Frontline
March  2001 
Special Report


 
Barbarism in Bamiyan

The monstrosity named the Taliban has more to do with s
uperpower politics and the CIA than with Islam

BY JAVED ANAND
Is Islam getting Talibanised?”  was the poser to be debated on  NDTV’s popular show, The Big  Fight in mid–March. The provocation for the choice of subject for the debate was the barbaric edict of the rabid Mullah Mohammad Omar, directing his mindless Taliban to destroy the two towering statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan. Simultaneously, all other Buddha statues were to be dug out of every museum in Afghanistan and subjected to the same savage treatment. 
Long before the big show on March 17, the mass media had reported the continuous outpour of global condemnation. In the forefront of this denunciation of Taliban misdeed in the name of Allah were Muslims from all over the world, including India. The sense of shock, disgust and denunciation expressed by all sections of Indian Muslims was evident from the spate of statements, comment pieces and letters to editors that continued to flooded newspaper offices across the country. The spontaneous protest was reminiscent of the widespread Hindu reaction to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 in the name of Bhagwan Ram. 
No sooner had the newspapers reported the imminent destruction of the statues in Bamiyan that a few Muslims got active on the Internet. In less than 72 hours, a statement was issued to the media condemning the act: 
“It is unfortunate to learn that Afghanistan’s Taliban government has decided to demolish statues of historical and religious importance in the country. Historical monuments are the heritage of all mankind and do not belong to any government or area or people. Demolition of places of worship and statues of religious personalities is totally un–Islamic and unwarranted. Islam orders us to respect the places of worship of other religions. Islam does not allow the destruction of religious places of any community. If the news emanating from Afghanistan is correct, we condemn this act and ask the Taliban government to desist from any such step which goes against the spirit of Islam”.
In what must surely be the first example of its kind, the nearly 100 Muslim signatories to the protest — drawn from India, Pakistan, Malaysia, UAE, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, UK, USA and Canada — comprised Muftis and maulanas, Islamic scholars and historians, academicians and educationists, politicians and social activists, teachers and lawyers, columnists and editors of Urdu newspapers. It was one of those rarest of rare cases where the Buddha’s endangered statues in Afghanistan brought into existence an instant coalition of rabble–rousers and rank conservatives, progressives and radicals among Muslims. 
Not to be left behind, ulema and important office bearers of organisations like the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, the All India Milli Council, the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee, the All-India Muslim Majlis–e–Mushawarat, condemned the Taliban action as “un-Islamic” and “barbaric”. 
“Islam does not permit acts of barbarism. On the contrary, Islamic governments are bound by the Shariat to protect the religious places of other communities. I can’t understand why this is being done,” said Maulana Sajjad Nomani of the All India Milli Council. 
“Their act is very shameful and has saddened the entire community,” said Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, vice-president, All India Muslim Personal Law Board. He added that all Muslim states should unite against such a move and strongly oppose such “intolerant and irreligious” acts. 
In Ajmer, the Diwan of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti’s Dargah, Jannual Obeiddin, said the Taliban has insulted the Muslim community the world over and appealed to the community to protest against the barbaric act.
“The Taliban have caused immense disservice and damage to Islam and left the entire Muslim community ashamed,” said a former minister in the Telugu Desam government, Basheeruddin Babu Khan in a statement issued from Hyderabad. “As a Muslim, my head hangs in shame when I hear of the desecration of the Bamiyan Buddhas”, wrote Salahuddin Ahmed of Indian origin from Kuwait in a letter to Outlook magazine. 
The only jarring note came from Imam Bukhari of the Shahi Jama Masjid, Delhi, who seemed happy with the Taliban lie post facto that the desecration in Bamiyan was in retaliation to the demolition in Ayodhya.
Internationally, too, the story was similar. The Islamic Republic of Iran offered to take custody of the Buddhas, the Grand Mufti of Egypt led a delegation of Muslim clerics from several countries in a bid to convince the Taliban hotheads that their act of desecration was anything but Islamic. The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), too, passed a protest resolution. 
Sadly, none of this was of any avail and the Bamiyan Buddhas are now lost to the world. 
To return to the theme of NDTV’s The Big Fight: “Is Islam getting Talibanised?” Is this sub–conscious anti–Muslim, anti–Islam prejudice at work? Or is media sensationalism its own justification? How else does explain NDTV’s equating of Islam with the Taliban despite the widely reported, world–wide Muslim condemnation of the wanton misdeed in Afghanistan? Whatever NDTV’s motivation, you ask a stupid question and you get a stupid answer. “No, its not a case of Islam getting Talibanised; rather, the Taliban are getting Islamised”, the smug chief of the RSS mouthpiece Organiser, Seshadri Chari, asserted during the debate, even while acknowledging the widespread protest from the followers of Islam. The next few pages will, hopefully, reveal to our readers that the monstrosity named Taliban has more to do with superpower politics and the CIA than with Islam. 


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