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SirTripAlot
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Registered: 01/11/05
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A Historical Shame
#5422568 - 03/20/06 01:47 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Reactions?
Swiss documentary on Afghanistan: Pakistani, Saudi engineers helped destroy Buddhas
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan were destroyed by the Taliban with the help of Pakistani and Saudi engineers.
According to an account published here on Saturday, a local Afghan told the makers of a Swiss documentary on the giant statues which had stood there, carved in the side of a mountain for hundreds of years, had been destroyed by engineers from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The dynamiting of the statues took place in March 2001. Swiss documentary filmmaker Christian Frei, who has made several documentaries that have won praise at various international film festivals, shot ?The Giant Buddhas? in Afghanistan. The film is due to be shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on 26 March.
The Taliban went ahead with the destruction of the giant statues, revered for centuries, because they considered them ?offensive to Islam?. They ignored appeals from around the world, including UNESCO and an appeal from the then Government of Pakistan, made, it would appear now, more ?for the record? than any serious intent to stop the Islamist zealots from destroying what the rest of the world considered mankind?s heritage.
Taliban minister of information Qudratullah Jamal said in a statement later, ?The destruction work is not as easy as people would think. You can?t knock down the statues by dynamite or shelling as both of them have been carved in a cliff. They are firmly attached to the mountain.? Museums and governments around the world kept hoping until the end that the Taliban would desist from committing what the rest of the world saw as an act of ?cultural sacrilege? but they were adamant in their resolve.
A delegation from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference went to Kandahar to urge the Taliban leaders to change their mind, but was turned down. The Taliban information minister was quoted at the time as saying, ?We would repeat to them as we have to other delegations that we are not going to back away from the edict, and that no statues in Afghanistan will be spared.? UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also urged the Taliban not to go ahead but was rebuffed. Koichiro Matsuura, the head UNESCO, said the agency would continue efforts to salvage other Afghan relics targeted for destruction. ?It is abominable to witness the cold and calculated destruction of cultural properties which were the heritage of the Afghan people, and, indeed, of the whole of humanity,? he said in a statement. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dispatched the Grand Mufti of Egypt to Afghanistan to plead with the Taliban rulers to spare the statues but his emissary had no success either. Zahi Hawas, the man in charge of the plateau holding the great pyramids outside Cairo, said at the time, ?They are making bad publicity about Islam - and Islam has nothing to do with what is happening in Afghanistan.?
Xuanzang, a 7th century Chinese monk, pilgrim and chronicler, travelled to Bamiyan and wrote a graphic description of the statues. He even mentioned a giant ?sleeping Buddha? in the area, but no trace has been found of that in modern times.
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
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Prajna
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Registered: 10/08/05
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5422606 - 03/20/06 01:55 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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It is a damn shame man...
Very sad that people are so threatened by other religions that they feel that they need to destroy great works. How strong and right can they feel about their own system of religion that they need to do these kind of things...
I think that the Taliban regime is a stain on Muslims worldwide, I just hope that people can see that that doesn't represent the religion as a whole...
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SirTripAlot
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: Prajna]
#5423101 - 03/20/06 08:03 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Were is the outrage from within the Muslim community?
Again I hear nothing......has anyone heard of any type of outcry from Muslims?
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5423304 - 03/20/06 08:45 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
SirTripAlot said:......has anyone heard of any type of outcry from Muslims?
Yea, outcry against Jews and Danes and just about everybody else in the world not like them.
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: DieCommie]
#5424039 - 03/20/06 11:23 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
DieCommie said:
Quote:
SirTripAlot said:......has anyone heard of any type of outcry from Muslims?
Yea, outcry against Jews and Danes and just about everybody else in the world not like them.
My guess is that we in the West only hear about the outcry against us, because its the only outcry that we consider newsworthy.
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SirTripAlot
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Registered: 01/11/05
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: Silversoul]
#5424969 - 03/21/06 11:55 AM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Actually this issue is not broad casted on any major news outlet. It may have been mentioned in some blurbs......but nowhere near the coverage it deserves.
What would be the news coverage in the world, if the United States blew up those statues?
In my opinion, the Muslim countries get a pass.....well, because they are Muslim............
Their religious intolerance is similar to the Christians during the Crusades.
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
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Silversoul
Rhizome


Registered: 01/01/05
Posts: 23,576
Loc: The Barricades
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: SirTripAlot]
#5425014 - 03/21/06 12:12 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
SirTripAlot said: Actually this issue is not broad casted on any major news outlet. It may have been mentioned in some blurbs......but nowhere near the coverage it deserves.
Well, considering it happened 5 years ago, I wouldn't expect to turn to CNN and see them doing a story about it. History Channel, maybe, but not any news network.
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SirTripAlot
Semper Fidelis


Registered: 01/11/05
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Re: A Historical Shame [Re: Silversoul]
#5427653 - 03/21/06 09:41 PM (17 years, 10 months ago) |
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True, however, it was just released, that it was several Arabic countries that helped aid in its destruction.
Just an example how some religions get a pass while some others do not.
I'm sure that if Jerry Farewell was ever implicated in anything similar to this, and later down the road Pat Robertson was also implicated, there would be media hysteria.....what a sec maybe Pat Robertson would do this..........
-------------------- “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
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