American Taliban critic

Oliver Willis ably defends his claim that the religious right are the American Taliban.

but he neglected to mention one point of similarity between Mullah Omar and, say, Ralph Reed
They are crooked hypocrites.

Omar had an air conditioned stable for his cattle: no sinful luxury (like music) for people, but can't let those cows sweat. An Omar banned alcohol but decided to look the other way and not notice opium shipments (provided the growers tithed).

Reed is similarly consistent

see E.J. Dionne citing Susan Schmidt

"Perhaps the most bizarre example of this contradiction was detailed by Washington Post reporter Susan Schmidt. When one Louisiana tribe, the Jena Band of Choctaws, won initial approval of a casino three years ago, another tribe, the Louisiana Coushetta, hired Abramoff to block the potential competition. Abramoff and an associate, in turn, paid $4 million to Ralph Reed, a Republican consultant and evangelical leader, to organize local anti- gambling sentiment against the Jenas. To get the job done, Reed worked with his fellow evangelical James Dobson."

Just as pure as Mullah Omar.

Dionne and Schmidt were scooped by indianz.com citing Mother Jones