Plight of Buddhist art

[Arun Gupta]

Just want to point out one important thing :

Rohan Oberoi wrote :

[US and Russia-led sanctions] this in retaliation for no more than the
exercise by the government of the Taleban of their right of sovereignty under
the UN charter (the same right under which Norway refuses to extradite
suspects facing the death penalty to the US).

Only Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the UAE have recognized the Taliban as the
legitimate government of Afghanistan.  So I wonder if the Taliban govt. has
any sovereign powers at all under international law.

Given the "great game" in Central Asia, one might wonder why China is not
acting at cross-purposes to the US and Russia ?  The answer is that the
Taliban have tried exporting their ideology to the Uighurs of China. The
Taliban are isolated internationally for extremely good reasons.

One should remember that despite being Islamic for over a millenium, Afghans
had a cultural heritage worth preserving, that the Taliban are destroying.
The Quran preaches a form of tolerance only to the non-believers who are
people of the Book, and not to idolators.  As a practical matter, Muslim
rulers have often granted dhimmi status to those who are not Jews or
Christians.  So it is true that the Taliban are practicing a primitive and
barbaric form of Islam, and it is also true that Islam does not have to be
practiced in this way.

It is a tragedy that the non-Islamic Afghan cultural heritage is being
destroyed.  However, if the creativity and cultural impulse that created that
heritage in the first place is extinct, then the greater tragedy has already
occurred.  On the other hand, maybe we can create faster than the Taliban can
destroy.

-Arun Gupta