Taliban & Buddha

Remember also that the extremism of the Taliban was forged in the fire of an invasion and occupation by a vicious superpower, one of whose tactics is the eradication of local culture as a means to pacify the populace. If we lived in a country that had been the target of "yellow rain" attacks, "sustinance interdiction" (systematic eradication of food supplies), and had our religion outlawed and persecuted, we might be pretty fundamentalist/extremist ourselves for a generation or two. The loss of cultural and artistic artifacts is a tragedy, but one we should probabbly have anticipated and sought to head off in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet withdrawal.
 
Is there a religion without "black sheep"? Is there one single religion that has not caused war,death,fear and dispair? In my opinion there isn't. Religion is what people makes it.And people generally has a tendence to try to control other people wich other people don't always like.If I am wrong please enlighten me about the totally peaceful religion.

I don't try to say that religion is a bad thing. But I do say that I don't like when someone tells that you must be religious and belive in the same god as them.

Daniel
 
Taliban does one thing right

Saturday, March 3, 2001

POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

The time has come to recommend to the world one, just one, of the Taliban's practices.

Not the ban on Afghanistan widows working outside the home to support their families or the closure of public schools to girls. Or the beating of women for breaking the dress code or the stoning of women who stray from their marital vows.

It's not surprising the recommended practice has nothing to do with women, for whom the Taliban has had utter and shameless disregard since they came to control the country.

The ingenuity we laud is for nearly wiping out the country's opium fields in less than a year. Where once there were seas of poppies, destined to enslave peoples around the world, are fields of crops.

It would behoove the United States to learn what it can from the Taliban's admittedly strong-arm but not illegal tactics, as reported by the United Nations' Drug Control Program. Our country is at serious risk of becoming involved with Colombia's civil war through the instigation and bankrolling of an effort to reduce its coca (cocaine) crop.

The secret to success in Afghanistan was old-fashioned religion. The Taliban forbid poppy cultivation for followers of Islam, the country's only permissible religion. If "do as we say" wasn't enough, officials jailed farmers until they agreed to eradicate their crops and set fire to heroin labs. Village elders were threatened with arrest if they condoned the illegal crop.

Works for us. Growing the crop is illegal, and Afghanistan's traditional export has caused many people misery.

Something similar might work in Colombia, which is being fumigated to the hilt to destroy the coca crop. Besides pointing out to illiterate farmers that coca is illegal, the U.S.-Colombian anti-drug squads should help them plant different, a.k.a. legal, crops.

On the sad day the first public execution was carried out in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, a high-ranking official proclaimed, "Let this be a lesson for others." Virtually all Taliban lessons have been regressive; this one is not.


© 1998-2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
Thanks, Mohd. It is late and I am tired. But in reading thru it the first time I find myself in conflict. If this guy is for real, I can handle him. On the other hand if he's a politician, I'm gonna count to see if I got all my fingers after shaking hands with him. <IMG SRC="biggrin.gif" border="0"> He brings up a lot of points I hadn't heard before, I will grant you that. Makes me think at the same time we need diplomats to understand each others culture, but at the same time, we need plain everyday people to get to understand each other. How else will we know that our diplomats are playing games, and it's time to have a necktie party for them. ( necktie party = usually an impromptu even staged NOT for the benefit of the person honored, but the community. Usually preceeded with giving the man a minute or two to make arrangements for the hereafter, or at least let his God know he'll be with him very very shortly. Performed with a rope and a tall oak tree. ) <IMG SRC="wink.gif" border="0"> <IMG SRC="eek.gif" border="0">

Will give it more consideration tomorrow.
 
I've now briefly reviewed another islamic news agency's report, and it reiterates the source Mohd pointed out.
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To summarize:

The Taliban controls 4/5ths of the country. The other 1/5 is held by former freedom fighters/warlords.

The Taliban recently drove the warlords out and secured the area housing the Buddhas.

At that time it was possible for an international group concerned about the Buddhas condition to go in and examine and plan for repairing them.

When that group showed up, local villagers begged for assistance for their children, victims of the internal war between Taliban and Warlords. They were told no, the money was for the statues, not for people.

The villagers decided if their children could not be cared for, the statues couldn't either. This led to the change in the Taliban's position on the statues. Symbols were being put ahead of humans.

Oddly, no wetern media I'm aware of has mentioned the rage of those villagers whose children were neglected in lieu of the statues.
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This is a quick and dirty summation on the fly, and should not be relied upon. It may, however, bring new light to the subject.

I also did a quick and dirty check on the western media and found no reference to the above conditions.
 
Hum.

So Taliban was going to let foreigners in to maintain the statues, then after the events described they decided they were a violation of religious law and destroyed them?

That's an odd change of mind. I suppose I could see a policy of "no money for statues til the people are fed," that seems a perfectly respectable position.

But the religious law didn't change overnight.

Could you post your source, Rusty? I'd like to look that over.
 
Just read the speech by the 'roving ambassador'. It's certainly helped clarify my thinking on this issue.

Seems to me that this is nothing to do with Islam or deep-seated cultural differences or religion in any shape or form. It's about the aftermath of a turf war between a whole bunch of factions - call them warlords or gangsters or what you will - resulting in one gang coming out on top and calling themselves the government.

Frankly, I don't believe this guy and his sanctimonious, self-serving speech. I don't think I'd believe him if (to quote Runyon) he told me I'm alive.

If children are starving in Afghanistan - which I can well believe - my guess is that it's the result of the aforementioned turf wars; also, in the second degree, the result of the Soviet occupation, which created the power vacuum that led to the turf war; it's certainly not the fault of a group of archaeologists who wanted to patch up some irreplaceable statues.

If these guys had managed to extort out of the well-meaning Westerners the money that was to have been spent on the statues, my belief is that the amount that would actually have reached children in need would, together with a dollar bill, have bought a cup of coffee.

By seeking to hide their actions behind the cloak of religion, by labelling any who dare to criticise what they did as anti-Islamic bigots, these people have (IMHO) earned the hatred and contempt of all those who truly respect Islam and what it fundamentally stands for.

Nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with Islam; all to do with human wickedness, barbarity and greed. As usual.
 
I think the good Mr. Holt smelled some of the same bovine digestive byproduct that I did. I haven't had time to do much reading on it yet so I haven't come to a firm conclusion. But, somethin' smells.

Or maybe I'm just gettin' cynical in my old age.
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Pakcik Bill & Fellow Forumites.

Maa-syaa-Allaah! Even the Taleban Website was hacked!

Anyhow --- the keyword here is hatred! Hatred might blind our eyes from seeing truth! We human beings have weakness and wickedness! Our weakness is that we always reject to accept bitter truth ... and our wickedness is that we always treat bitter truth as white lie! BTW ... I don't realy know why we named it as white lie ...
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... is there any story behind that naming?

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wa-(A)llaahu-aa'lam!

[This message has been edited by mohd (edited 03-29-2001).]
 
Mohd:

A "white lie" is something that you can excuse yourself for because you did it not to needlessly worry a person, or to avoid telling a mother you actually don't think her kid is adorable, or...

As far as the other side of the story being odiferous ( smelling of bucolic bovine byprodut ), just remember they put in the truth now and then when it's expedient.
 
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