Is the Fate of the Infidels Tied to the Buddhas?

For readers who may be surprised at the hard edge of the article, American Thinker is a very conservative/libertarian journal, although I am certain the editors would claim they would not want to be labeled as anything but clear thinkers. I found this article to have some inaccuracies, but the overall theme tackles a subject that few dare to voice in sophisticated circles. These themes have been active for a long time. The author Janet Levy gives them a public voice.

Article by Janet Levy

No fanfare and little notice marked the 10th anniversary earlier this year of the destruction of the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas. These 6th-century stately statues carved into sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan included one of the tallest standing Buddhas in the world. On March 12, 2001, the 180- and 121-foot Buddhas crumpled under dynamite set off by the Taliban -- the Islamist militia group ruling Afghanistan from 1996 through late 2001. Mullah Omar, the leader of the Al Qaeda-supported movement, deemed the statutes idolatrous graven images insulting to Islam and ordered their destruction. Other Buddhist images, including statues and relief carvings as well as ancient Sikh gurdwaras and Hindu temples, were also destroyed by the Islamic terrorists belonging to the Taliban Movement.

This kind of cultural destruction has been part and parcel of Islam since its inception. According to Dr. Bill Warner, founder of the Center for the Study of Political Islam, "Political Islam has annihilated every culture it has invaded or immigrated to by destroying the host culture."

Dr. Warner cites the extinction of a once-Christian Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa, and a Zoroastrian Persia, as a result of Islamic jihad. He also includes the decimation of Hindus and Buddhists as well. All told, he totals more than 270 million "nonbelievers," including Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Africans, and Jews, who have died in Islamic massacres since the birth of Islam 1400 years ago.

Prior to the Islamic conquests, which began in the 7th century, Afghanistan was primarily Hindu with significant minorities of Buddhists and Jains. Hinduism, the oldest living religion, began in the Indus Valley around 1500 B.C., in land which is today part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Northwest India. Many areas of Afghanistan had strong cultural links to the Indian sub-continent where Buddha was born in modern-day Nepal to a Hindu family during the 5th century B.C. The religion he founded was an offshoot of his Hindu belief system. In the 3rd century B.C., Buddhism spread from the Indian sub-continent to Central, East, and Southeast Asia.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/interfaith-dialogues/36288-is-the-fate-infidels-tied-buddhas.html

By the 11th century, the region that includes modern-day Afghanistan had been Islamized and the remaining Hindus and Buddhists were stripped of their legal and social rights and relegated to dhimmi status. This meant they were required to exist under shariah or Islamic doctrine and forced to pay the jizya, a tax payable to Muslims to guarantee protection against forced conversion or death.

When the Taliban came to power in 1996, Hindu and Buddhist minorities were forced to identify themselves by wearing yellow badges and the women were required to wear burkas. The destruction of the Buddhas was yet another attempt to demoralize and humiliate Hindus and Buddhists and destroy their culture. Afghanistan had been ruled by Hindu kings until 1002 A.D. and Buddhists shared common cultural and religious traditions with the rest of the Hindus; thus, the Bamiyan Buddhas were representative of the 3,000-year-old Hindu civilization and identity in Afghanistan and, as such, needed to be destroyed.

Similarly, like Afghanistan, which once flourished under Hinduism and Buddhism, the Indian sub-continent is now under siege by Islam. In Bangladesh and Pakistan, Islamization has decimated Hindus and Buddhists and forced survivors to flee. Hindus, who made up 30% of the Bangladesh population in 1941, have been reduced to a mere 11% today. In Pakistan, where the Hindu population was reduced to 3% of the population from 10%, the remaining traces of Hindus and other religious minorities are endangered by rape, forcible conversion, and marriage to Muslims. In India, with a Hindu majority, the government is yet failing to sufficiently resist attempts to elevate Islam and delegitimize Hinduism. Indian textbooks lionize Islam and cast Hinduism as an evil, exploitative, backward faith. Legislation has been proposed that will discriminate against Hindus by specifically punishing communal violence against minorities, such as Muslims, but not violence committed by minorities against majority Hindus. The official discourse omits the atrocities and genocides committed under Islamic rule, including a past replete with the destruction of religious sites, civilian massacres, and forced conversions.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288

The fact that nothing was done to commemorate the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas speaks to the legacy of 1,000 years of Hindu and Buddhist dhimmitude. Buddhists, who practice non-violence and offered no resistance to Muslim invaders in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, are once again threatened by Muslim attacks in Thailand. Buddhists hesitated to make demands of the Afghan government, preferring to take comfort in the belief that Buddha "takes care of himself."

In April 2011, the United States Hindu Alliance (USHA), an organization founded following 9/11 to support all religions derived from Hinduism -- including practitioners of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism -- sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanding the rebuilding of the Bamiyan Buddhas as well as other Hindu and Sikh places of worship. The Indian government, the fifth-largest donor nation to Afghanistan and with a Muslim-courting majority party, the Indian National Congress, failed to acknowledge the anniversary as well.

In March 2011, USHA issued a petition calling for rebuilding the Bamiyan Buddhas and other Hindu heritage sites. The organization plans to collect 20,000 signatures of support by the 10th anniversary of 9/11 to symbolize the connection between the attack against the United States and the destruction of the Buddhas, both part of the global jihad to destroy all infidel cultures and replace them with Islam.

Former Islamic terrorist and Christian convert Kamal Saleem has compared Islam to a cancer. "It grows and expands until it eventually consumes and suffocates the host," Saleem says.

Myriad examples throughout history bear witness to the success of Muslim expansionism, Islamization, and cultural destruction. The fate of the Buddhas may foreshadow the annihilation of yet another faith and its heritage.


http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/...e_buddhas.html

 
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*sigh* This makes me sad. On one side there are innocent Muslims who are treated badly because of their religion, like the women's soccer team who are not allowed to play while wearing head scarves. On the other side there are the crazy/evil extremists. How can we support the innocent ones without inadvertently giving some power to the extremists?

Annie ji, the answer is quite simple but very hard to do. I bet you already knew this answer, perhaps in different words.

Be the innocent, and let the extremist in you die. You cannot control others but you can control yourself. If you become innocent, then that is 1 for innocents and 0 for extremists.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288

The answer is clear....Islamist extremists did it. But the question is, where do they come from? The Muslim religious education system is very strong and organised, the students taught in madrassas and in evening mosque schools are the most vulnerable people to these extremist elements. The extremists instill a feeling of responsibility towards the community by using the references to the day of judgement and shariat in the Qur'an. They encourage them to perform Da'wa (conversion) on the people of other communities either through preaching or forcefully by sword. This is precisely the basis from where all the destruction comes. Still, answers are awaited.....

Thank you, Bhagat Singh ji. I agree with you, that is a very important thing to do... but maybe there is also something more practical, less mystical that can be done as well.

Just as Tobacco is sacrilegious in Sikh gurdwaras, cow meat in a Mandir, the Muslim take it a bit further and treat the whole land (countries, states) as Holy. Hence as soon as they have power with or without majority, going after the infidels, their beliefs and specifics like Idols are the premier targets. Officially in the Religion of Peace (Islam) the minorities are protected as long as they pay Hijra, part with their property, etc., but at the grassroots rules are quite open to interpretation. The silent majority generally looks the other way specially in Indo-Asian, Middle East, Arab Peninsula and Africa. North America has some Muslim brave souls and organizations that do come to the defene of others (all non-Muslims). However very rarely anyone would publicly deny that we are all Infidels in their eyes.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288

Goes with the territory.

Sat Sri Akal.

It is the extremist element that protect your Religion,Culture, Language.Once the so called extremist element dies ,then your group is like a herd of sheep on which every predator will prey

Hmm I see where you are getting at Kds ji. I am speaking about something else when I say extremist.

Yes the "extremist element" produces lots of actions (that maybe protective). However, these actions are very destructive and negative in the long run. Because they come from under the influence of 5 thieves.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36288
If these protective actions were to arise from an individual without the thieves (e.g. Guru Gobind Singh ji) then they do not cause so much destruction and negativity. Then they are truly protective, one could say Godly.

There is an expression: Charity begins at home.

It's important to start from myself. To bring out the innocence in myself first. If I am not doing that I am not helping, just adding on to "extremists". If I am not doing that then it's just people with 5 thieves (including me) fighting more people with 5 thieves. Each side thinking that the other is evil. This type of protectiveness stems from restlessness not from steadiness. It results in more bad than good in the long run.

Worldly actions need to be carried out. But those actions need to be grounded in the spiritual. Gotta let God act through you, He knows best.

Well You can also say that by adopting extremist element You are sacrificing yourself for your quom .Let me give you example when Khalistan movement was at its peak then Hindi Films,serials never used to show Sikhs as Jokers or hinduised ,once the movement died mockery of sardars increased very much in 90s and 2000s and they were/are shown as part of Hinduism.

Parsi community which has no extremist element is always shown as Joker in Hindi films this has been going on from past 40 years.

In area like Kerala where RSS is inactive Muslims trap and convert Hindu girls while in the area of India like Gujarat where Hindutva element is there they can't even dare to look at Hindu Girls.


I am sure you see National geographic documentries on Lions.When Lions attack Herd of cape buffalo the bulls encircle the herd to protect female and young ,the more solid the defense line the less the chance of lions to kill a buffalo,but if given chance these bulls may kill all lion cubs with no mercy.Extremest element are always like this ,they may be cruel but as long they encircle the community the less chance of outside force to attack it