Brother, if you only thought a bit deeper and researched a bit more you would see that it is not correct to equate the destruction of the idols of the Holy Kaaba with the idols that the Taleban destroyed in Afghanistan.
Islamic scholar Mohammed Zahid of Toronto says:
“The Ka’ba was the historic monotheistic centre of worship, established by Abraham(AS), but later filled with idols. The prophet Muhammad (pbuh) overturned that aggression.”
When Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (raa) conquered Jerusalem, he refused the opportunity to offer salat within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for fear that some ignorant Muslims after him might claim the church and convert it into a mosque because he had once prayed there. He left the church with its icons and works of Christian religious art intact.
When the first Muslim conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim came to the Indian subcontinent in 711, not far from where the Taleban ruled, he had never heard of Hindus or Buddhists. So he sought instructions from head office in Damascus. There the caliph called a synod of senior theologians. They wrote back that minorities “must remain free to worship their gods as they please, to maintain their temples and to determine their lives by the precepts of their faiths.”
Don’t forget that there were many idols of pharoahs and pyramids in Egypt when Umar (RA) conquered it, as for example the sphinx, but Muslims never even touched them. Muslims have ruled Egypt for around 1400 yrs, yet no Muslim caliph ever ordered that any of the idols be destroyed!!
When the Ottomans conquered Greece, they did not demolish the pagan temples of antiquity. And even when they captured Constantinople (Istanbul) and converted the cathedral of Saint Sophia into a mosque, they did not vandalize the Christian art on its walls, but merely covered it up so that it is still preserved today. Egypt’s sphinx may be missing its nose, but it was not any of the country’s Muslim rulers over the past fourteen centuries who were responsible for blasting it off but invading French troops in 1798.
Sheikh Youssif al-Qaradawi, a Muslim scholar based in Qatar, said the following when the Taleban made the decision to destroy the statues of Buddha:
“The Taleban should focus on fighting poverty, diseases, unemployment and bloodshed on its soil and not on destroying relics, which are a living lesson of history. They should consider going back on their decision.”
Grand Mufti Nasr Mohamed Farid Wassel of Al-Azhar, Cairo, the world’s oldest university and the foremost seat of scholarship in Islam, has been quoted as saying: “The Taleban should have consulted with scholars before taking such a decision. Such statues are only a recording of history…their presence does not in the least impinge on the Islamic faith.” He also pointed out that not a single Muslim scholar had ever claimed that the presence of thousands of Pharaonic and Roman statues and ancient relics in Egypt violate the principles of Islam.
An Islamic state guarantees the right of worship to even disbelievers. Kindly read the following verses:
Let there be no compulsion in religion.(2:256)
Whoever wills, let him believe; and whoever does not will, let him disbelieve. (18.29)
Also, an entire short chapter (111):
Say: O ye unbelievers. I worship not that which ye worship, And ye do not worship that which I worship; I shall never worship that which ye worship, Neither will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your religion; to me mine.
Infact, I remember having read that Emperor of the subcontinent Auranzeb Alamgir used to provide funding to Hindu temples for their maintenance. Aurangzeb was a stern Muslim, he used to earn his living by selling prayer caps and copies of the Quran he copied by hand!!
The Taleban were infact offered by Iran, India and an American museum to buy the statues to preserve them but the Taleban refused. They could have used that money for the welfare of their people!
The world-famous statues at Bamiyan are unique, the taller of the pair standing at 53 metres (125 feet) high. Destroying those statues also meant that no tourists would visit Afghanistan ever to see this treasure, and so it was a kind of oppression on the common people since the influx of tourists is good for the businesses of local people.
Also, because of this act the Taleban put the lives of minority Muslims in jeopardy in predominantly buddhist countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and China, and must have increased the hatred of the Muslims in the hearts of the buddhists. Holy places of any religion are to be respected in Islam.
I read someone stating here that the Taleban were angry that the UN wanted to fix a statue but not help the people, well you are morally correct, but we should not expect others to help us. I mean UN has different departments and the one responsible for maintenance of artifacts must have offered to fix the buddha but technically speaking its not their responsibility to help the people, although this should have been a priority morally. But, imagine if you are a beggar and a rich person refuses to give you any money, does that mean that you should become angry and destroy something else? Destroying a buddhist statue would not have made the world any kinder, if anything it would have made them even more wary of the Taleban. Actually, Mullah Omar stated the statues to be an “insult to Islam”, which is not true as I have alredy given enough evidence.
Furthermore, we are asked by Allah in the Quran:
16:125 “Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious…”
So what sort of message did the Taleban send all over the world about our faith, certainly it was not a good impression, and it will have scared away many people who may otherwise have been interested in Islam. This act has left a blot on our reputation and now for centuries to come we will be remembered as intolerant in the annals of history!!
“The shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Almighty can stand up to anything.”