Another day, another giant Buddha destroyed.
Yup. It’s that bunch of cheerful Saudi funded Iconoclasts, better known as the Taliban, trying to purify the region of pagan idols.
Luckily there was little or no damage to these archeological treasures.
These treasures were made 2200 years ago during the spread of Buddhism in the area. Later Muslim conquerers allowed the statues to remain intact, and in recent times they have been a tourist attraction, especially for Buddhists from nearby Asian countries.
However, the Taliban are not restricted to destroying statues of this great man of peace:
Last week, militants blew up about 60 music, video and cosmetics stalls at a market in the valley after stall owners ignored warnings to close businesses deemed un-Islamic.
Yup…no Bollywood films or rock and roll either.
Lest you think that this nutso group represent the average Muslim Pakistani, remember that previous Islamic governments had left the statues remain undisturbed for over a thousand years.
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Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. her website is Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.Â
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1 user commented in " Taliban try to destroy giant Buddha in Pakistan "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhether this represents the average view of Muslims in Pakistan is irrelevant. What is relevant is that these extremists are trouncing on human history, civilization, and cherished artworks. And we are allowing it by doing nothing to stop them.
In the US, men and women chain themselves to trees to prevent loggers from damaging our national treasure (our wilderness). Yes, it still happens, but someone put their life on the line, and there are people dedicate the entire lives to stopping deforestation here.
By destroying the environment and our own positive accomplishments, we are destroying everything that makes us human and symbolically destroying not just beauty, but the universal ability to identify and value beauty and its correlative, order.
By eschewing beauty and order (or tacitly allowing others to do so so that we don’t have to engage them in a direct physical confrontation), we are moving towards a dark, ugly, and chaotic future.
Bravo for reporting it, Nancy, but I’m sad that failed to see the larger point that SOMEONE must do something to stop this and other related Taliban activity regardless of whether it represents the will of the average Pakistani. That point is completely irrelevant, unless your main point is to simply try to confront the tide of Islamophobia and violent rhetoric. If that IS your point, I would like to point out that Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence is simply a direct effect of the actions like destroying the giant Buddha (and other cultural symbols worldwide) in combination with violence against civilians.
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