By Sugeeswara Senadhira
Colombo, August 23 (Ceylon Today): The Muslim fanatics’ absolute yearning to destroy everything opposed to what they mistakenly believe to be “Islam” has been witnessed at an unprecedented magnitude in the 21st Century.
The vehemence of the hatred imbedded in the hearts of fanatics was displayed in two acts of destruction in the year 2001, the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001 and the destruction of the giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan in Afghanistan itself in March 2001.
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The willful destruction of the Bamiyan statues was described as the most spectacular attack against the historical and cultural heritage of Afghanistan committed during Taliban rule. On 26 February 2001, the Taliban fanatics, then headed by Mullah Muhammad Omar, issued an ‘ulama’ decree ordering the elimination of all non-Islamic statues and sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
That was followed by launching what they called a “jihad” against the two Buddha statues, the one to the East 38 metres high, and the other to the West, 55 metres high, hewn into the cliff of Bamiyan.
It took several days for the fanatics to destroy the world’s tallest Buddha statues. Taliban spokesman described the difficult task with the words, “Our soldiers are working hard; they are using all available arms against them.” Rockets and tank shells were brought in to help, and the destruction was completed with dynamite. On March 14, the Taliban issued a public announcement that the giant Buddha statues had been destroyed.
Taliban rule was marked by strict and unwavering adherence to the medievalist version of Islam and its intolerance towards non-believers, idol worshippers and idols. Furthermore, moderate Muslims who failed to comply with the Taliban’s tyrannical interpretations of Islam were humiliated and punished, and in some cases even killed.
Similarly, the non-Muslims in Afghanistan lived under constant fear of persecution. The destructive acts of Taliban had shocked the world, including moderate Muslims. Mullah Omar’s decree to destroy Bamiyan statues had prompted many attempts by countries across the world and moderate Muslim clerics and Heads of State from among Afghanistan’s neighbors to stop its implementation. The need to preserve a cultural heritage and to respect religions was at the core of their plea.
Read more: It is now that the Taliban are facing the toughest challenge
UNESCO emissaries pleaded that a necessary distinction should be made between idolatry and exemplarity, between a secular admiration and an idolatrous veneration.
The UN General Assembly passed a resolution urging the Kabul government not to destroy Bamiyan Buddha statues. Sri Lanka’s permanent representative, John De Saram, praised the universality of the General Assembly’s plea. “It was Germany, not a Buddhist country that brought the draft resolution to the floor. It was the Buddha that moved the warrior emperor Asoka to turn from violence, the same Emperor who sent his children to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka could only hope and pray that the statues in Bamiyan would not be destroyed.”
De Saram pledged his country’s cooperation in any international effort to save the historical monuments. The resolution, of course, had Sri Lanka’s wholehearted support.
But their pleas were ignored by the fanatic rulers in Kabul. Their argument was that there were no Buddhists in Afghanistan, hence the Bamiyan Buddha statues were not a place of religious worship.
“If the statues were objects of cult for an Afghan minority, we would have to respect their belief and its objects, but we don’t have a single Buddhist in Afghanistan,” said the Mullah, “so why preserve these idols? If they have no religious character, why get so upset? It is just a question of breaking stones,” he said defending the destruction of the world cultural and religious heritage, built in the 6th Century, when Buddhism flourished in the entire region.
For 1,400 years, two colossal figures of the Buddha overlooked the fertile Bamiyan Valley on the Silk Road in Afghanistan, author Llwelyn Morgan said in ‘The Buddhas of Bamiyan’.
“Witness to a melting pot of passing monks, merchants, and armies, the Buddhas embodied the intersection of East and West, and their destruction by the Taliban in 2001 provoked international outrage.”
Carved in the sixth and seventh centuries, the Buddhas represented a confluence of religious and artistic traditions from India, China, Central Asia, and Iran, and even an echo of Greek influence brought by Alexander the Great’s armies.
Islam had replaced Buddhism as the local religion but the Buddhas were celebrated as wonders of the Islamic world. Not until the nineteenth century did these figures come to the attention of Westerners.
That is also the historical moment when the ground was laid for many of Afghanistan’s current problems, including the rise of the Taliban and the oppression of the Hazara people of Bamiyan, the author lamented.
As Taliban took control in Afghanistan last week, UNESCO expressed concern about the remaining art heritages in the country. The fears center on the 800,000 art objects currently held in the collection of Afghan’s National Museum. “We have great concerns for the safety of our staff and collections,” said Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, the institution’s director.
At present, there is no plan for moving the items out of harm’s way. “The question is how to find a safe location. There is no way for them, or the staffs, to leave the country.” “We didn’t expect this to happen so quickly,” Noor Agha Noori, head of Afghanistan’s Institute of Archaeology in Kabul lamented.
END
Read more: It is now that the Taliban are facing the toughest challenge
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