soldiers, I like how it's put by LongwarJournal that chechnya soldiers are more or less the "boogey men" of the Jihadist--- should be taken with a grain of salt.