Lets Destroy The Bamiyan Buddhas!

Digging Into a Buddha Rivalry

By Guy Gugliotta

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, April 23, 2001; Page A07

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50432-2001Apr22.html

He was born in a tiny town called Lumbini, in what is now southern Nepal. He could both walk and speak at birth. He told his mother that he had come to relieve the world of all suffering.

He was called Siddhartha -- ``he who has attained his goals`` -- and lived in the city of Kapilavastu until he was 29, when he left home to seek his destiny as the Buddha -- ``the Enlightened One`` -- founder of one of the world`s great religions.

For decades Nepal and India have argued over the location of ancient Kapilavastu, with each nation claiming the city for its own. Now, two archaeologists from England`s University of Bradford have presented new evidence that Kapilavastu is modern Tilaurakot, a Nepalese town about 130 miles west of Kathmandu.

In a 13-foot-deep trench beneath a swatch of gentle woodland, Bradford`s Robin Coningham and Armin Schmidt over the past three years have unearthed artifacts demonstrating that the site was inhabited during the Buddha`s lifetime and perhaps even earlier.

The key, Coningham said, was pieces of ceramic painted greyware, used in South Asia between the 9th and 6th centuries B.C. The Buddha is generally recognized to have lived between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.

``The site is clearly right at the center of the Buddhist holy land,`` Coningham said in an interview. ``It`s the only fortified site, it`s the only urban site around and there are no rivals in the region.``

In fact, however, there has been a rival for 30 years -- the Indian town of Pipprahawa, about 600 yards south of the Nepal border and four miles from Tilaurakot. There, in 1972, archaeologists digging beneath a Buddhist monument, known as a stupa, found a casket containing human remains and coins bearing the legend: ``Here is the vihara [monastery] of the monk of Kapilavastu.``

At that time, Tilaurakot`s reputation was in eclipse, because Indian archaeologists had failed to find artifacts contemporary with the Buddha there, and therefore deemed the site too modern to be Kapilavastu.

The Bradford discoveries, resulting from deeper and more extensive digging, will bring Tilaurakot firmly back into the competition. But they are not likely to settle an argument in which nationalism and the quest for tourist dollars ultimately play as large a role as science.

For although Nepal has charged that the earlier Indian work was politically motivated, India will likely say the same now, because the Bradford excavation was financed through the Nepalese government by the United Nations` World Heritage preservation program.

Coningham said that his team, led by Nepal`s chief archaeologist, Kosh Acharya, will recommend that Tilaurakot be put on the World Heritage list, but would have done so anyway, because the site ``represents the best preserved provincial urban hinterland in South Asia.``

Pipprahawa, by contrast, is ``clearly a monastic site,`` he added, and suggested that the inscribed coins could have been sent from another monastery, either as a gift or as relics from a ``mother monastery`` to one of several satellites.

Still, although the weight of evidence may have shifted in Tilaurakot`s direction, it has not tipped the balance. ``There are all sorts of problems like this, whenever you start dealing with prehistoric sites,`` said Nancy Wilkie, a Carleton College archaeologist and president of the Archaeological Institute of America. ``Even finding greyware, and even with a radiocarbon date -- all it will prove is that there is another site that is a potential candidate.``

The search for Kapilavastu began in the late 1800s after archaeologists unearthed a stone pillar erected in Lumbini in 249 B.C. by the Indian Emperor Ashoka to commemorate the Buddha`s birthplace.

European scholars subsequently surveyed the region in an attempt to match its contemporary geography with early accounts of the Buddha`s life, and with the journeys of the Chinese monks who traveled to Kapilavastu in the 4th and 7th centuries A.D.

The westerners found little help on site, because Buddhism had all but disappeared from an area that had become ``a buffer zone between the Nepali state and the[British] Raj,`` Coningham said. ``It was very much a wilderness. There were tigers there.``

And although the monks` stories differed, the scholars nevertheless concluded that Tilaurakot was Kapilavastu, in part because it was an urban site in a rural area. The Buddha`s father, Shuddhodana Gautama, was a warrior chieftain wealthy enough to move his son among three luxurious palaces during his upbringing.

Bradford`s Schmidt described Tilaurakot today as a section of ``lovely green`` wooded lowland about 500 yards long and 250 yards wide. ``It is surrounded by a shallow moat and covered with trees, with rice paddies all around,`` Schmidt said.

There is an intact gate on the western side of the site and fired brick walls, he added, but all of this is from a ``later phase`` of occupation. The inhabitants of the Buddha`s time built their structures of wood.

When the Buddha died, perhaps in 483 B.C., no central religious authority was established. Instead, the Buddha`s disciples radiated across South Asia to spread his teachings, said Boston College theologist John J. Makransky, and ``the whole history of Buddhism has been one of diversity.``

Ashoka was instrumental in the early spread of Buddhism, but its prominence in countries ranging from Tibet to China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Japan was cemented by pilgrims and monks traveling to the Far East along the ``Silk Road,`` during the first millennium A.D.

It was also during this period, between 200 A.D. and 400 A.D., when followers in what is now the Afghan city of Bamian sculpted the two giant Buddhas that were destroyed last month by the Muslim fundamentalist Taliban government.

Buddhism in southern Nepal and India was all but wiped out in the 12th century when Muslims sacked the monasteries across the holy land. Although a partial recovery has occurred in India in the past century, the theological tradition -- and its archaeological embodiment -- are largely subject to the interpretation of foreigners.

``In most countries, the mythological importance of [Kapilavastu] has been replaced by that of their own sites,`` said Makransky, who is a Buddhist. But defining Kapilavastu`s location ``will have significance`` for world Buddhists, because ``to the degree that people agree that it is here or there, it confers legitimacy on the mythology.``

Thus far, there is little indication that the dispute is over. India has long conducted tours to Pipprahawa, and last year Coningham said at least 1,500 pilgrims visited the dig at Tilaurakot during the six weeks he was working there, among them several monks who scooped handfuls of clay to take with them.

``It`s very different when you`re dealing with sites that aren`t purely of academic interest,`` Coningham said. ``They are alive: People are interested in them not merely for their ceramic sequences, but for their significance. It made me a lot more aware.``

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

Much has been said against or in favour of Taliban, on the premises of respecting cultural heritage, religion, etc. All this is bullshit. Western countries r as dumb as Talibans r. Many ppl fail to understand the real factors behind this incident.

To me, the psychology of a neglected child seems to be at work: the child wants attention, and nobody gives a damn, so he starts throwing things here and there in the hope that the people, out of concern for ``these things``, would try to take care of the child. Simply speaking, ``Attention deficit disorders``. Nothing to do with Islam and Hindu or Budhist heritage.



Taliban has done its ``best`` to be accepted by the world as a legitimate power in Afghanistan. But for some reasons (not to speak of revival of medieval history), nobody has accepted them except the governments who installed them in Afghanistan thru their monetary and military power: Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It is this frustration that is driving Talinab crazy. But China was also not accepted either by the west, and we did not see chairman Mao play havoc with other civilizations and religions. What they did in the name of cultural revolution was for the perceived sake of their red revolution, and not to draw western attention.



So what can be done: Better ask a child psychologist rather than foreign policy experts, as we are dealing with rationalized abnormal behavour here. But my two cents: Leave Taliban alone in the confines of steep hills of strong rocks, ignorance, and sadistic derive for self-destruction. Maybe it is too late for psychotherapy.

http://atimes.com/ind-pak/CC22Df01.html

According to Kacem Fazelly, an ex-professor of Law at Kabul University, ``the destruction of the statues is also a consequence of a strategic manipulation. The Pakistani military want to get rid of Afghanistan`s cultural, historic, and above all Persian past. They want to get rid of its cultural mix so there is no more national Afghan thinking, nor resistance toward a Pakistani takeover of the country.``



THE ROVING EYE

How a thief saved the Buddhas from Taliban

Story: Pepe Escobar

Pictures: Jason Florio

Picture 1: The shack that houses the Bamiyan collection

Picture 2: Saved sculpture

Picture 3: Saved sculpture

Picture 4: Part of a frieze

``Oh, I have Buddhas from Bamiyan.``

The news - as cool, calm and collected as a Taliban rocket launch - took a while to sink in. The Cousin of the Mine King of Baluchistan was still smiling. I had just crossed Afghanistan overland from east to west, from the Pakistan border at Landi Kotal to the Iranian border at Islam Qillah. With my photographer, we were the first Western journalists to undertake this gruelling marathon in quite a while - as NGO workers in Afghanistan themselves acknowledged.

We had been in Quetta, frontier capital of the Pakistani side of Baluchistan, for only a few hours. In Afghanistan, we had been arrested (twice), menaced with a trial by a military court, accused of being ``UN spies``. We were exhausted, and as far as Bamiyan was concerned, frustrated. Taliban officials in Kabul had denied us a visa to visit Bamiyan, allegedly for ``security reasons``. I live in Buddhist Thailand. Apart from trying to understand what makes a madrassa * worldview tick at the beginning of the third millennium, I had always longed to see the Bamiyan Buddhas.

But we never made it to Bamiyan. Instead, Bamiyan came to us.

At the Quetta Serena Hotel - a plush compound straight from Santa Fe, New Mexico - the Cousin of the Mine King showed up in style: chauffeur-driven in a Toyota Hi-Lux. This could only foment our paranoia: Toyotas Hi-Lux constitute the entire Taliban motorized force, and when we were arrested by the religious police in Kabul stadium in the middle of a soccer match for (not) taking photos, we were taken to interrogation in the back seat of a Toyota Hi-Lux. But the Cousin of the Mine King had other plans.

``Let`s go meet some nomads.``

A few hours later, we are in a tent sipping tea with a family of Baluchistan borderland nomads. Compared to the destitute Ghazni nomads we had seen in Afghanistan, fleeing from the worst drought in the last 30 years, these ones are positively deluxe. The head of the family promptly says he is about to offer 300,000 rupees (US$5,046) as downpayment for a brand new Hi-Lux. He also tries to sell us a falcon: customers from the Arab Emirates are supposed to buy them for as much as 1 million rupees.

The head nomad reveals himself to be an Afghan trader in the Punjab. His take on Afghanistan is extremely self-assured: the Taliban are falling apart, and the country has now split into three factions. All of them are responsible for the widespread destruction.

Back in Quetta, after the nomad warm-up, we are taken through a mud-brick labyrinth to a house in the middle of a desert wasteland. Kids swarm in the dusty ``streets``. One of them disappears inside a shack and emerges with a statue. And another. And then another. We are now contemplating the private collection of the Cousin of the Mine King. It features astonishing Greco-Buddhist boddhisattvas * *, Hellenic arhats * * * with their ribs protruding, and even part of a frieze. Some could be 3rd or 4th Century, some even older. They are all pre-Bamiyan Buddhas.

The Cousin of the Mine King is naturally evasive. He would love to sell his collection to a Western museum - but can`t get it out of the country. The Guimet Museum of Asian Arts in Paris, recently reopened after lavish restoration work worth $50 million, would kill for this ``private collection``. He ``obtained most of the statues from the Bamiyan valley``. Some of them ``came from the Kabul museum``. The methods were effective: ``We just went there and took them.``

With the boddhisattvas still on our minds, the Cousin of the Mine King takes us to meet the Great Man himself. We are ushered into his living room, decorated with a silk qom almost the size of a tennis court and worth the GDP of whole Afghan provinces. The Mine King is a Baluchi from the borderlands - a member of the Sanjirani tribe. He controls coal, onyx, marble and granite mines. And he gets straight to the point.

``Afghanistan is a tribal society. We should leave it like that.`` For him, the only solution for the country would be the return of King Zahir Shah: ``But that was already proposed in the early `90s. Now it`s too late.`` The Mine King regards the Taliban as ``very nice people``. But he worries about the future, considering the vast amount of weapons in the country: ``If there is a total collapse in Afghanistan, the ashes will be coming straight to Pakistan.``

The Mine King waves us goodbye, dreaming of enjoying New York City nightlife. That was a few months ago. Today, somewhere in the wasteland outskirts of Quetta, a few Afghan Buddhas are still sleeping half-buried in the sand. They escaped the fate of the Bamiyan Buddhas, bombed to ashes by the Taliban. But as the Mine King himself remarked, these ashes, brought by the winds, headed straight into Pakistan.

According to Kacem Fazelly, an ex-professor of Law at Kabul University, ``the destruction of the statues is also a consequence of a strategic manipulation. The Pakistani military want to get rid of Afghanistan`s cultural, historic, and above all Persian past. They want to get rid of its cultural mix so there is no more national Afghan thinking, nor resistance toward a Pakistani takeover of the country.``

A new geopolitical Great Game is in play in Central Asia. The Taliban are just some of the minor players. They can obliterate Buddhist art that predates Islam itself. But Buddhism teaches us that everything is impermanent. Impermanence: a few months ago the Cousin of the Mine King would have been accused of being a thief; now, he can be seen as a man who saved a significant part of the world`s heritage from the Taliban`s orgy of destruction. And more impermanence: considering Central Asian volatility, the bombers themselves, sooner or later, could be reduced to ashes in the new Great Game.

*Madrassa: an Islamic religious school.

* *Boddhisattva: One who delays final enlightenment and attainment of Nirvana in order to pass his wisdom on to others. A fully compassionate being.

* * *Arhat: One who has attained Nirvana.

To all those who like to talk about the hypocrisy of the people criticizing the Taliban while they are quiet about other issues in Afghanistan and are posting such articles:

1. What has the international community really done regarding the Buddhas? NOTHING. ZILCH. ZERO other than appeal to the Taliban to stop.

2. What has the international community done to prevent the Taliban`s disgraceful conduct against its own population? Give money, arms & support to the Northern Alliance.

So what is the hypocrisy that the international community is being accused of?

These articles about hypocrisy are toilet paper.

The Taliban`s actions perhaps should be seen as an attempt to wipe out all alternate identities.

E.g., I picked this up from a posting by a historian on another newsgroup. Taliban-like actions are aimed at erasing this version of history and identity. The issue is not whether the version is accurate or not; but that it must be wiped out.

-Arun Gupta

Quote :

You may be interested in what an elderly Balouchi historian, Prof. Agha Mir (Noori) Naseer Khan, told me in Quetta in April. He said that ``Balouchis are less fundamentalist than are Pathans and Afghans``.

He explained how Balouchis were converted to Islam during one of the first waves of Arab invasions in the ninth century. He said at that time, Balouchis had agreed to observe Islamic customs in exchange for keeping sovereignty of their land.

``Prior to converting to Islam, Balouchis had been fire worshippers, Zoroastrian, and even up to the present day, when Balouchis take a vow, they swear their oaths on fire.`` They still, a thousand years later, he informed me, ``have myths and stories about the sun and about fire.``

Professor Noori Khan claimed that ``Pathans and Afghans are more fundamentalist than are Balouchis because Pathans were converted to Islam numerous times. As successive waves of Islamic invaders moved across Central Asia, the Pathans and Afghans were their victims, time and again.``

The octogenarian Balouchi gentleman, who had been the emissary of the Khan of Kalat in the forties when Jinnah came for negotiations, explained that the people living in Afghanistan and NWFP had been Buddhist for centuries. After each invader would pass through their territory, forcefully converting the inhabitants, the local residents would again revert to Buddhism. Then the next invaders would come and convert them ``by the sword`` again and again.

This, he explained, was why the Pathans and Afghans practiced such a conservative and rigid Islam. They felt they had to prove their ``Islamness`` to save their lives, so they became strictly orthodox and conservative. Balouchis, though often outwardly conservative, particularly regarding the role of women, don`t support the type of fundamentalist Islam promoted by the Taliban.

End quote

To PM,

In the opinion piece of dawn today, titled ``sectarian violence and law`, there is a statement that hardly any one is tried for the mass killings, like the recent shooting in a mosque. The article also states that the only one is the recent hanging after several protest from the iranians, that too after 11 years. I find this hard to believe, but from your general impression of the situation in pakistan, do you consider this credible.

I regret to ask you this, but I remeber a few years ago, you gave a true response to a touchy question.

regards

jay

The main reason for the international furor over the destruction of statues, and almost universal condemnation of the people who carried out this act or condoned it (like Mr. F. Khan!) is that it was simply unnecessary and stupid. A government is supposed to take care of people it rules. Taleban, instead of dealing with those severe issues which are torturing its population for years, came up with this edict and diverted their attention and resources to a cause which was neither a security issue nor a bread-butter issue and it was an issue which no other government in this World will prioritize.

If your argument is this that it happened because the Taleban were pushed to the wall; then it means that you admit that international sanction and isolation against the Taleban are working. And, now,the statue destruction will increase that isolation not reduce it.

Finally, get this. Among the journlist reports that Pakistan had silent approval of this deed, Its FM is blaming the West that it did not do enough to stop the destruction!

What a game!!

Taliban’s idol-smashing edict had Pakistan’s tacit approval

TWO MEMBERS of the Taliban council that passed the edict calling for the destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan`s Bamiyan province were Pakistani nationals, say diplomatic sources here. Analysts say this may mean Islamabad, despite its pleas to the Taliban regime not to destroy the statues, tacitly gave a green signal to the edict.

The Taliban have two theological councils, or shura. The theological council, Dar ul Ifta, has five to seven members. It was this shura, at the instance of the hardline Taliban Justice Minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, which past the edict calling for the breaking of ``all statues and idols.`` But two of the council members are Pakistanis and they each head two fundamentalist Islamic groups based in that country.

According to a diplomatic source both these Pakistani groups have “well-known links with the Pakistani establishment.” Analysts say it is unlikely that Islamabad`s military and intelligence establishment would not, therefore, have known about the vote or been in a position to influence the vote. In fact the members of the Dar ul Ifta voted unanimously in favour of the edict.

Reports of Islamabad`s links to the Taliban edict are surfacing at a time when the Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar is in Tokyo trying to persuade Japan to resume financial aid to Islamabad. It would mean Mr Sattar`s ‘regrets’ over the Taliban edict are the diplomatic equivalent of crocodile tears.

Most Japanese are Buddhists and Tokyo was at the forefront of international efforts to try and save the statues. “Incidentally Pakistan was initially reluctant to issue any statement critical of the Taliban edict,” say the diplomatic sources.

aicha #239,

Thanks for bursting my bubble before it got too big.

dammit :)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/170301/detnat02.asp
Taliban’s idol-smashing edict had Pakistan’s tacit approval
HT Correspondent
(New Delhi, March 16)

TWO MEMBERS of the Taliban council that passed the edict calling for the destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan`s Bamiyan province were Pakistani nationals, say diplomatic sources here. Analysts say this may mean Islamabad, despite its pleas to the Taliban regime not to destroy the statues, tacitly gave a green signal to the edict.

The Taliban have two theological councils, or shura. The theological council, Dar ul Ifta, has five to seven members. It was this shura, at the instance of the hardline Taliban Justice Minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, which past the edict calling for the breaking of ``all statues and idols.`` But two of the council members are Pakistanis and they each head two fundamentalist Islamic groups based in that country.

According to a diplomatic source both these Pakistani groups have “well-known links with the Pakistani establishment.” Analysts say it is unlikely that Islamabad`s military and intelligence establishment would not, therefore, have known about the vote or been in a position to influence the vote. In fact the members of the Dar ul Ifta voted unanimously in favour of the edict.

Reports of Islamabad`s links to the Taliban edict are surfacing at a time when the Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar is in Tokyo trying to persuade Japan to resume financial aid to Islamabad. It would mean Mr Sattar`s ‘regrets’ over the Taliban edict are the diplomatic equivalent of crocodile tears.

Most Japanese are Buddhists and Tokyo was at the forefront of international efforts to try and save the statues. “Incidentally Pakistan was initially reluctant to issue any statement critical of the Taliban edict,” say the diplomatic sources.

t-bhai #237,

nice article. thanks for posting it.

scout 236

It is ``Jayaprakash`` as in ``Chandrashekhar`` or ``Madhusudan``

and not ``Jaya Prakash``

Extract from a commentary in the Washington Times:

``As they confront increasing internal opposition, the Taleban zealots have managed to pull off something rather extraordinary, in geo-strategic terms. They have provided Iran, Russia, China, India and the United States with a common enemy. Iran plies the Shi`ite connection. India supports the Northern Alliance,because Pakistan supports the Taleban. China says the Taleban supports Muslim rebels in western China. Russia resents Taleban-trained terrorists who stir trouble in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.``

``The Russians also see direct links from the Taleban and Osama bin Laden to Chechen rebels. For the United States, harboring terrorist kingpin bin Laden puts the Taleban in the crosshairs.``

``The Taleban leaders can blast stone Buddhas. Confronting their own failures and the wrath of the globe`s most powerful nations is a much more difficult battle.``

Taleban a monument to Western folly

Rosie DiManno

COLUMNIST

DON`T BOTHER crying over limestone Buddha statues if you`ve no tears for living - and dying - Afghan children.

It must say something about us, both in the West and in Islamic Arab nations, that more outrage has been expressed over the demolition of two monolithic monuments - which only students of antiquity had heard of a fortnight ago - than 2 million Afghans on the verge of starvation.

It`s indeed hideous that the one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar, spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox version of Islam at the heart of the ruling Taleban movement, issued the obliteration order against the historic twin Buddhas, carved from an isolated mountainside 1,500 years ago. The Buddhas were doing no harm and had few worshippers in a country where Buddhism died out a millennium ago. Even if Afghanistan were a nation that encouraged tourism, it`s doubtful whether many would make the arduous journey to Bamiyan at the southwestern juncture of the nearly untraversable Hindu Kush.

What public indignation exists towards the Taleban, particularly in the sophisticated West, has been aimed - and with good reason, I don`t disagree - at the theocracy`s crushing decrees against its own population, specifically the denial of basic human rights to females. This is a country which, since the Taleban seized power by overrunning the capital Kabul in 1996, has forced women into a rigid form of house arrest. Females must wear the traditional burqah, the head-to-toe blue (not black) covering that hides even their eyes, whenever they step outside their homes, which they can do only in the company of male family members, a husband or a brother. Girls may not attend school, although a recent loosening of the law has permitted, or at least tolerated, girl-children attending privately run classrooms. But even boys receive an education that teaches them little beyond the recitation of the Koran and other approved Islamic texts. Women may not hold jobs, except for female doctors working in all-female hospital wings. Not that the career prospects are all that much better for male doctors, who earn about $4.50 a month working under appalling conditions in government-run hospitals.

The Taleban does not allow photographs of any human image, which they consider sinful by their reading of the Koran, just as they forbid all graven images of artwork - the basis upon which the Bamiyan Buddhas were ordered dynamited. Everyone must pray five times a day - a customary practice for Muslims, except in Afghanistan those found to be neglecting their religious duties are flayed on the spot by the roving ``soldier-monks`` of the Taleban. Music is forbidden. TV is forbidden. Videotapes and cassettes are forbidden. Only the proscription against kite-flying - an expertise elevated to an artform in Afghanistan - has been quietly dropped by the government, which is now also allowing its citizens to keep pet birds, another avid pursuit of Afghans.

What`s happened is that Afghanistan`s educated class, or at least those who can afford the $20,000 to $25,000 required for forged documents and exit papers, have fled their homeland. But what must be remembered by those of us in the West who can`t even imagine such a strict existence is this: For the majority of Afghans, having come through two decades of horrendous civil war and Russian occupation verging on genocide, the Taleban`s edicts are not so insupportable. What the Taleban gave Afghans was a measure of peace and security that many had never before known, so decimated had this country become by violence and inter-tribal warfare.

And the only reason the Taleban was able to assume power is because the West permitted it.

It was the West, specifically the United States, that propelled the Taleban to ascendancy in the first place. Only a decade ago, the U.S. funnelled arms and military expertise to the mujahideen guerrillas because it was strategically imperative to thwart Russian imperialism and Moscow`s lust for the rugged jewel that is Afghanistan, with all its economic riches and its geographic situation in the heart of Central Asia.

The mujahideen, in rather spectacular fashion, pushed the Russians back over the border. When the Russians turned tail, the Americans lost their keen interest in Afghanistan and the glorious mujahideen fell into a decade of factional, tribal and ethnic warfare, Sunni versus Shiite, fundamentalist versus secular. Now the most fierce of all the mujahideen military commanders, Ahmad Shah Massoud, is isolated in a small corner of Afghanistan while the Taleban, enjoying the endless military and political succour of Pakistan, controls 90 per cent of the country and official recognition from only two other nations.

The Americans, who had encouraged Islamic militancy when it meant thwarting Russia, allowed Pakistan to take the lead of political influence in Afghanistan. Strategically, the U.S. is more preoccupied with bringing oil out of neighbouring Turkmenistan via a pipeline that would go through Afghanistan and Pakistan, but at all costs not Iran. Meanwhile, the Taleban - which cannot feed its own people - reaps the stupendous profit from its newfound distinction as the world`s largest producer and exporter of opium poppies and heroin.

For those of us who love Afghanistan - a magnificent nation that gets in your blood, with a proud people whose likes may never be seen again - there is an abiding faith that the country will endure and survive the ravages of the Taleban, if merely by its sheer obstinacy, just as it has always endured and survived - on its own. Politically, the Taleban will go into eclipse, eventually. There are many who believe if foreign aid was shut off, the Taleban would be ousted from power by an enraged citizenry, most of whom practise a form of Islam that takes its lifeblood from tribal and regional cultural affiliations.

But three consecutive years of devastating drought have left the Afghan citizenry weak and dying. Hundreds of thousands are starving and freezing in camps. Foreign aid is a slim lifeline, but all they`ve got. I`ve no idea what`s to be done, except that the West, the U.S., should hold itself accountable for what it has wrought.

By comparison, why all the wailing about two stone Buddhas reduced to rubble?

jay is a girl?

woohoo

Rajanjua, sigalph & others re. asif n

I really wish the guy doesn`t stop. It always gives me a perverse kick from peeping into his mind through his posts - a bit like watching a freak show.

Free entertainment is otherwise hard to come by nowadays.....

Asif Nasqbandi

I will miss you very much, if you cut down the interactions on the chowk. You are a true pakistani who believes in the islamic republic and not an accidental theorist. You represent the views of the majority of pakistanis, who unfortunately cannot articulate the vuews as good as you have done so far.

Now we are left with the psuedo pakistanis, trying to be the liberal whiteman, trying out the industrial grade bleach to change thye skin colour, b8ut still relapses into urdu inanities when confronted with unpalatable truth.

Asif, stay on, let the world see the true pakistan.

regards and best wishes.

jay.

Instead of the kashmir border, if you choose to take the sea route, pl do drop in at Calicut, and ask for Jayaprakash, they will guide you on.

``...as i am cutting down severely interactions on chowk.``

Thank you. Who needs a nutcase like Solitude with people like you and Mullah Omar around. And if you are aware of the history (which I seriously doubt) then learn from it.

re rdesikan advise to asif n and cohorts

``Heck, aren`t you better off immigrating to heaven aka afghanistan where you can live the life you`ve always wanted to--instead of living with infidels and kafirs of all hues.``

No. That`d involve actually making the hard sacrifices that these people are incapable. As long as the shari`a is something they can preach to others, they are lions. WHen it comes to putting roots where your mouth is, these folks are AWOL. Remember Khomeini who lived in heathen Paris most of his active life?

Re Asif 217

Dude, go ahead and pray 24/7/365 and give my regards to the man above if one really exists in the first place. Heck, aren`t you better off immigrating to heaven aka afghanistan where you can live the life you`ve always wanted to--instead of living with infidels and kafirs of all hues.

Cheers

re: Naqshbandi

That gentle soul, Ibn Affan who had to suffer so much at that late age was also accused of biddat by jahils like you. Its time you start thinking some original thoughts.

sigalph/janjua/krashid...

When it comes to islam, i don`t have any original ideas--alhamdulillah. And janjua, yes i am aware of the history you refer to. Why don`t you learn some respect for the islamic savants? Please don`t bother replying that was a rhetorical q.

Dear Bilal,

Please email me on naqshbandijamaati@yahoo.com and we can continue our discussion there if u like. i would prefer that. thank you. as i am cutting down severely interactions on chowk.

:-)

Ras Siddiqui#

Probably the writer is unaware of the history of peaceful CO-Existence of Afghans/Central Asians.

Or anybody with a pen is writing these days.

I think all the males are writing these days.

re harish 216

Right on brother! The Democratic Leadership is scared of any tax cuts for one simple reason: it goes to benefit the most working poor and wean them away from the all encompassing welfare state created by LBJ. And any ``Republican`` plan that helps the working poor chips away at the Democratic plantation system of identity based politics. The Kennedys, the Rockefellers, the Clinons thrive on the plantation system where a bonded class of second class citizens delivers their votes to the massa`! Once these citizens can help themselves and get rid of the `helpful` civil servant, they will not need the Dems any more. That thought is life threatning to the Democrats and their closet friends-the liberal Republicans (whatever these things are).

AhmedB #112

I think both point of view are correct.

Turning the blind eye to famine stricken people and making hue and cry for Buddha is shame.

That is being done to handover Osama Bin Laden. What is the guarantee that after handing over Osama Bin Laden West will stop supporting dictatorship in Arabian countries in contradiction to the demands of people for elected Government. Oil is always more important than democracy till 11;45 pm on 3/14/01 in Texas.

(I also believe that Taliban should take care of their people. But does two wrong make a right. My maths is weak)

Harish 3 #

I am not here to argue with you.

Neither I am much interested in this debate of democrat vs Republican.

But my point of view is correct and your wrong is the last analysis of mine.

Bye Bye.

sigalph235 #235

``You attach strange and long winded titles before and honorofics at the end of every name you revere``

HA HA HA!

I hope he doesn`t stop doing that. I have been laughing to my heart`s content everytime I read this nonsense.

Reminds me of a movie in which a fraudelent character went around as Something Something Sri Sri 420. I just didn`t know there were so many of such characters outside India too.

Now, let me go and laugh some more :)

Dear Asif:

Why my last post (Reply # 192) did not deserve your attention/reply? Please explain.

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

re asif n

If brevity is the soul of wit, then you have little. I read your references going back to a long line of long dead men from centuries past by and wonder if you have any original thought at all.

You attach strange and long winded titles before and honorofics at the end of every name you revere. Pray tell, did these gentleman address each other the same way? If they did I am glad that there was no parliament then-imagine the length of the debates when the Speaker called on the Breaker of Statues, Conqueror of Heathens, Glory of Muslims, Invader of Iraq, the Rightly Guided, Right Honorable, Defeneder of the Faithful Hazrat so-and-so Rahmatullah Alaihe etc etc to answer the question on beheading of converts from the Light of the Faithful, Glory of the Rightly Guided, Sword of Truth, Leader of the Scholars Hazrat so-and-so Rahmatulah Alaihe.

It is sad to see that you enjoy the pure blessings of liberty and free speech only in an attempt to deny it to others should you have your way. While as an idealistic student I was apalled to see the elctions in Algeria annulled, your posts confirm my realism that it was the right thing to do. Hitler used democracy to destroy freedom, Khomeini did the same. NEVER AGAIN!

Re: Hazrat Naqshbandi (ra)

I am supposed to change my mind after reading all that crap you posted. You don`t need to prove again and again that your misc. Shaikh ul Islam`s are idiots of the highest order. I already know that. Considering Ali superior to Abu Bakr makes you a Kafir? What`s wrong with that you jackass? A person can`t choose which sahabi he/she likes the best. I find Ali`s personality much better than Abu Bakr and Usman (a comparison with Umar is tougher). How can that be an insult to Abu Bakr or Usman. Do you know that at Jamal al-Zubair b. al-Awam and Tallah ibn. Ubaydullah fought against Ali b. Abi Talib. Do you know that all three are what we consider as ushra mubashira. Do you know that their armies consisted of sahabies who took sides. That there was carnage which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of sahaba including al-Zubair and Tallah. These were all sahabies who butchered each other. They did`nt call each other Kafirs in that extreme situation-who in the hell are you and these so-called shaykh-ul-islams to call anyone Kafir. They should be called shaykh-ul-jehalat. You have never come up with a decent reliable source. All you do is quote some idiot`s ridiculous fatwa or refer to hizmet books. If you want to make an argument come with reliable historic sources to back your arguments.

This is relatively recent history and is very well documented-You don`t need to go to some shaykh (who probably spent most of his life scratching his balls, eating halwa and worrying over whether doing his misc. wives doggy-style would be islamic or unislamic), you can look up this stuff in a history book yourself.

Savages- there are barbarians at the gate!

Interesting article from Nasim Zehra. Nasim, along with Ayaz Amir, in my opinion, are the two best journalists in Pakistan. They usually come up with very insightful analyses, quite a bit different from the generic stuff that most journalists come up with. Nasim was a senior member of Imran Khan`s party. She left due to a difference of principles:

``Why the Buddha bashing?

Nasim Zehra

Beyond the controversial and widely unacceptable religious justification that the Afghan government has given for destroying the Buddha statues, there is need to examine this unfortunate development more closely. While the Taliban`s literalist interpretation of Islam shaped by their education and traditions has always been apparent in their government`s social policies, why did they not opt for the destruction of these statues earlier?

They have after all been in power for the last five years. More significantly, only last year, this very Taliban government invited Nancy Dupree, a veteran American anthropologist, to inaugurate the Kabul museum. After restoring some of the Buddha statues and pulling out others from the basement, the museum was re-opened after more than two decades. Why then this sudden war on the Buddhas?`` (NEWS, Pakistan)

http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html

More cut-n-paste..

____________________________________________

Taliban say they will spare Hindu statues: KABUL, Mar 14 : Foreign minister of the ruling Taliban movement said today they would not smash idols of the minority Hindu population in their campaign to eliminate statues from Afghanistan. ``There are a limited number of Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan with their temples,`` Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told a news conference. ``Their statues will not be smashed as they are worshipping them as part of their religious rituals. (Reuters)

____________________________________________

I wonder if this adds to the theorizing that the Buddhas were destroyed because of the Taliban being pissed off at noone even acknowledging their eradication of the poppy plantations (amusing that someone should rant about their poppy cultivation..).

To All It May Concern!

I have decided after careful thinking that I will from now on severely limit the amount of interaction I do on Chowk.Though i will probably continue to read the articles I will only reply now if i think it is truly necessary. For life is short and I must worry about myself more and preparing for the Afterlife instead of wasting valuable time here debating with others. All I will say to those who call themselves Muslims on here is as some sincere advice i urge you from my heart to study the aqidah of the Ahle SunnaH w`al Jama`at with an open mind and may Allah give you and me all the tawfeeq to accept it. ameen. To the non-Muslims i will say peace, for you your religion for me mine: I hope you will read the following books: Muhammad (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) -His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings and And Muhammad Is His Messenger: Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety by Anne-Marie Schimmel. In addition I urge all Muslims to read Ash-Shifa` by Qadi Ayad al Maliki translated by Aisha AbdurRahman Bewley.

Some websites I recommend also (for all)

www.sunnah.org

www.nfie.com

www.alahazrat.net

www.masud.co.uk

well...that`s it i guess. wa salaamu alaa manitaba al Huda (and peace be upon those who are rightly guided.)

Praise be to Allah Lord of The Worlds and Peace and Blessings Be Upon Our Master Sayyidina Muhammad al Mustafa The Beloved of Allah and His Illustrious Companions, each and every one of them, His Pure Family and Household, His Chaste Wives, His Awliya e Kamileen and all His righteous followers till the Day of Judgement.

abd al Mustafa

Asif

krashid #165, sigalph235 #173

krashid wrote, ``That is why Compaign finance reform is a demand of Democrats mainly. Because once the influence of money is gone, democrats will find it easy to win the election because of their position on social issues, minorities, workers right, enviornment etc which appeals to majority of people``

really? take a look at this:

``Key Democrat to vote against campaign finance bill``

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/14/breaux.mccain/index.html

the article writes, ``...Democrats say after reading the language more carefully they believe banning so-called ``soft money`` would put Democrats at a disadvantage.``

...like i said before, for all their rhetoric, democrats will vote against mccain campaign finance reform more vehemently then the republicans. not for the right reason -- that it would violate the 1st ammendment -- but b/c democrats are too addicted to special interest ``soft money`` donations from unions and the like.

krashid, you said the republicans are the party of the rich and democrats are the party of the minorities but you`re just brainwashed by democratic propaganda.

a more accurate generalization would be that the republicans are the party of ideas (individual liberty, small government, markets, etc.) and democrats are the party of identity politics (for democrats, you are not an individual, but a member of a voting block -- asian, african-american, female, etc. -- and the only way to get your vote is to keep you ignorant (that`s why they`re against education reform!) and dependent on gov. through high taxation and welfare programs).

if you don`t agree with this, ask yourself what are democratic ideas? traditonally democrats from franklin roosevelt to lyndon johnson had socialistic ideas of income redistribution (social security) to welfare, but socialism has been a catastrophic failure (look at india) and this has left the democrats with no ideas. clinton knew this and talked like a conservative. al gore isn`t as good a liar and became an embarrassment to his party last year. at present, the best democrats can do is to simply oppose republican ideas. republicans want a tax cut? democrats say we should pay down the debt -- not b/c they believe debt reduction is better then giving people back their money, but simply b/c they have nothing else to say and can`t bring themselves to acknowledge that republicans are right.

unile the the current democrats, whether you agree or disagree, republicans have a view -- that individual liberty, small government, and a free market are the only way to prosperity. the best democrats usually do is to say something like ``we are for X`` where X can be minorities or poor people or whatever -- but it means nothing. the democrats are populists. they just try and say what they think an ignornant population wants to hear.

Bilal#194, sigalph235 #198

Thanks for your thoughtful and meaningful posts.

Sadhana

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010313/wl/afghanistan_buddhas_5.html

More Buddhist Statues Destroyed

By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - At least two weeks before Afghanistan`s supreme ruler ordered all statues in the country destroyed, zealous Taliban soldiers wielding pickaxes hacked an ancient Buddhist complex to rubble, scrawling graffiti on the walls, a Taliban guard said.

``We confront the idols of non-Muslims and destroy them,`` read one message etched in a wall in Pashtu, the language of Afghanistan`s majority Pashtun ethnic group.

Arriving packed aboard four pickup trucks, the soldiers spent several days swarming over the complex, built in tiers up the side of a hill from the second to seventh centuries, said Mullah Saeed Jan, a Taliban guard at the site.

An ancient baked clay statue of Buddha, beheaded decades ago, was hacked into small pieces, among the relics destroyed at the complex at Ghazni, 120 miles southwest of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

``The Buddha was here, but we have smashed it,`` Jan said Tuesday, wrapped in a dirty brown blanket to protect against the cold wind sweeping the arid plains.

Jan said he knew little of the international outrage over the Taliban`s destruction of its pre-Islamic heritage, including two towering statues of Buddha in central Afghanistan.

``I don`t know what the world thinks, but it is in Shariat (Islamic law), so what can we do?`` he said.

The destruction at the Ghazni complex came at least two weeks before the Taliban`s reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, issued his order to destroy all statues, decreeing them idolatrous and offensive to Islam.

Taliban soldiers using explosives last week demolished two towering statues of Buddha hewn from a cliff face in central Bamiyan in the third and fifth centuries. The taller of the two, at 170 feet, was believed to be the world`s tallest standing Buddha, while the other measured 120 feet.

The Taliban have refused to allow anyone to go to Bamiyan.

On Tuesday, Jan displayed bits of clay that used to be part of a Buddha statue kept inside a chamber sealed with wooden slats. In another chamber, all that had remained of one ancient statue, the feet, were pounded into rubble and even the altar was demolished.

``I don`t know. They have gone completely mad, I think,`` said Nancy Dupree, a historian and Afghan expert, who has chronicled the history, culture and traditions of Afghanistan.

A founding member of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan`s Cultural Heritage, Dupree said the Ghazni ruins were a rich mix of Buddhist and Hindu traditions.

``This was toward the end of Buddhism in the area and the coming of Hinduism into Afghanistan,`` she explained. Some of the chambers contained Hindu statues, long since lost, destroyed or sold.

Smack in the middle of the ancient trade route between China and central Asia, Afghanistan`s history is a rich blend of cultures and religions.

``There`s an unbroken cultural history of 50,000 years,`` said Carla Grissmann, who spent several years inventorying the thousands of artifacts, most of Buddhist in origin, at the Kabul Museum.

The Taliban`s Foreign Minster Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said Sunday they had all been destroyed.

For Afghans, Ghazni is considered an Islamic cultural mecca because religious leaders are buried there, Jan said.

Some of those leaders shared the same version of Islam that is followed by today`s Taliban.

Take Afghanistan`s 12th-century ruler, Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi, who rampaged across most of northern India converting Hindus to Islam and smashing Hindu statues.

He is said to have taken Hindu statues and put them at the entrance to a mosque in Ghazni so the Muslim faithful could use them as stepping stones.

Afghanistan still has a relatively large Hindu and Sikh population, although hundreds fled between 1992 and 1996 when warring Islamic factions, who threw out the communists, destroyed much of Kabul.

The Taliban took control in 1996 and have allowed Hindus and Sikhs to practice their religions. A Sikh temple in Karte Parwan neighborhood is a giant marble hall where the soft melodies of Indian music can be heard.

Despite the Taliban`s ban on music, they have not interfered with music played by other religions.

``At the moment, we have no difficulties. But no one can guarantee the future,`` said a Hindu resident of Kabul, who identified himself only as Makan.

``We don`t want to talk politics,`` said a nervous Andar Singh, a Sikh. ``Everything for the moment is calm and normal.`` An estimated 450 worshippers come daily to a Sikh temple in Kabul, while in Jalalabad, there are 520 Sikh worshippers, Singh said.

Dupree clings to the hope that some of the statues may have been brought to Pakistan to be sold, despite the Taliban`s repeated denials that any artifact was sold.

``It is as wrong to sell as it is to have`` the statues, said Mullah Mohammed Hassan, deputy administrator of Kabul.

rajajanjua, and krashid...read the following any you will have your answers insha Allah. This is my last answer on this topic; (also TAhmed will benefit from this). The views expressed by this great Imam are my views exactly:

quote:

Ten fatwas from the great Islamic scholar of India, Ahmad Rida Khan Barilawi

59 - Of the great `ulama` in India, Ahmad Rida Khan Barilawi, in his fatwa book Fatawal-Haramain, answers twenty-eight questions. All of these fatwas are in conformity with the knowledge of the Ahl as-Sunnat `ulama`. Ten of these fatwas are given below for their auspiciousness:

Question 1: ``The British spies in India, who call themselves `Nayashira`. They believe that Jabrail (`alaihi `s-salam), angels, genies, the Satan, heavens, the mujiza of Miraj, Hell and Paradise exist and that bodies will get alive again as Muslims believe. Yet they give false meanings to the ayats that deal with these subjects, as some of the people called Batiniyya do. They say that these things are not made of matter but they are conceptual and imaginative. They say that nothing can exist outside customs and physical laws. Thus they deny that Allahu ta`ala can create many things outside the laws of nature. They do not believe in mujizat, and they explain them away according to what they see and learn in nature. They say that it is haram and cruelty to use as slaves the captives taken from among non-Muslims in the jihad performed for spreading Allah`s religion and that it is a thing done by the savage. Though it was defined in all heavenly religions, they claim that Allah has not commanded it. They do not believe any of the tafsir and hadith books. They claim that all their contents have been invented by `ulama. They say, `The Qur`an remains the sole truth in our hands. We interpret the Qur`an according to our new information. We do not believe what the early Muslims understood from it or what has reached us from them.` Can those who say so be called `Muslims` or `Ahl al-Qibla` even if they say that they are Muslim, utter kalimat ash-shahada and perform salat towards the qibla? Moreover, these spies claim that they themselves are the real Muslims and that what they tell is the pure Islamic religion. Shall we call them `Muslim` or `non-Muslim`? Shall we consider their words as wrong and falsified?``

Answer 1: They are not sincere at all. I swear by Allah, they have no connection with Islam. They are enemies of Islam fed by the British. They are the worst of non-Muslims and murtads, because they deny the things that are known to be indispensable in religion. Their saying kalimat ash-shahada and professing that the Kaba is the qibla do not show their being believers or Ahl al-qibla. None of the `ulama` and books of itiqad and fiqh has permitted alteration of the indispensable, apparent and open religious teachings.

Question 2: ``It is understood that they are British spies. What would you say about those who, after understanding their teachings and heresy, call them Muslims, or even regard them as `ulama` of Islam and authorities on religion, or praise them with the terms that have not been used for the superiors of Islam yet, and, by mentioning their names, say, `They are the elect of our time. Their books are invaluable for the youth. Their writings prove their quality of perfection. They are the pillars of our religion and the guards of Islam?` What would you say about those who praise them as such, write, publish and advertise their books as the `books of superiors of religion`?``

Answer 2: One who does not believe in one of the things indispensable in Islam becomes a kafir. One who has suspicion of such a person`s not being a kafir and in that he will not be punished in Hell eternally is a kafir, too. That the latter, too, is a kafir is openly written in the books Bazaziyya, Durr al-mukhtar, Qadi Iyad`s Shifa, Imam an-Nawawi`s Rawda and Ibn Hajar al-Makki`s Al-alam. It has been unanimously declared by the `ulama` of Islam that it also makes one kafir to have doubt that it is infidelity (kufr) if somebody does not regard a Christian, a Jew or a dissenter from Islam as a kafir. This unanimity is written in the above-mentioned books. While one become a kafir out of doubting in the other`s being a kafir, it should be pondered well how the one who regards him as a Muslim or, even, praises him with the terms reserved for the `ulama` of Islam will be. From these words of ours, we should understand well the situation of those who consider such people as `ulama` of Islam and praise and spread their speeches and writings filled with kufr. Praise or effort to disseminate or to advertise shows consent and love. Consent to kufr causes kufr. Consent to kufr does not mean to want the kafir to remain in kufr but to love his kufr.

Question 3: ``What does `ahl al-bidat` mean?``

Answer 3: If the cause of an innovator`s dissent from Ahl as-Sunnat is his belief in the superiority of `Ali over Abu Bakr and `Umar (radi-Allahu `anhum), he is of ahl al-bidat as it is written in Hulasa, Hindiyya and many other invaluable books. The one who does not believe in the khilafat (caliphate) of one or both of the latter two caliphs was said to be a kafir by the `ulama` of fiqh and to be a man of bidat by the `ulama` of kalam. For the sake of precaution, the term `man of bidat` should be used for them. One absolutely becomes a kafir if says that Allahu ta`ala is a creature, or that the present Qur`an al-karim is deficient and contains alterations of as-Sahabat al-kiram and of later times, or that `Ali (radi-Allahu `anh) or one of the Twelve Imams is superior to prophets. It is written in Hindiyya, Zahiriyya, Al-Hadiqat an-nadiyya and in fiqh books that he will be treated as a murtad. There is detailed information on this subject in the book Makalat al-mufassira an ahkami `l-bidati `l-mukaffira. [Ibn Abidin wrote `unlawful betrothal` in Radd al-muhtar: ``If one worships Ali (radi-Allahu anh) or says, `Jabrail was ordered to reveal the Qur`an to Ali, but he mistook and revealed it to Muhammad,` or `Abu Bakr was not a sahabi,` or Hadrat A`isha committed adultery,` he becomes a kafir. If he says that `Ali (radi-Allahu anh) superior to the two caliphs, or curses or slanders at a sahabi, he becomes a man of bid`a.`` In the third volume, he wrote: ``If one curses at or damns the two caliphs, he becomes a kafir. Though those people called Durziz, Mulhids and Isma`ilis carry out the five fundamentals of Islam, they become kafirs because of their belief in transmigration of the soul and by regarding wine and intercourse as halal and giving false meanings to ayats.`` Ibn Abidin, in his book Uqud ad-duriyya, quoted Shaikh al-Islam Abdullah Effendi`s extensive fatwa about the Shi`ites and reveals those who fell in kufr among them.]

Question 4: ``What would say about those who praise the people called `Batiniyya` with the words the `stars of knowledge,` `suns of `ulama`,` `great alim of our time,` or `guide of the century` and about those who believe these words?``

Answer 4: If they know that they praise those declared to be murtads, they also become murtads. Even if those praised are not murtads, it is apparent that it is ugly and bad to praise them. The hadith as-Sharif reported from Anas ibn Malik (radi-Allahu `anh) by Ibn Abi `d-dunya, Abu Yala and al-Baihaki and from Abu Huraira (radi-Allahu `anh) by Ibn `Adi says: ``When a sinner (fasiq) is praised, our Rabb`s indignation arouses.`` Permitting such praises or disseminating or advertising them shows consent to them. Consent to evils is also evil. [It is heard that some people admire the religious and political movement of, and praise the personality of, Humaini of Iran who is understood to be an enemy to as-Sahaba and to the whole of Ahl as-Sunna. They should carefully read this hadith and fatwa, get lesson from them and wake up from unawareness.]

Question 5: ``What would you say about some people`s saying that Allahu ta`ala and His Prophet (`alaihi `s-salam) may lie?``

Answer 5: Lying is a deficiency and ugliness. It has been unanimously declared that there is no ugly thing attributable to Allahu ta`ala or His Rasul (`alaihi `s-salam). This is dealt in detail in my book Subhana `s-subbuh an `aybi kazbin makbuh, wherein I gave documents from the `ulama` of kalam and tafsir. In many books by Arab and Persian `ulama`, it is written that those who say so have dissented from the right path and that they are heretics. The book Ad-durar as-saniyya by Hadrat `Allama Ahmad ibn Zain ibn Dahlan al-Makki, who was one of my masters in hadith, tells in detail about their heresies and gives, from Hadrat Mawlana Abu `s-su`ud, the Mufti of al-Madinat al-munawwara, passages refuting them. They have been caught by the Satan`s current and become soldiers to the Satan. The soldiers of the Satan will certainly be ruined.

Question 6: ``We nowadays see upstart people who are called `Ghair al-muqallidin,` that is non-or la-madhhabite people. They neither follow any of the four madhhabs nor let anybody follow one of them. They call themselves ahl al-hadith. They say that they follow only the Hadith. We see that some ignorant people, who are deprived of religious education and cannot differentiate the truth from the wrong and the straight from the crooked, pass themselves for authorities on religion after learning some Arabic in Egypt, the Hijaz, Iraq or in Damascus and write books on religion. What would you say about them and their books?``

Answer 6: In the subject on `Zabayih` in the marginalia of Durr al-mukhtar, `Allama Sayyid Ahmad at-Tahtawi, one of the `ulama of the Hanafi madhhab, writes: ``One who departs from the path of the `ulama` of fiqh, from as-siwad al-azam, will have directed himself to Hell. Oh Muslims! Therefore, hold fast to the path of Ahl as-Sunnat wal-Jamaat which is called `al-firqat an-najiyya` (group of Salvation), the unique group reported by our Prophet (`alaihi `s-salam) to be saved from Hell! Because, Allahu ta`ala`s help, protection and taking to bliss are only for those who are on this path. Allahu ta`ala`s Ghadab (Wrath) and adhab (torture) are for those who dissent from this path. Today, this firqat najiyya has gathered in the four madhhabs, namely, Hanafi, Shafi`i, Maliki and Hanbali. One who does not belong to any of these four madhhabs is a man of bidat or a man for Hell [heretic or unbeliever].`` Great Imam Sufyan ath-Thawri (radi Allahu `anh) said, ``If one who is not an alim in fiqh tries to adapt his affairs to hadiths, he leads himself to heresy.`` Great Imam Ibn al-Hajj al-Makki said the same in his work Al-mad`hal. My fatwas about and articles on the la-madhhabi are available in my book Al-barikat ash-sharika `ala marikat al-musharika.

Question 7: ``Some people say, `The la-madhhabi belong to Ahl As-Sunnat and are even licensed authorities on religion. They differ from Ahl as-Sunnat only in insignificant teachings, and this difference is beneficial as that between the Hanafi, Shafi`i and Maliki madhhabs, thus they help the religion of Islam. Should not the la-madhhabi, therefore be considered as those in the Hanafi and Shafi`i madhhabs and should not we know them as Islamic brothers and love heartfully and respect them? Isn`t it the way of those intoxicated with love for Allahu ta`ala to do one`s affairs according to hadiths though one is not a mujtahid? Didn`t Abu Dharr al-Ghaffari (radi-Allahu `anh), a Sahabi, act upon the hadith, ``Do not save your properties to make them kanz, a treasure``?` What would you say about those who say these about the la-madhhabi?``

Answer 7: These words are not correct at all. The person who says these becomes one among them, even one worse than them. How could a man of bidat be respected? The hadith reported from `Abdullah ibn Bashir (radi-Allahu `anh) by at-Tabarani says, ``One who respects the man of bidat will have helped in the annihilation of Islam.`` Another hadith, reported from Muaz (radi-Allahu `anh) in Kabir by at-Tabarani and in Hilya by Abu Nuaym, says, ``One who walks to show respect for the man of bidat has helped in destroying Islam.`` There are many similar hadiths. It is dalala, heresy, for those not promoted to the status of mujtahid not to follow one of the four madhhabs but to do one`s worship and affairs according to what he understands from hadiths. It is dissention from the believers` path. Allahu ta`ala declares in the 43rd ayat of the surat an-Nahl, ``Ask what you do not know from the people of dhikr!`` A hadith reported from Jabir ibn `Abdullah (radi-Allahu `anh) by Abu Dawud says, ``Ask what you do not know. Medicine for ignorance is inquiry.`` These ayat and hadith command those who do not know to learn by asking those who know. As it is concluded from this, those who speak about the la-madhhabi as quoted above or who admit and believe their words, in fact, belong to the la-madhhabi, being partners to them in heresy.

Question 8: ``In the last two years, this kind of people have multiplied in India. An organization named `Nadwat ul-ulama` has been founded in claim of service to Islam and to awaken Muslims. Here, every kind of people and those with heretical beliefs have gathered, and la-madhhabi people, including a few belonging to Ahl as-Sunnat, have taken hold of high chairs. What would you say about this?``

Answer 8: This behavior of them is haram and heretical. It is intended to estrange Muslims with little knowledge from their madhhabs. Such Muslims, upon seeing heretical men of religion in cooperation with Ahl as-Sunnat scholars all sitting at the same line of chairs, think of those heretics also as respectful and beneficial. They begin to show respect for them, which is sinful. Islamic religion commands humiliation and severe treatment of the men of bidat and forbids showing respect to them. In `aqa`id books, for example, in Sharh al-maqasid, the `ulama` of Islam wrote, ``It is necessary to treat severely, to humiliate, to refute and to expel the men of bidat.`` When Muslims see them at high ranks, their hearts incline to listen to them and, with the Satan`s cheating, begin to love them. In actual fact, those who cooperate with the men of bidat cause the dissention of them from the right path. Gathering of people with different beliefs results in the destruction of the religion. Those who say that they will wake up Muslims, in fact, try to poison them and lead them to disaster.

Question 9: ``The aim in the establishment of this organization, Nadwa, has been asserted to be the abolition of the difference between the Sunni and other groups of bidat. `They should not refuse one another`s beliefs, but live brotherly. `Ulama` should not speak or write on the beliefs in disagreement among themselves. Or else, they set a bad example to be copied by all Muslims and their disciples. Difference and argument cause perishing and stem from the desires of nafs and self-esteem,` they say. Are these words right or wrong or excessive?``

Answer 9: When a bidat gets spread, it is fard to refute it and to try to disseminate its harmfulness and wickedness. That this is fard has been unanimously declared by the `ulama` of Islam. Salaf as-Salihin and the `ulama of all times up to now have always opposed bidat in this way. One who does not refuse the men of bidat but let them by themselves will have dissented from Muslims` unanimity, got away from the Islamic jamaat and loved bidats and offenders of bidat. And this means to discredit the Ahl as-Sunnat madhhab and the Muslims of this right path; to forbid the established reason and to command the prohibition; to lead Muslims to Allahu ta`ala`s damnation. Great alim Hadrat Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Makki, the imam of Muslims, said in the preface to his work As-sawa`iq al-muhriqa, ``Though I do not have the profound knowledge to comprehend the reality and essence of the writings in this book, I was inclined to write because of the following hadith ash-Sharif reported in Al-Jami` by Khatib al-Baghdadi: `When seditions and bidats spread and my Sahaba are slandered, those who know the reality shall declare what they know! May those who do not declare what they know be damned by Allahu ta`ala, by angels and by all people! Allahu ta`ala does not accept any of their `ibadat and goodness.` `` The statement, ``Telling what one knows causes disunion, is sinful and is self-destruction,`` is a slander against Allahu ta`ala and Islamic `ulama`, dissention from the Ahl as-Sunnat madhhab and denial or prohibition of an important fard.

Question 10: ``They say, `The most important aim of Nadwa is to annihilate the differences among Ahl al-qibla; to unite Muslims of different faith of Ahl as-Sunnat and ahl al-bidat; to do away with disagreements; to bring them all into a state of benefaction and sweet taste like milk and sugar; to render the simultaneous beat of hearts and everybody`s getting share in one`s sorrow and loss; to make known that all who say kalimat ash-shahada are brothers even if their beliefs would be different. This is aimed on account of the command in the hadith, ``Oh Muslims! Be brothers to one another!`` Disagreement on anything or speaking ill of one another is unnecessary. Such unity is a command, a fard, of Allahu ta`ala. The salat, fast and ta`at of only those who unite in this way are acceptable. Those who do not unite in this way will not attain to happiness in this and the next worlds. Moreover, unless Ahl al-qibla do not love one another, they cannot possess iman and enter Paradise. Though men`s every kind of sins may possibly be forgiven, discord and enmity between one another will not be forgiven.` ``

Answer 10: Not all of the above statements are in conformity with Islam. They are harmful to Muslims and lead them to heresy. Many hadiths and the words of Islamic imams support this. Let`s quote some of the hadiths that forbid friendship with men of bidat and command keeping away from them: the hadith reported in the Sahih of Muslim from Abu Huraira (radi-Allahu `anh) says, ``Run away from them! [So] they shall not lead you to heresy, throw you into discord!`` The hadith reported from `Abdullah ibn `Umar (radi-Allahu `anh) by Abu Dawud says, ``Do not visit them when they get sick!`` The hadith reported from Jabir by Ibn Maja (radi-Allahu `anh) states, ``Do not greet them when you encounter them!`` The hadith reported by `Ukaili from Anas ibn Malik (radi-Allahu `anh) says, ``Do not keep company with them! Do not eat or drink with them! Do not intermarry with them!`` [This hadith forbids friendship, eating and marrying with ahl al-bid`a. It is written in Hindiyya and Bahr ar-raiq, ``Zindiqs, Batinis, Ibahis and all the groups with beliefs that causes kufr are mushriks (polytheists) like idolaters and worshippers of stars. Marriage with such mushriks or intercourse with their females as jariyas is haram.`` The above writings conclude that, if the belief of those who do not belong to one of the four madhabs, that is those who are not of Ahl as-Sunna, causes kufr, they become mushriks. Marriage with them and eating the carcass they have slaughtered are haram. Of them, those whose belief does not cause kufr are ahl al-bid`a, and marriage with them is not haram; though the nikah would be sahih, not with them but with ahl as-Sunna should Muslims get married, because living with them and even greeting them are forbidden by hadiths.]

The hadith ash-Sharif reported by Ibn Hibban says, ``Do not perform their funeral prayers! Do not perform salat with them!`` The hadiths reported from Ma`adh (radi-Allahu `anh) by ad-Dailami say, ``I am not of them. And they are not of me. Jihad against them is like jihad against disbelievers.`` The hadith ash-Sharif which was reported through the ancestral succession of Imam `Ali (radi-Allahu `anh), Husain, Zain al-`Abidin `Ali, Muhammad Bakir and Imam Jafar as-Sadiq and which was said to Abu Umama states: ``Do not have relation with those in the groups of Qadari, Murjii and Khariji! They will spoil your religion. They betray as did the Jews and Christians.`` The hadith reported from Anas ibn Malik (radi-Allahu `anh) by Ibn Asakir states, ``When you meet the man of bidat, treat him harshly! Allahu ta`ala is hostile to all men of bidat. None of them will be able to pass the Sirat bridge; they will fall in Hell fire.`` The hadith reported from Hadrat `Umar (radi-Allahu `anh) by Abu Dawud and Hakim says, ``Do not be in company with people of the Qadariyya group! Do not consult them your affairs.`` The hadith reported from `Abdullah ibn Masud (radi-Allahu `anh) by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abu Dawud, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Maja and from Abu Musa `l-Ashari (rahmat-Allahu `alaihim) by at-Tabarani says, ``The Sons of Israil committed sin. Their scholars advised them; they did not listen. Their scholars later talked with them. They ate and drank together. Allahu ta`ala introduced enmity among them; He condemned them through the mouths of Dawud (`alaihi `s-salam) and `Isa (`alaihi `s-salam).``

At-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and Ibn Maja reported from Nafi` that a man conveyed someone`s salam to `Abdullah ibn `Umar (radi-Allahu `anhuma), who said, `I have heard that he has become a man of bidat. If he is so, do not take my salam to him.`` Hasan al-Basri and Muhammad ibn Sirin said, ``Do not come together with men of bidat.`` Ayyub as-Sahtiyani said, ``I and Talaq ibn Habib were sitting together. Said ibn Jubair, passing by, said to me, `Do not sit with him! He is a man of bidat.` `` As Asma ibn Ubaid told, two men of bidat came to `Ali Sirin and said that they wanted to ask him about a hadith; ``No, don`t ask,`` he said. When they said that they will ask him about an ayat, he said, ``No! Get out of here or I will go!`` The two men left. Those who were there said, ``What if you spoke on an ayat from al-Qur`an al-karim?`` He replied, ``I feared that they would read the ayat after altering it and that this alteration might make place in my heart.`` Salam ibn Abi Muti` told that, when a man of bidat said to Ayyub that he would ask him a word, he said, ``I wouldn`t listen even a half word from you.`` Someone asked something to Said ibn Jubair, who gave no answer; when the reason was asked, he said, ``He is a man of bidat, so shouldn`t be talked with.`` Abu Jafar Muhammad Bakir said, ``Do not stay near those who dispute. They give meanings to ayats as they wish.`` In the explanation of Mishkat, Imam Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Makki comments on `Abdullah ibn `Umar`s (radi-Allahu `anhuma) saying, ``Do not say my salam to...`` and adds, ``Because, we are ordered to keep away from men of bidat.`` In the explanation of the hadith, ``Do not be in company with people of the Qadariyya group,`` in the book Mirkat, it is said, ``Because, keeping company of enemies leads one to ruin and disaster.`` It is written in the book Shir`at al-Islam that Salaf as-Salihin did not get close to men of bidat since a hadith said, ``Do not stay with men of bidat! Their vices are as contagious as scabies.`` Another hadith says, ``Do not greet people of the Qadariyya group! Do not visit their sick people! Do not attend their funeral! Do not listen to their words! Give them answer sternly! Humiliate them!`` Another hadith says, ``Allahu ta`ala fills with iman the heart of him who gives stern answer to the man of bidat; He protects him against terrible things. One who disesteems the man of bidat will be saved by Allahu ta`ala against the fears of Resurrection.`` It is written in the book Irshad as-saree sharhu sahih al-Bukhari that, unless it is understood that a man of bidat has vowed for repentance, it is necessary to keep away from him.

I, the poor servant [that is, Ahmad Rida Khan], am preparing a booklet on this subject now. With documents from al-Qur`an al-karim and hadiths, I explain the necessity of keeping away from the men of bidat and treating them severely. I additionally give the comments of the `ulama`. This work will be the light for the eyes, and the remedy for the hearts.

While the harms of being together with men of bidat are that many, it should be estimated how many more the harms of loving and praising them are. A hadith says, ``One is with those whom he loves.`` Another hadith quoted by Imam `Ali (radi-Allahu `anh) and others, says, ``I swear that Allahu ta`ala will resurrect the man with those whom he loves.`` The hadith reported by at-Tabarani says, ``Allahu ta`ala will resurrect the man among those whom he loves.`` The hadith reported from Abu Huraira (radi-Allahu `anh) by Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi says, ``Man`s religion is similar to his friend`s religion. Everybody shall examine whom he has friendship with!`` Extensive explanation about the foregoing hadiths is given in my book Fih an-Nasrin bi jawabi `l-as`ilati `l-ishrin.

The aim of Nadwat al-`ulama` is the same as that of the damned Satan. They endeavor for the dissention of Muslims with little knowledge from the right path. They introduce a new religion with their statement, ``It is fard to unite Muslims.`` Their saying, ``Their `ibadat will not be accepted. They will not attain to blessings and happiness,`` is a slander against Allahu ta`ala. Their words, ``Dispute with and hostility towards men of bidat are sinful. This sin will not be forgiven. Pardon of it is impossible,`` show that they have dissented from the right path of Ahl as-Sunnat wal-Jamaat and that they deny the ayats which say, ``Allahu ta`ala forgives all the sins but shirk of whomever He wishes,`` and ``Allahu ta`ala certainly forgives all sins.`` Their saying, ``Pardon of this sin is impossible,`` results in their denial of these ayats. Also, they ascribe wrong meaning to the hadith, ``Allahu ta`ala`s servants, be brothers [of one another]!`` This hadith`s meaning, as reported in Umdat al-Kari and other books, is, `Do the things that will help you become brothers of one another.` Accordingly, in order for the men of bidat to become brothers to the Muslims of the right path, they should give up their bidats and accept the Sunnat. Their calling Muslims of Ahl as-Sunnat to become brothers for themselves despite their persisting in committing their bidats is an apparent heresy and an ugly deceit. [The Arabic work Fatawa`l-Haramain, from which the foregoing ten fatwas are translated, has been reproduced in offset in Istanbul. The author, Ahmad Rida Khan Barilawi, passed away in India in 1340 A.H. (1921).]

HizmetBooks © 1998

[endquote]

For an article about the Companions

http://www.analyzeislam.com/Companions/statusofthesahabainthequranandsunnah.html

wa salaamu alaa manitaba al Huda

AN INTERESTING LETTER

Dawn, Letter, March 14, 2001
“Destruction of statues

Maulana Fazalur Rahman, the JUI chief and Gen Hameed Gul have criticized the world leaders who have been requesting the Taliban not to destroy the Buddha relics in Afghanistan. They have said that the world community has turned a blind eye towards the famine leading to starvation and deaths in Afghanistan. On the other hand they are making a hue and cry over the destruction of some useless and lifeless statues. In their own wisdom they have given an effective shutup call to the world community (including Muslim countries).

May we ask them the same question? Have the Taliban sorted out all the problems of starvation, cold, health, education, etc? Why are they still utilizing their energy and resources in fighting Masood`s forces, growing poppy, and maintaining camps to train militants? It seems like they have ample time to bang their heads against lifeless statues and are least bothered about their own miserable people.

For each piece of sane advice given to the Taliban they have a standard answer ``This is our internal problem and no one has the right to interfere in our internal matters``. But so is the famine, an internal matter of the Taliban. Why are they accepting food items and other relief goods from the UN and other Kafir Western countries, including USA?

I wish the Maulana would have given a sensible statement at least on this issue for a change and had not made himself the laughing-stock of the world community. Kasbe ma-sh ke hain zaraai hazarha, Lillah aap quom ki khidmat na keejye.

SHER KHAN, Karachi”

Re: Hazrat Naqshbandi (ra)

``u want to know my aqidah``

Hell no! I already know most of what`s in your messed-up head, you dumbass :-). My question was about Shias & Muawiyah.

``And also if we were in an Islamic state then you would be lashed 20 (or 80?) times for slandering Hazrat Amir ul Mumineen Muawiyya radhi Allah anhu.``

When did the Companions of Rasool Allah become above criticism? I thought that previlige was reserved for Rasool Allah only. You call the Prophet, Lord - You talk of Companions, and your ala-Hazrats as if they were Prophets themselves. You give hadees the same status as revelation. Most Sunnis will consider that shirk or at the least biddat.

As far as I am concerned three generations of Banu Ummaya did more damage to Islam than any other calamity that I can think of. And this man, Muawiyah, murderer of Muhammad b. Abi Bakr, Hassan b. Ali, Abdur Rehman b. Khalid b. Walid and thousands of others. Indirectly responsible for the murder of Usman b. Affan (by failing to send troops to Medina after repeated calls of help by Usman b. Affan-and then using the tragic death of Usman as a means to gain personal power and thus dividing the Muslim community)-for the tragedy at Kerbala (by refusing to honor the agreement of convening a shura made with Hasan after the death of Ali and instead appointing that na-mardud (also a Companion) Yazid as the successor), will remain a `kala dhaba` in Islamic history. What happens to him on the Day of Judgement is none of my business. Do I have any respect for him? NO! His being a Companion only further degrades him in my eyes. Here`s a man who had the grand previlige of observing Rasool Allah with his own eyes, of being in his company (who can ask for anything more) and yet his actions tell us that he seems to have learned little from Rasool Allah. He became the instrument of wiping out Prophet`s family from the face of this earth and divided the Muslim community.

Go back to the hole you came from, Naqshbandi-In the immortal words of Jack Nicholson ``You can`t handle the truth`` :-).

``And no, whichever person asked about the little boys dream--it sure wasn`t me;``

My apologies. Must have been some other Asif Naqshbandi. Although I swear his writing style was very similar to yours. I am not being sarcastic here.

Asif Naqsbandi #205

I am in total agreement with the slogan.

Lanat Ala-l-Lahe Kazibeen.

So whoever does not believe in Calipahte of Abu-Bakr or Umar RZAH is a Kafir.

Lanat Ala-l Lahe Kazibeen.

Asif Naqsbandi #205

Are you teaching us a new Islam.

Where in Koran it is written that whoever does not believe in the Caliphate of Abu-Bakr RZAH or Umar RZAH is a Kaafir.

Are you going to state now that whoever does not believe in Mullah Omar is a Kafir. Or whoever does not believe in famous Ghazzali is a Kafir.

I think, in reference to many Hadith regarding doubting Islam of other person, I am doubting that you are even a Muslim. You may be a Kafir masquerading as Muslim. (How about that?)

Also as far as I remember the three things about Amir Muawiya (I respect him not for Islam but pragmatism and a good ruler).

1- He used to read one Rikat in Witr. (How about that?)

2- Fighting with Hazrat Ali RZAH.

3- Starting kingdom in Islam by making Yazid the Caliph after his death.

[...The Taliban have tried to project this as an issue that the `real` Islamists, the madarissa-going ones...]

it would be helpful to know what the correct spelling of this word is, if any:

madarissa
madressah
madarsa
madarsah
mad-arsa
...

any interpretations?

Fro The News International (Jang Group) today:

Striking tolerance

Shazreh Hussain

It is hard to fathom what the Afghan leadership has achieved in smashing the ancient Buddhas in Bamiyan. By electing to shatter, in the name of Islam, the ancient statues, the Taliban have projected an image of the religion which few in the Muslim world can relate to. The majority voices, even those otherwise supportive of the Taliban, have opposed the destruction of the statues. They have strongly disagreed with an act, which distorts the message of Islam, a religion steeped in compassion and tolerance; virtues which the Buddha, whose statues now lie decimated, preached throughout his life.

The Taliban have tried to project this as an issue that the `real` Islamists, the madarissa-going ones as opposed to the college-going would positively relate to. This is a conveniently set divide but not an entirely correct one. Only it is an erroneous one. As a group of men sat in a Bara Koh mosque discussing the Buddha smashing, only one of the seven defended the move. Defiantly he said ``Let their god do something if he can``, referring naturally to the Buddhists who do not worship Buddha but revere him. The rest in the mosque were clear. It was an unnecessary and provocative act. It was to achieve only negative publicity for their religion and for the already besieged Afghans.

Similarly, this purposeless destruction did not find favour even with Muntazir, a driver from Mardan, who rushes to say his prayers in the mosque five times a day. When asked for his opinion, he shook his head with disapproval ``What if those who do not believe in Islam start breaking our mosques?``. He can barely read and write but he recognises the need for tolerance. At a practical level, he understands tolerance as an attitude in his own interest too.

The Taliban`s apparently sudden move has contradicted their own past assertions of protecting the Afghan heritage. In an inexplicable development the statues of the Buddha went from being seen as heritage to being seen as idols to be destroyed. But why? Was there any danger of the Afghans who have lived with these statues for ages beginning to worship them instead of Allah? Had they ever invested these statues with divinity that the powerlessness of these statues needed to be proved?

If Mulla Omar thought he was following the teaching of the Prophet (PBUH), then he has made a sad and dangerous mistake. To compare the statues of the Buddha to the 360 idols residing in the Kaaba is erroneous. Those idols were broken because they were being worshipped as rival gods in the house of Allah. As the idols fell, the Prophet (PBUH) repeated the following Qur`aanic verse ``Verily truth hath come and falsehood hath vanished, it is in the nature of falsehood to vanish``. The Buddha`s statues were no emblem of falsehood.

In fact, the Qur`aanic assertion that a prophet was sent to every people and a knowledge of the Buddha`s life and beliefs would dispose us to think that he would be among those sent by Allah to lead human beings to the straight path.

Mulla Omar should also reflect on what the Prophet did when he came across a statue of Hazrat Isa and Bibi Mariam. He covered it with his mantle and did not allow it to be shattered. Why? Obviously because he saw those statues for what they were, a symbolic remembrance of holy beings whom the Qur`aan teaches us to love and revere.

Islam does not teach us to be threatened by and react angrily to images of people and things revered by people of other faiths. Unfortunately, by destroying the statues, Mulla Omar has struck against tolerance not `shirq`. He has also struck against the centuries old Afghan tradition of peaceful co-existence with its own heritage.

The author is a freelance writer based in Islamabad

Harpreet # 200, Sadhnaji

No let’s leave fawad97 alone.

If you guys can access it, there was an excellent lead story in Wall Street Journal (3/12/01) on Indian generic drug manufacturer CIPLA. Its CEO Yusuf Hamied is making quite a few western drug manufacturers unhappy by offering aids drug at 1/30th of US price to south africans.

This is what we can call true sewa to humanity rather than wasting time in those mandir, masjid or gurdwaras and endless discussion on who has monopoly on heaven and houris. He and his folks are working hard to keep churning out generic drugs for poor people of the world at affordable prices. The guy is Ph D from cambridge and his father was a nationalist muslim who started the company in bombay (1935).

Long live secularism!

janjua,

u want to know my aqidah--well i believe if a shia believes ONLY that Hazrat Ali was superior in rank to the other three khulafa i rashida and doesn`t disparage any of the others and accepts their caliphate as righteous he is a muslim although from ahle biddah; if however he/she denies the caliphate of Hazrat Abu Bakr and Hazrat Umar and Hazrat Uthman, or curses them, or says that the Qur`an is not complete, or that their is another Qur`an, or that the Imams of the Ahle Bayt are superior to the other Prophets, or that Hazrat Ayesha commited adultery (naudhubillah), or that Gabriel made a mistake etc. then s/he is definitely a kaafir and destined for Hell insha Allah.

That is the aqidah of the Sunnis.

And also if we were in an Islamic state then you would be lashed 20 (or 80?) times for slandering Hazrat Amir ul Mumineen Muawiyya radhi Allah anhu. And Hazrat Ali sher-e-Khuda karam Allah wajhu said he had nothing to do with those who considered him higher than the two Shaykhan.

You have no adab for the elders of islam but you know this is going to be a noose round your neck when you face your Creator unless you repent.

AS for visiting ASFA (sunnah.org) --you should--you might learn the correct aqidah. And no, whichever person asked about the little boys dream--it sure wasn`t me; it says a lot about you though that u have to resort to slander and lies.

Please carry on -- i dont expect much better from you pseudo-liberals anyway.

La`nat Allah alaa kadhibeen.

An article that really puts things in perspective.

From Moses to the Taliban

By Crispin Sartwell

Saturday, March 10, 2001; Page A21

The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49468-2001Mar9.html

He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to

powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

Moses

said to Aaron, ``What did this people do to you that you have brought so