Home
What's New
Jihad News
Jihad Stories
Jihad Lands
Photo Library
Video Library
Products
Articles
FAQs
Links
Search
Site Map
E-Mail
Azzam Publications
BCM Uhud
London WC1N 3XX
UNITED KINGDOM
http://www.azzam.com
azzam@azzam.com
|
Go Back
Muslim responses to the destruction of the Buddhas
The saddest thing over this whole affair was the response of the Muslims, especially those defeatist, apologetic and modernist Muslims, both from the West and the Muslim World. Blinded by the Western media, they quickly jumped on to the bandwagon of Muslim-bashing, lending support to Zionist schemes to project Muslims as terrorists and extremists, while ignoring far more heinous crimes of non-Muslims around the world. Unfortunately, it was not just the common Muslim people who criticised the Taliban over this affair, but national heads and even 'scholars'. In fact, a delegation of Muslim scholars travelled to Afghanistan to try and persuade them to not destroy the Buddhas. One of the members of this delegation was Mufti Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, the Grand Mufti of Egypt.
However, the Taleban's Cultural Minister Qudratullah Jamal, who is in charge of the demolition process, said the delegation of Islamic clerics had come to the wrong place. Why did they not go to India to enquire about the demolition of the historic mosque Babri Masjid by Hindu fanatics in 1992 and more recently where copies of the Quran were being burnt, as well as to Jerusalem to contest the Israeli occupation. At a time when Muslims are being persecuted everywhere, should the Muslim ‘scholars’ and representatives have spoken out against the blowing up of idols?Other statements made by Muslim representatives include the following:
"The demolition of these statues would harm the image of Islam and will provoke the anger of the international community, especially Buddhists who number 300 million," [Dr Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi]
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, President of the Islamic Society of North America, declared that the "decision is un-Islamic," and the destruction of idols "will give a very bad name to Islam and will create hate against their people among the nations of the world."
The thing that the Muslim Ummah must understand is that the image of Islam and the Muslims cannot and will not get any worse, or any better in the eyes of Islam's enemies. The anger and hate of the international community? Why should this be a cause for concern? What is the worst that the international community can do? Bomb the Muslim nations with radioactive shells (like they did and still do in Iraq)? Displace Muslims from their homes (like what is happening in Palestine)? Put sanctions on Islamic countries, so as to starve the people to death and cripple their economy (like they are doing to Iraq and Afghanistan)? Rape the mothers, sisters and daughters of the Muslims, and kill their youth (like the Hindu extremists are doing in Kashmir, and what the UN ‘peacekeepers’ did in Bosnia)? And as for the anger of the Buddhists, one only has to look at the plight of the Muslims in Burma and China to see how ‘angry’ the Buddhists already are with the Muslims.Does one really need to talk about the ‘good’ image that the sincere media portrays about Islam and the Muslims? A subtle, but powerful media trick that one might consider - why are Israelis always ‘killed’ and the Palestinians ‘die’?Mufti Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, who told reporters in Cairo that "from a religious viewpoint it is clear, these statues are part of humanity's heritage and do not affect Islam at all."
Where does this put the idols in Makkah and the rest of the places in Arabia, that the Prophet (SAWS) destroyed? Could he, (we seek refuge in Allah), not see clearly the religious viewpoint that is being made here? The religious viewpoint is clear - the mission of the Prophet (SAWS), as stated above, included destroying the idols. There would be no evil, if the path to the evil were destroyed. One must think about how the people of Nuh started Idol worship. The idols there were not initially worshipped - they were just reminders to people of the pious men that they represented. But simply their presence caused people to start worshipping them.
Dr. Muzzamil Siddiqui also mentioned: "They are very useful for Afghans and others to know about Afghanistan's past history and its transformation into a Muslim community that recognized Tawhid and worshipped only one God."
The examples from what the Prophet (SAWS) did, and from what Umar (RA) did about the Persian books shed some light on this point. The Prophet (SAWS) did not preserve the idols of the Jahiliyyah for such educational purposes. In fact, after the conquest of Taif, the inhabitants (the Thaqeef Tribe), requested the Prophet not to destroy their idol Lat for a year. These people had embraced Islam, but they wanted to preserve their idols because it would have horrified their women and children to have these idols destroyed so quickly. The Prophet (SAWS) denied this request, and then they asked for the idol to be spared for a month. The Prophet (SAWS) denied this request also, and even their request for ONE DAY. Ibn-ul-Qayyim says that this is evidence that every place on earth has to be cleansed of Shirk. Why did the Prophet not allow the Thaqeef to ‘educate’ their women and children as to why the idols were being destroyed?Out of interest, the Taleban, respecting this Sunnah of the Prophet, recently carried out the ritual slaughter of 100 cows to atone for not acting earlier to destroy all the country's statues, including the two giant Buddhas. In Kabul, 12 cows were slaughtered in the presidential palace while the rest were sacrificed in other Taleban-held areas around the country.
Other ‘grievances’ that defeatist Muslims have had are that the Taliban should have better things to do, and could have saved money by not destroying these idols [saving money on the ammunition].Out of the thousands of Taliban fighters, only a few of them were used to destroy the idols. The only reason that all this seems like such a big effort is because of the exaggerations of the western media. This was only a ‘side’ issue for the Taliban, much the same way that destroying mosques was for the West in Bosnia, but the media has portrayed it to be their only concern. As for saving money on ammunition, it should be noted that no multi million-dollar missiles were used to demolish these statues. The ammunition that was used was old ammunition that was left behind by the Russians - hardly worthy of being sold, even in the second hand market.
|