Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: February 26, 2001
The Taleban condemn statues as false
gods and idols Afghanistan's ruling Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar,
has ordered the destruction of all statues in the country, including ancient
pre- Islamic figures.
In an edict published by the Taleban-run
Bakhtar News Agency, Mullah Omar declared the statues were insulting to
Islam and should be destroyed so they could never again be worshipped.
The figures include the world's
tallest standing Buddha, a 53- metre statue carved into a cliff face in
the central town of Bamiyan.
There has been an international
outcry over reports that priceless monuments and works of art have been
destroyed in Afghanistan, and the latest development seems certain to provoke
more concern.
The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, has appealed to the Taleban
to preserve works of art, and a team of western diplomats is currently
in the capital, Kabul, calling for Afghanistan's rich heritage to be preserved.
False gods
In an interview with the BBC's Pashto
Service, a Taleban spokesman, Mullah Abdul Hai Motmain, said the statues
were being worshipped.
He said it had been the policy of
prophets and Islamic holy men from time immemorial to destroy all false
gods.
Statues are scattered all over Afghanistan,
and include a number of Hindu shrines in Bakhtiar province.
But the most prominent figures are
the ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan, where most of the population is still Buddhist.
There has recently been fierce fighting
around the town, which has several times changed hands.
Taleban enemies
Mullah Motmain said the people worshipping
the statues were enemies of the Taleban. He refused to accept that Islam
called for respect for other faiths.
Islam, he said, had defeated and
cancelled out all other religions.
With their ultra-conservative Islamic
ideology, the Taleban believe depiction of any human figure is blasphemous.
Some also think, mistakenly, that
Buddhists worship the Buddha and that the statues are therefore idols.
Until now, the Taleban rulers had
said the statues could be preserved, as long as they were not the objects
of worship.
Two weeks ago, the movement denied
reports circulating in Kabul that more than a dozen non-Islamic artefacts
in the National Museum, including a priceless figure of the Buddha, had
been destroyed.
