Godless Acts

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have begun systematically destroying many of that country’s most venerable cultural objects, following a fatwa--a religious edict--issued by leading Afghan Islamic scholars. All of what the regime terms statues/idols from the pre-Islamic period are to be smashed because, said a statement by supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, “These idols have been gods of the infidels, who worshiped them, and these are respected even now and perhaps may be turned into gods again.”

The statues referred to are of the Buddha, some dating from the early centuries of the first millennium. Included are two enormous world-famous representations carved out of a cliff in Bamian province, once a center of Buddhist civilization. An Indian official calls the statues, one rising 125 feet, the other 175 feet, “a legacy of humanity.” Protests from UNESCO, from Islamic Pakistan and Saudi Arabia--among the few states that recognize the Taliban regime--from Buddhist Thailand and Sri Lanka and many other countries have been ignored.

The Taliban’s campaign is countrywide. Along with the monumental artifacts in Bamian, uncounted smaller works are being trashed.

According to a spokeswoman for the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage, based in neighboring Pakistan, the Kabul Museum alone contains an estimated 6,000 pieces of Buddhist art. These are irreplaceable. But their very existence, according to Mohammed Omar, is contrary to the tenets of Islam as the Taliban interprets them.

Radical movements often try to denigrate the past by striking at its intellectual and artistic achievements. When the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia it immediately began to attack traditional culture. Much of China’s heritage was lost during the destructive madness of the Cultural Revolution. Taliban leaders claim religious sanction for their anti-Buddhism campaign, the same justification they cite for their appallingly reactionary treatment of women. Their barbaric intolerance merits universal condemnation and contempt.