Despite grave world condemnation, Afghanistan's fundamentalist ruling Taliban are said to have used artillery and explosives on Friday to destroy two giant rock-hewn Buddha statues they decry as un-Islamic. Mortars and cannon were being used to destroy the Buddha statues in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, reports from Kabul said.
The destruction has drawn heated reactions from Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to other international parties, according to reports.
The mufti of Egypt Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel expressed astonishment at the Taliban's destruction of the antiquities.
The pre-Islamic statues, notably the two giant Buddhas in Afghanistan's Bamiyan province, "are only a transcription of history and have no negative impact on the faith of Muslims," Wassel said in an interview published Friday in the daily Al Hayat, cited by AFP.
Comparing the Afghan statues to ancient Egypt's artifacts, he said their conservation was justified, "particularly because they bring economic advantages to an Islamic country through tourism."
Wassel is one of the top two authorities in Egypt of the Sunni Muslim tradition to which the Taliban belong.
Egyptian Muslim intellectual Fahmi Howeidy said the Taliban edict ran contrary to Islam.
"Islam respects other cultures even if they include rituals that are against Islamic law," Howeidy told Reuters in Cairo on Thursday.
Neighboring Pakistan, the closest ally of the Taliban and one of only three countries which recognize the Taliban regime, expressed concern over the order of Taliban leader, Mulla Omar to destroy the ancient statues in Afghanistan.
"Pakistan attaches great importance to and support the preservation of world's historic, cultural and religious heritage,” a statement said, quoted by Iran News agency (IRNA).
Iran, which supports opposition forces battling the Sunni Muslim Taliban, was another leading voice in the Islamic world to condemn the Taliban.
“We condemn the destruction of statues of Buddha which are treasures of mankind just like the Taj Mahal or Imam Square" in Isfahan, Iran's historic monuments organization said in a statement sent to AFP in Tehran.
"It is very strange that centuries after the Afghan people became Muslims, and received the strength of Islam ... certain people who claim to be religious accuse some of anathema and idolatry," it said.
Iran supports the ousted Afghan government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was driven out of Kabul by the Taliban in 1996 but still clings to a toehold in the northeast of the country.
The outcast Afghan government’s embassy in Tehran has released a statement castigating Taliban militia’s decision. The statement, issued Thursday, was quoted by IRNA as saying that the destruction order by the Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar was designed to "cover-up Taliban's antiques trafficking in Afghanistan."
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the only three countries to have recognized the Taliban.
In Malaysia, Chandra Muzaffar, a Muslim and president of a group called the International Movement for a Just World, said the Taliban seemed to have forgotten that Muslim rulers in the past had protected the rights of other religions, according to AFP.
"The hostility and antagonism towards Buddhism and other religions displayed by the Taliban reveals not only its ignorance of Islam but also its arrogance and bigotry," he said.
The Taliban began smashing all statues from Afghanistan's rich cultural past on Thursday, defying international appeals to save the ancient artifacts, according to the reports.
Taliban Information and Culture Minister Mullah Qudratullah Jamal was quoted by the Pakistani Dawn online report as saying the centers where the campaign had been unleashed included Bamiyan province - site of two soaring statues of the Buddha hewn from a solid cliff that are the most famous relics of Afghanistan's history.
"All statues will be destroyed," he told reporters in Kabul. "Whatever means of destruction are needed to demolish the statues, will be used.
"The work began early during the day. All of the statues are to be smashed. This also covers the idols in Bamiyan," he said.
According to Dawn, the Taliban rejected a last-minute UN appeal when its Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told an envoy on Thursday they would complete the destruction of the statues the militia regards as un-Islamic.
"The abandoned relics are not our pride," the official Bakhtar news agency quoted Muttawakil as telling UN special envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, who arrived in Kabul with an appeal from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"Destroying them would not mean that the freedom of the minorities would cease," Muttawakil said.
UNESCO appealed directly to the Taliban on Wednesday to reverse its decision and also urged Muslim nations around the world to halt the destruction.
Buddhist countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka have also expressed alarm at the Taliban's focus on eradicating remainders of the centuries before Islam when Afghanistan was a center of Buddhist learning and pilgrimage.
India said it would try to stop the destruction.
"The government of India will raise this issue at every international forum, including the United Nations. We will make all attempts to stop the demolition of Lord Buddha's statue," parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan told parliament.
Russia condemned the destruction as vandalism.
"This intention (to destroy the statues) can only be classed as an assault on cultural and historical treasures, not only of the Afghan people but of world civilization," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday, cited by Dawn.
"The Taliban's vandalism against material objects of the rich spiritual heritage of the ancient Afghan world shows their clear enmity to common human values," it added.
Germany also condemned the Taliban action saying it is ”appalled by the willful destruction of cultural artifacts in Afghanistan. The damage to culturally unique Buddha statues by the Taliban cannot be justified," the foreign ministry said in a statement issued in Berlin.
Meanwhile, the European Union said it was shocked.
"The EU strongly urges the Taliban leadership not to implement this deeply tragic decision which will deprive the people of Afghanistan of its rich cultural heritage," the EU said in a statement issued by Sweden, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-nation bloc – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
