The Madness Goes On

In what can only be described as the continuation of total lunacy, the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan continues to assert its so-called authority. First of all, this band of what can only be described as crazies goes on its crusade with no regard whatsoever for the history of the land that they now hold hostage. It seems more important to them that they hang on to a piece of real estate that no one else really wants.

The latest edict from these nuts is that all pre-Islamic statues and all non-Islamic religious shrines within the country be destroyed. Were the country full of meaningless clay statues built within the last five years, it would be not worth mentioning. Unfortunately, they are seeking to destroy all statues.

“All statues will be destroyed,” Mullah Qudratullah Jamal, the Taliban’s information and culture minister, told reporters in the Afghan capital of Kabul this morning, saying the statues did not conform to Islamic teachings against depicting the human form in photographs, statues or paintings. “The work began early during the day. All of the statues are to be smashed.”

Sandstone Buddha

This, despite the fact that close ally Pakistan and main rival Iran have come out against the destruction – as well as the Buddhist-orientated nations of the Far East and the Western nations as well. Among the targets was one specified by Jamal – the 175-foot carving of Buddha in sandstone in the Bamiyan Valley (pictured, right) as well as another one nearby that is 120 feet high and was cut from solid rock in the 5th Century.

It seems that the Taliban has either forgotten or has chosen to ignore the fact that these statues date back 1600 years and were erected at a time when the land that is now Afghanistan was an important center of Buddhist teaching and pilgrimage. These statues have stood vigil over a broad period of history stretching from the conquests of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to the Great Games of the British and Russian empires and the intrigues of the Cold War

As for the no likenesses or images: I can understand that when it comes to Mohammed, but when it comes to everyday people, that is more than just a little too far. An excellent example of a Muslim being photographed is Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, the former Los Angeles Laker basketball player who was also in a co-starring role in the 1980 smash hit “Airplane!” In addition, numerous players in the NBA and NFL are also followers of Islam and they have no problems with their likeness being shown. This action on the part of the loony-toon Taliban only goes to show that Lord Acton was right when he said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar claims they are only breaking stones, and that is a crock any way you look at it, regardless of what your religious beliefs are.

In an editorial in the English-language daily Iran News (Tehran), they stated, “Islam never preached the destruction of objects that depict the belief and history of millions of people throughout the world.” It accused the Taliban of trying “not only to erase the past and present of Afghanistan, but also to strip the country of anything that may form a cultural basis for its future.”

The demolition action that is supposedly under way in Afghanistan is not unlike the attempts of the Chinese to demolish monasteries in Tibet or the Germans destruction of the Jewish artifacts that came into the hands of the Nazis or the attempts of the Russians to eliminate Poland’s identity and heritage.

The Taliban had better keep in mind what they are doing, for they may become even more reviled than the Nazis were in World War II. I think of what my brother asked me a number of years back when he asked me if the Poles were being attacked by the Germans and the Russians at the same time who would they attack first, to which I did not know the answer. He then said that the Poles would go after the Germans first on the grounds of business before pleasure. Actions such as the destruction of religious statues on the part of the Taliban could lead to a revolutionary backlash like the one that toppled the Shah in 1979.

If there is one thing that has remained constant throughout history, it is that people as a whole do not learn from the mistakes of others. Such action only goes to show that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

• Photo of Buddha Statue courtesy of Reuters
• With files from The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/
• With files from the The Tehran Times http://www.tehrantimes.com/

Copyright © 2001 by Timothy Rollins.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission