Blowing Up Buddha The Taleban have completed their destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. Now only an empty giant alcove remains where these 100+ foot tall statues from 1600 years ago stood. The Taleban leadership declared all statues idolatrous in February and ordered the destruction of the giant Buddhas along with all sorts of other smaller artifacts from the distant past. Kabul’s museums have been culturally “cleansed” of the offending relics.
According to the Foreign Ministry’s Chief of the Press Department Faiz Ahmed Faiz, “This decision was not against anyone. It was totally a domestic matter of Afghanistan. We are very disappointed that the international community doesn’t care about the suffering people but they are shouting about the stone statues of Buddha.” I assume he wasn’t referring to the 6000 boys and men the Taleban suffocated to death when they seized nearby Mazar-e-Sharif several years ago.
The Taleban and their apologists have defended this action on several levels. They have cited various Hadiths, arguing from analogy about the cleansing of idols from the Kaaba. The Quran does not explicitly say anywhere that statues should be destroyed, but as Muslims, we don’t build them ourselves. Some have cited the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India by a Hindu mob as a reason for destroying Buddhist statues. Others argue that since it isn’t explicitly Haram to do this, then there is no basis for a Muslim to criticize the actions of the Taleban. Another view is that it is unfair to be critical of Taleban when other bad people in the world attack Masjids (e.g. in Bosnia or Chechnya). Finally, some say that since the world has placed sanctions on the Taleban, it is only to be expected that they do some bad things, and it is really the rest of the world’s fault that the Taleban were “forced” to destroy the statues.
All of these arguments are deficient. The idea that Muslims should treat the entire world as if it were an extension of the Kaaba is ridiculous. That would diminish the Kaaba’s centrality, and lead to a morass of confusion. Are we obligated to go to the ends of the Earth stamping out idols? How about idols that exist whose worshippers are long gone? Must we destroy the Sphinx, blow up the Pyramids, and rebury Moenjo-Daro? Who decides what artifacts qualify as idols? The Quran says, “There is no compulsion in religion”; does that mean anything if we are to go on an idol hunt?
The action of a Hindu mob seven years ago or seven years from now should not influence our actions. “Two wrongs don’t make a right” is a basic concept that every child learns, and that certainly applies here. Muslims should stand for justice and right action, not engage in some sort of roundabout retribution. Besides, I still don’t understand how destroying the statues is relevant to the Hindu thugs of India.
Since it isn’t Haram, is it above criticism to destroy the statues? The Quran and Hadith do not lay out detailed rules for every possible event or decision that can arise. They give guidance to which we must add understanding and wise judgment. There is nothing in Islam that makes it Haram to own slaves, have multiple wives, forbid women to drive, or prevent girls from getting an education. In fact, some Muslim countries allow these things to go on. But that does not mean that other Muslims have no right to criticize such policies. Many of our actions do not fall into neat categories of Haram or permitted, but revolve around choices for which the spirit of Islam must animate the decision.
There are many evil people in the world, and some of them have attacked Muslim communities in the last ten years. We have all seen the events in Bosnia and Kosovo, in Chechnya, and in Palestine. These are evil acts that should be opposed and fought directly. Muslim organizations in America have worked and are actively working on all these issues. More Muslims should get involved in helping to make a positive change in these places. But blowing up Buddha does not get a free pass because Serb gunmen shot children in Sarajevo. When a stranger does something wrong, I may condemn that, but when my brother is doing something wrong, I am even more interested in bringing him back to a correct course of action. The Taleban, like all Muslims, are our brothers, and their actions will always be of more relevance to me than that of the Russian army.
Finally, the world may be wrong to place sanctions on the Taleban. The Taleban have in fact brought a kind of peace to most parts of a country that has been at war for almost 25 years. That is no small achievement. But if the Taleban wish to punish the world for the sanctions, they should pick some method other than blowing up ancient statues. Even with the sanctions, American wheat is still being shipped to Afghanistan as food aid. The Taleban themselves deny that this decision was meant to punish the world, but some of their supporters have used it as a way of deflecting blame from the Taleban. It reminds of the criminal who blames his crimes on society or his bad upbringing. There is still personal responsibility, and the Taleban cannot avoid that.
There are some other things to consider. The Taleban have not destroyed the active idol worshipping that occurs in Afghanistan among its very small Hindu population. Why not? Isn’t the point to destroy idols, not simply statues? A statue that is not being worshipped is not an idol; it is just a statue. This shows quite clearly how hypocritical the Taleban themselves are.
Buddhism is a very complex religious tradition, and it has many branches. Its origin is in South Asia, but it is mainly a religion of East Asia now. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and strive for “enlightenment” often through focused meditation. The theology of Buddhism is not as explicit as Western religions. In most strains of Buddhism, Buddha is a wise and enlightened man, but not a deity and object of worship. Statues of Buddha are then not so much idols, but rather a statue of a revered human. In some strains of Buddhism, Buddha has been elevated to the Divine, and is worshipped as such. In Bamiyan, there were no more Buddhists, but only Hazaris who had long ago converted to Islam. The statues had lost any significance and were of only historical and cultural value. By that reckoning, I don’t think they even qualify as true “idols”.
This was in fact a way for the Taleban to show the Hazaris, who have been among the Taleban movement’s biggest opponents, who is the boss. The Taleban were destroying a part of the Hazari landscape. This ethnic element to the Taliban’s deeds has not been well known.
In the end, the Taleban were showing that they have no respect for human culture. Pakistanis take pride in the deep roots of the Indus Civilization, even though the inhabitants of Moenjo-Daro were pagans from a time long before Islam. The Egyptians are equally proud of their ancient heritage, as are the Iraqis and Persians. Does human achievement and history have meaning outside of religion? If not, why do we take pleasure in a good book, a great film, a tremendous monument (the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, etc.), or a fascinating archeological find? We are all human beings, and our collective history has value. If the Taleban do not see that value, they should just let it be, and not permanently destroy it.
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