Every year, the beginning of March refreshes the pain of losing the Buddhas of Bamyan among Afghans. Eleven years back from today on 2nd March, 2001, on the order of Mullah Mohammad Omar, Taliban's spiritual leader, the Taliban regime started destructing the Buddha statues in Bamyan. The Buddhas had stood firmly against ups and downs of about 1,600 years. The Buddhas, although defenseless, resisted the attacks of Taliban launched by anti-craft guns and artilleries for several days.
But they had to go and leave a constant pain in hearts of sensible Afghans and humans beings around the world. The destruction of precious statues of Bamyan reflects the degree of discrimination and religious hatred present in Taliban's mind.
Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and in this tenure they crossed all limits of barbarisms: thousands of people were massacred just because of their ethnicity and religious beliefs, women were tortured in open public and were confined to their homes, formal education was banned for both girls and boys and Afghans were forced to follow hundreds of rules that stand in contradictory to the basic human rights.
Among all kinds of violence practiced by Taliban, one that hurt the heart of every man on the globe was the destruction of Buddhas of Bamyan. Taliban deemed Buddhas and other idols and statues as signs of infidelity, although many believe that was not the case. The Taliban just tried to legitimize and conceal their evil intentions against religious and ethnic minorities by calling statues the symbols faithlessness.
The On 6th March 2001, The Times quoted Mullah Mohammed Omar as stating, "Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. It has given praise to God that we have destroyed them." The decree of Mullah Omar in which he ordered his commanders to destroy the two huge statues of Bamyan among many other tasks, was secured from Interior Ministry of Emirate of Afghanistan after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The decree clearly indicates Taliban's systematic plan to kill and loot a specific segment of Afghan population and occupy their lands.
Qadratullah Jamal, the Information and Culture Minister of Taliban had told the Associated Press of a decision by 400 religious clerics from across Afghanistan declaring the Buddhist statues against the tenets of Islam. "They came out with a consensus that the statues were against Islam," Jamal had said. Before Taliban regime, thousands of religious clerics and renowned Muslim scholars have lived and died in Afghanistan leaving behind their valuable contributions to human knowledge as assets for today's and tomorrow's generations.
However, none of them ever talked of Buddhas' destruction. Then, how come these 400 clerics with no name and fame decide about one of the most popular historical heritages of mankind? Unquestionably they were different, not in knowledge but because of having rusty mentality. Their narrow perspective towards of religion, history and humanity led to this massive loss for Afghanistan and the world.
Today, when terrorists proudly take responsibilities for killings innocent civilians, none of those clerics raise his voice. Buddhas had nothing to do with our religion and statues are maintained with high care in other Islamic countries. This is the insurgents who leave no stone unturned to defame Muslims by whatsoever means possible to them. The rift created between Muslims and the West, due al Qaida and Taliban, is so huge that it would take decades to be mended. Suicide is haram (forbidden) in Islam. Nevertheless, people in Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan witness suicidal attack on daily basis. This is the sole responsibility of the Mullahs to preach against this trend. At this time, they are expected to begin a global campaigning against what terrorist are doing. But we are hearing nothing.
More than 99 percent of Afghan population is constituted by Muslims. For centuries the Muslims have governed Afghanistan. Throughout Afghanistan's history, there have been small to large scale killings. Even some tyrant rulers built castles using human skull. Invaders came and went. Civil wars erupted. All these, no doubt, cost lives of millions of people and destructions of our key national infrastructures. But throughout the ages, the Buddhas had had stood firmly with no major damages.
Unlike other Islamic countries, the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan that considered statues, television, pictures, images, paintings, music and even shaving one's mustache or beard as major sins. Taliban had snatched freedom from the individual lives of people. Majority of them did not like Taliban-imposed Sharia but had to obey their rules and regulations. Saying no to Taliban, meant losing one's life and even family. Therefore, no one in Afghanistan could not raise his voice, when Taliban in an inhumane attempt, destructed the symbols of history of mankind in this part of the world. By destructing the Buddhas, Taliban left behind a dark chapter in the history of Afghanistan
Islam orders its followers to raise their voices and even take actions against tyranny and brutality. It is quite pathetic that against Buddhas there was a country-wide campaigning but no prominent religious figure of the country publicly condemns the terror attacks or pronounces their acts as haram.
It takes years and needs knowledge, creativity and consistent hard work to create an art piece, such as Buddhas. Demolition of Buddha that took only some days can never be compensated by any means, as we have permanently lost them. Last year, German scientists said that it was possible to reconstruct one of the two Buddhas dynamited by Taliban. Even if the Buddha is reconstructed, it will not resemble the real one and there is no guarantee that it would remain safe.
It is quite amazing that today our President calls Taliban as his brothers and the international community is bending to start negotiations with Taliban who do not fit in the frame of humanity and Islam. Bringing them back to power would mean burying the ten-year gains of Afghanistan and putting regional and world security in further peril of terror attacks.