Topic started by V.C.Vijayaraghavan (@ 212.240.12.82) on Mon Feb 26 12:37:31 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1191000/1191067.stm

The rulers of most of Afghanistan have decided to destroy ALL statues as anti-islamic. This includes all the statues of Buddha like the one in Bamiyan which is about 160 feet tall.

Afghanistan is historically and culturally linked with India. Hindu and Buddhist kings used to rule Afghanistan till the 11th century. There are priceles monuments of Hinduism and Buddhism there. Through religious bigotry, these pricess artifacts are being destroyed

What Hindus and Buddhists can do is to raise money, and BUY all those statues.

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Sreekishen nair (@ spider-mtc-td074.proxy.aol.com) on: Sun Jun 10 19:24:10
  
  Dear Shard,
  Hello again my friend... i hope you are doing well.
  Sorry it has taken me so long to respond, but you know how busy the work-week can be.
  First of all, i want to say that i agree, yes it is quite nice and refreshing to have a discussion of ideas on the forum rather than the kind of pointless, mud-slinging flame-war that all too often dominates these threads.
  Now, returning to our topic at hand, i do agree with you, the Western media does have an unfair and bigoted tendency to represent most Islamic nations, peoples, movements or cultures (except, of course, those that are allied with the West economically or militarilly) as essentially fanatical and bred with some kind of genetic disposition towards terrorism.
  I was born and raised in the US (in a sad little city, with an even sadder history of disinvestment, called Detroit), and i am very aware of this type of anti-Islamic prejudice being so widespread throughout the culture... i find it disheartening and sad. It sometimes seems to me as if people dont want to let the Crusades go.
  And you and i are not the only ones to have noticed this bigoted tendency... many people in the West itself have also noticed this and have even made eloquent (albeit censored or muted) criticisms of it. There was a wonderfull punk-rock band from England called "Atilla the StockBroker" (a great band with a wonderfully biting sense of sarcasm and humor), these fellows wrote a scathingly critical song about the very same prejudice in western society which we are talking about, the song is called "(We're all) Libyan Students from Hell", and it is a totally biting, blatant and humorous attak on that western prejudice which seeks to make all Muslims the agents of disorder in the world.
  It seems ironic to me that the US in particular speaks of Islamic nations or political leaders as master-minds in terrorism when the US has, in Ft. Benning Georgia, a military training facility called "School of the Americas" (now renamed "the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation") whose purpose has been to train every death-squad, dictator and genocidal general in Latin America in order to maintain economic and social hegemony in the West Atlantic Politico-Econmic system. It is virtually a factory assembly line of terrorism production. The horrors of Guatemala, Pinochets Chile, Banzer-Suarez's Bolivia, El Slavador, Honduras, Colombia etc... all sprang from this institution, and sadly, it is US tax-payers money that provides for the maintainence of this abominable and hellish place.
  Few Americans know about the place, even when one of its own former teachers, a brave man named Col. Joseph Blair, has spoken out repeatedly against it, and even when a famous movie-star like Martin Sean (whose other activities are commented on at length by the media) has attended the annual protests at the institution (which again, remain unreported in the news even though some 6,000 people have been counted attending and/or arrested in the course of the protests) and has spoken out at length about its injustices.
  Your example about the Western medias approach to Khomeini is, i think, a good point. I remember when the incident in Iran happened... the media spoke of Khomeini as if he were some fanatical despot, while the Shah was treated in America as if he were some democratic and heroic martyr (and i know that the Shahs administration was anything but democratic). Nobody mentioned the injustices which the Shah inflicted on his people, nor was anyone willing to admit that the attak on the US embassy was based on the fact that this institution was providing the Shah and his armed forces with the equipment necessery to terrorize his own people and keep them down.
  The ignorance within the population was not restricted to adults... i remember during that period, i was in grade school, and there was a young boy from Iraq who was a recent immigrant and who attended our school. This boy was only still learning English, and his little brother (who knew English quite well) would come to class with him to translate what was being said in the class for him. One day, while we were assembled in the school courtyard waiting for the doors to open, another boy came to the school wearing a jacket that said "Ayatolla kiss my Asssahola" (such anti-Khomeini products were flooding the department stores at that time). The jacket aroused a number of laughs and jeers from the kids in the courtyard, but soon the joking became rather bloodthirsty. The kids turned their attention to the kid from Iraq (now, remember, he was from Iraq, not Iran... but the kids didnt know the difference... it was enough that he was Muslim and a Middle-Easterner)... they started shouting at him and accusing him of being anti-American (remember, this boy did not understand English and did not know what was going on)... they chased this boy all through the courtyard and beat him up severly, screaming taunts at him, tearing up his books, ripping his cloths and dumping garbage on his body. I was terrified..., as were the adults at the scene, who were supposed to keep the kids in order, and they did nothing but stand there with their mouths hanging wide open and occasionally stammering out some ineffectual sounds of protest. (I think it was at this point in my life that i developed a strong pessimism about people)... Then again, it was these teachers who were teaching us the very anti-Islamic prejudice which culminated in the swarm of mean-spirited boys attaking this poor child. At some point a certain group of more brave teachers jumped in the sprawl, plucked out the unfortunate bleeding and bruised Iraqi kid, called his parents (he was later taken to the hospital with a broken rib, arm and leg) and ushered the rest of the kids into the school building.
  Only one teacher, a rather stern woman from Lebanon who we called "Mrs T." was willing to talk to us about how cruel what had just happened was. In spite of her normally stern approach, she questioned the class rather calmly and with a smooth tone. She explained that Laith (the Iraqi boy) had nothing to do with the situation in Iran, and that there was an actual and legitimate REASON why the Iranians had risen up under Khomeini against the Shah and his US supporters. Most of the kids dismissed what Mrs. T said, and felt no regret that they sent an innocent kid to the hospital with some severe injuries. (I have, in recent years, met up with this kid again, as he went to high-school with a good friend of mine... despite the above incident, he seems totally well-adjusted and can speak English better than i can!) I know this is a rather long winded and depressing story, but i think it captures the rather barbaric anti-Islamic climate that dominated the American self-image during the period in question.
  Even now, with the more recent Gulf War, many Americans scorn Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people and they dont even know why. People compare Saddam Hussein to Hitler... and why? Because he invaded Kuwait. Few Americans remember that shortly before the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait, America had invaded Panama, savagely attaked its most impoverished areas, brutally murdered some 4000 people in one night, arrested and executed several civil rights leaders and social activists in the country, and even shot at point blank an Italian news reporter who was documenting the invasion. Now, i'm not saying i love Saddam Hussein, but i wonder why he is considered (as the American media so often proclaims) "the next Adolf Hitler" for invading Kuwait when our president George Bush Sr. had invaded (with a SO much more severe damage) an impoverished country like Panama only a year before?
  Okay my dear Shard, as i said, i DO have a tendency to be long winded... sorry... but i thought it relevant to our discussion to bring up these examples of the western bias against Islam... i still do fear the Taliban and the consequences that its implementation of the bagde wearing identification may have (both in Afganistan and India) but i do see and appreciate where you are comming from in playing devils-advocate, because you are right, there is a bias against Islamic nations in the west, and that bias is not really fair.
  
  
• From: shard (@ lan-202-144-125-39.maa.sify.net) on: Mon Jun 18 00:46:02
  
  Mr. Nair,
  Sorry 'bout the delay in getting back to you. The last post I made seems to have been swallowed up by some black-hole in c-space. Anyhow the gist of my argument is that focussing on the issue of the statues at this point may be counterproductive. For one it will simply give a whole group of people waiting to trash Islam fuel for fire. The hindutva combine and the like.... As for the wearing of badges...i guess one should watch and wait. I guess perspectives may change if one ceases to look at Afghanistan as an unfortunate country rather than an evil country. The mindset among its peoples at the moment is such that they consider themselves martyrs fighting an anti-islamic world. International aid organisations threatening to pull out unless human-rights improves is not going to help matters...remember, the powers that be in Afghanistan do not see themselves as doing anything wrong. A solution may be for aid prganisations to work through an islamic foundation in afghanistan.
  
  
• From: emi (@ 138.238.225.174) on: Tue Jun 19 17:50:32
  
  I am really glad that this thread was started because in every single country there are certain prejudices that won't allow people think and reason within themselves. I actually took the time to read these arguments and have gotten a new perspective on certain aspects. Mr. Nair thank you for sharing that story, it summed up the intended jist of your letter. Growing up in the US, you don't really understand the biases in the nation but I believe that we all must be made aware.
  
  
• From: anti (@ ) on: Mon Nov 29 04:19:36
  
  //What Hindus and Buddhists can do is to raise money, and BUY all those statues//
  
  Wat?? Hahaha...lol! Yea sure! These sh*tters r not capable of preserving so many of such historical statues/monuments in INDIA itself.....n they r talkin abt buyin up statues from other countries?? Hahahaha!!! ;-P ;-P ;-P{
  Lets face it- Hindus r destroying their OWN tradition/culture w/ their own hands in India! Indian culturez gone to DOGS today & become DOGSH*T!!!! SHAME ON Y'ALL!!!!!!!!
  
  
• From: dude (@ hse-montreal-ppp337587.sympatico.ca) on: Tue Jan 18 20:38:13
  
  bump
  
  

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