[Mulla Taliban menyeru umat Islam se dunia berfikir sebaik-baiknya. Saya serahkan kepada para pembaca untuk memikirkannya dan mengambil iktibar dari peristiwa ini. MGG Pillai ada menulis satu pandangan yang begitu menarik mengenai isu ini. Apa yang berlaku di Afghanistan adalah kesan dari kemusnahan hidup dan budaya yang dilakukan oleh kuasa-kuasa besar dan sikap dunia yang sengaja meminggirkan mereka. Baru sekarang dunia mahu memandang - itupun nasib patung bukan nasib rakyat mereka. Inilah antara mesej yang tersirat dalam peristiwa yang agak meresahkan beberapa pihak adanya.
- Editor]

http://www.timesofindia.com/today/05woru1.htm

Taliban chief seeks support from Muslim world

KABUL: Taliban chief Mulla Mohammad Omar used the Eid-al-Adha festival on Monday to urge the Muslim world to support the destruction of ancient Buddhist icons and unite behind his vision of Islam.

The reclusive war veteran and "Islamic scholar" said the annihilation of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan would proceed despite vehement international condemnation and protests from Islamic states.

He said the statues, including the giant ancient Buddhas in the central province of Bamiyan, were only "one per cent" of Afghanistan's historical heritage.

Omar also dismissed the global outcry as a "drama" which should be transparent to Muslims with "common sense."

"Now that we are destroying false idols, the world has made a drama out of this. The Muslims of the world, particularly Afghan Muslims, should use their commonsense," the Taliban militia's Radio Shariat quoted him as saying.

"I would like to ask you, do you prefer to be called statue-destroyers or statue-sellers?"

Omar last week ordered his followers to destroy all statues in Afghanistan, including the country's precious pre-Islamic figures, to prevent idolatry in line with a fatwa (religious decree) from local clerics.

His comments at the start of the three-day Islamic holiday on Monday came a day after UNESCO special envoy Peirre Lafrance apparently failed to persuade the Afghan leadership to reverse their decision.

UN officials in neighbouring Pakistan said Lafrance was still in the militia's southern bastion of Kandahar but it was not known if talks with the Taliban were continuing.

Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel said after meeting Lafrance in Kandahar on Sunday that he could see no reason to stop the destruction, the private Afghan Islamic Press reported.

"I do not see any chance to change our decision and stop the demolition of these statues," he was quoted as saying.

Governments across the globe, political and economic groupings such as the United Nations and the Group of Eight, and religious leaders including the Dalai Lama have appealed to the Taliban to rethink.

The Islamic world has also expressed its indignation, notably Pakistan, one of only three countries which recognises the Taliban regime and its closest ally.

Messages from Islamic states and religious leaders have stressed that tolerance for other religions is a basic tenet of Islam.

But Omar, known as Amir-ul-Momenin (King of the Faithful) in Taliban circles, said the issue was clear-cut and Muslims should not be influenced by people of other faiths.

"I would like to ask the world Muslims not to harmonize their voices with those of non-believers," he said.

"The infidels want to rob Islam of its spirit."

Taliban officials have said the "work" on the statues is nearly complete, with more than two-thirds of the thousands of historic figures in the country already smashed.

They said the huge Bamiyan Buddhas, which stand 165 feet and 34.5 meters tall, were attacked with rockets and shells last week and would be reduced to rubble within days.

Carved into a sandstone mountain near the provincial capital between the second and fifth centuries AD, the taller figure is the largest standing Buddha in the world.

Buddhism was introduced in Afghanistan around the third century BC and the area around Bamiyan, in the center of the country, remained Buddhist until the arrival of Islam in the mid-800s.

(AFP)