Adil Najam
There are times when it is not enough to feel outraged. One has to speak out. To express the outrage. To speak out, and to be heard, against that which is wrong. Indeed, there are times in life when it is difficult to determine exactly what is right. Reality, after all, is complex and nuanced. However, there are also times - more often than we think - when there is no ambiguity about what is wrong. Just plain wrong. Silence, at such moments - especially in the face of violence - cannot be justified. The least one can do is to call the wrong, wrong.
In the short life of this blog there have been many such moments. The disgraceful behavior of the police in pulling down the shalwar of a young man protesting his father’s disappearance. The killing of a woman minister in Gujranwalla just because she was a woman. Pictures of violence against women, including by so-called ‘celebrities’ like cricketer Moin Khan and squash player Jansher Khan. The criminal humiliation and murders of tailors and barbers just because they do not conform to some jahil maulvi’s misconstrued sense of religosity. The violence of self-righteous vigilantism. The brutality against lawyers and judges in the aftermath of the Chief Justice’s removal and subsequently since then. The Karachi carnage. The trampling of all political decency in the cause of personal ambition and thirst for power. And more.
If we, as Pakistanis, do not wish to be defined by the acts of the vile people who do such acts, define who we are as Pakistanis, then all of us must speak out in outrage against such acts. To speak with conviction and to speak as a prelude to action.
Now is time, again, to do. One hears now of renewed violence against Buddhist relics in the Swat region by followers of the maverick extremist Fazlullah who has been enticing violence in multiple forms.
The most blatant mutilation of the giant Buddha of Jehanabad was back in October, but since then there have been renewed calls and attacks by militants on Buddhist relics and there is a serious concern that while attention remains diverted towards Gen. Musharraf’s struggle for his personal power, these historical treasures may be lost for ever. As we have written here before, the area is rich in historical heritage of the Gandhara and Buddhist periods, and there is a history of previous attacks on Buddhist symbols in Pakistan, in fact in the Federal Capital Islamabad.
Reporting on the October 8 desecration of the Giant Buddha, Archaeology reported:
The turmoil in Pakistan, especially the situation in Swat, has scholars concerned about the safety of the country’s artistic and archaeological heritage. Relatively peaceful until recently, Swat was a tourist resort with spectacular mountain scenery. It also has a rich cultural heritage, especially Ghandaran art and Buddhist monuments. Adriana Proser, John H. Foster Curator of Traditional Asian Art, at the Asia Society in New York explains, “This area of what is today northern Pakistan was along a major route of the Silk Road. Gandhara was one of the major sites of the Kushan period (first through third centuries). The art of the Gandhara area is extremely important because it shows the impact of Hellenistic and Roman influence ushered in through the conquests of Alexander the Great. The stylistic impact of Gandharan Buddhist art traveled vast space and time, reaching places as far away China, Korea, and Japan. The Gandhara region became part of the Sasanian Empire (224-642), which preceded Islamic rule in Persia, and consequently the arts of the region also influenced artistic developments in the Middle East.”
The consequences of prolonged political infighting in Pakistan, leaving Taliban-like militants unchecked may have dire consequences for this heritage. On Monday, October 8, dynamite was used to obliterate the face of a of 23-foot-high seventh-century seated Buddha carved into a rock face near the village of Jehanabad in the Swat Valley. This was the second attack on the Buddha. In early September, militants detonated explosives placed above and below the Buddha, but only damaged the stone rather than the sculpture. It appeared, according to police chief Mohammad Iqbal in an AFP story, “to be the work of the local militants who condemn these relics as being un-Islamic. It looks more like a symbolic attack to embarrass the government internationally.” A witness in Jehanabad says that the armed group entered the village Monday evening and announced their intention to destroy the Buddha. According to Aqleem Khan, a provincial archaeology department official who spoke to Reuters, the militants drilled holes into the rock, filled them with dynamite, then set off the explosion the morning of Tuesday, September 11. Abdul Nasir, a curator at the Swat museum, known for its collection of Ghandaran sculptures, told AP that “Islam teaches us to respect other religions and faiths, but unfortunately some elements are disturbing the peace in the Swat valley.”
“Any destruction of archeological and artistic sites such as this Gandharan Buddhist relief are an enormous loss for all who treasure historical records and significant and rare works of art,” says the Asia Society’s Proser. The attack recalls the March 2001 destruction of two giant Buddha statues in central Afghanistan by Taliban militants. “The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas was a political act in religious guise, greatly increasing the reputation of the Taliban among its target audience,” says Archaeological Institute of America vice president John Russell. “The AIA calls on all governments, and particularly in this case the government of Pakistan, to protect our shared world heritage from groups that exploit heritage for political gain by destroying parts of our common past.” Adds AIA president C. Brian Rose, “Destroying icons in the name of religion has unfortunately been a component of human behavior since antiquity. In areas of conflict, archaeological institutes throughout the world need to work in unison to document and protect cultural property that is at risk.”
The destruction of the Jehanabad Buddha is on the direct call from extremist mullah Fazlullah who has been spreading his message of hate and violence across the region. We have written before about the jahalat (ignorance) and violence that he has been preaching in relation to his opposition to children being vaccinated against polio and his violent measures against anyone - including tailors who stitch trousers and barbers who shave faces - who dares to go against his xenophobic version of religosity. Fazlullah’s movement enjoys local support from the so-called ‘Local Taliban’ but does not enjoy any support outside of the immediate area.
Fazlullah’s organization is banned by the government and there is military action being taken against him and his followers. However, this campaign is not very successful and the military is suffering significant losses. This is partly because of his local support, but even more because the action is itself half-hearted and strategically misconceived.
Importantly, while Gen. Musharraf is exactly right in diagnosing movement’s such as Fazlullah’s as one of the greatest challenges facing Pakistan today, the General’s obsession with wanting to remain in power has distracted him from taking meaningful action against such criminal actions. While those who believe that simply removing Gen. Musharraf will solve the problem are clearly wrong, it is increasingly evident that his departure is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for meaningfully tackling this menace. It is now increasingly clear that even if Gen. Musharraf has the will to resist religious extremism, he no longer has the ability to do so.
There are, of course, many aspects to what is happening in Swat - not just related to Pakistan’s domestic politics but also to geo-strategic and global realities. My former colleague at Tufts University, Prof. Gary Leupp has written a thoughtful piece on the subject in CounterPunch, pointing out some of these aspects, drawing interesting chronological linkages, and pointing out that a disrespect for cultural heritage in times of war is by no means restricted to the Taliban. But none of this is or can be a justification for what is happening in Swat today.
The treatment of these religious symbols and artifacts in Swat is but a small indicator of the rot of extremism that is setting in, but it is an important indicator. It is important not only because the world has its own sensibilities and is paying great attention. It is far more important because it seems that Pakistanis themselves are not paying enough attention. We need to do so. We need to speak out. We need to stand up. We need to do so not simply because of what might happen to our past heritage if we do not, but more because of what might happen to our own future if we don’t.
At stake here is not just an image on a rock-cliff or our image abroad, at stake here is our own image of who we are and who we might become if we remain silent in the face of injustice.
Comparisons of this act with Babri Masjid are stupid to say the least. First, before anybody jumps on me, I think the destruction of the Babri Masjid was a despicable act. While the original Masjid cannot be brought back, the least we should do is to hand the site back to the Shia community of Ayodhya (who managed the mosque before the 1940s and who filed the case that is still in the courts) and force the parties that were responsible for its destruction (i.e. the BJP along with its sister organizations) to pay for its reconstruction (besides other punishment they should get for their criminal acts).
However, Babri Masjid is a much more complex issue, and not one that is comparable to the Bamiyan or Swat Buddhas. There are claims, (whether legitimate or not is yet to be conclusively determined), that this was a site of a pre-existing temple and not just any temple, but a temple recording the birthplace of Lord Ram. This may seem like an arbitrary claim, but the fact remains that there is a history to the site. A dispute about the site first reached the courts in the 19th century, with a British judge referring to older records about a temple at the site. At least as far back as historical records go, the mosque has been referred to as Ram Jamnasthan Masjid or Jamnasthan Masjid. (Jamnasthan is Hindi for “birthplace”) along with the term Babri Masjid. Finally, there is a long and indisputable history in India of destruction of temples by various Muslim monarchs and their underlings and in some cases, their replacement with mosques - making the claims of a pre-existing temple at least plausible even if not likely. None of this justifies the destruction of the Babri Masjid, but the fact remains that this is not just a case of destruction of a mosque because certain people could not tolerate it or that they thought it was their religious duty. There was a long-standing dispute that culminated in the events of December 6, 1992, with politics rather than religion being the prime cause for the destruction of the mosque.
In the case of the Bamiyan Buddhas and the ones in Swat, the only reason for their destruction is intolerance and a literalist interpretation of the scriptures.
The protection of historical treasures falls under the management of the government in Islamabad. For you to suggest that Pakistan’s own leadership collude with illiterate and misled villagers to destroy Pakistan’s heritage is deplorable. Saying “it’s up to the locals” is a disengenous way of saying you agree with the extremists.
First get the govt. to do the bidding of the extremists for fear of offending their version of Islam, and the next thing you know Pakistan will be a Wahabi state under the thumb of Saudi Arabia instead of a messed-up not-yet democracy under the U.S.
Is it possible to suggest that Pakistanis recognize that the Deobandi movement is not really home-grown? The ultra-fundamentalist movement is led and financed by foreigners just as the hated Western NGOs are. Only the NGOs finance doctors to inoculate children, and the fundies kill doctors for trying to do the same. Who are better?
Salamalikum,
Next time, try to read more than the first few lines of my comments. Tina, Qadir, MQ, Baber: Where did I suggest that if no Buddhist comes to worship, then the statue should be destroyed. In fact, if you guys hadn’t jumped the gun, you would have noticed that based on the requirement I mentioned, it is nearly impossible to destroy the Buddah because I believe you can find one Buddhist in the whole world who recognizes this statue as a place of worship.
Hence, all these counter arguments that Babri Masjid or Andulis masaajid were no more frequented by people to pray are moot because people recognized them as mosques around the world (plus thousands of lesser known masaajid in Spain were destroyed). Also, my argument is in line with what Umar ibn al-Khattab did, inshaAllah….know that when Umar conquered Egypt, Egyptians didn’t become Muslims the next day. So, of course their places of whorship were respected.
My point is, in other words, if Buddah is not recognized as a place of worship, regardless of it being visited or not, then defining what heritage people want should be left to the locals, and some archeological sentiment shouldn’t play any role here.
Abid: The westerners, Omar reasons, were more concerned …
Omar has a metal piece in his head (from the Afghan war) and retreats for days on end with ringing noises that he cannot bear. The idiot then talks of “visions” he has seen, and some bigger idiots put that “vision” in action. Those visions seem more the result of that mighty metal and some peerless poppy. Allowing the possibility that he “thinks” is a big stretch. With the guys in Bamiyan and Swat - they will only listen to the dulcet sounds that emerge from a big bad barrel.
Excerpt from Prof Gary Leupp article “The Bad Karma of Imperialism” in the Counter Punch mentioned by Adil Sahab above, is very enlightening indeed.
Evil actions produce more evil. [The Pukhtunwali] value emphasizes hospitality to visitors (melmastia). Perhaps the Bush administration didn’t [understand] that. [Now] the Bush administration, unable to control the events it has triggered, is in a state of consternation.
How did this happen?
[Bush] government deserves more blame for the current crises from Lebanon to Pakistan? I might add that the very existence of al-Qaeda and the Taliban stem from the U.S. effort throughout the 1980s into the 90s to mobilize Islamists for a jihad against the Soviets and their allies in Afghanistan. The conscious deployment of jihadis versus secularist “communists” during the late Cold War era led directly to the emergence of such groups. After the Soviets were driven from Afghanistan, many wound up attacking the U.S. This is what the CIA calls “blowback.” It’s the bad karma of imperialism.
But back to the Swat Valley and its Buddhist heritage. Why have some Muslims in this region, who have lived contentedly in the shadow of these images for many centuries, only within recent years started blowing them up? The Swat Islamists are aware that the Qur’an forbids the depiction of the human or animal forms in religious art (although some “miniature paintings” showing these in books has been allowed, notably in Shiite Persia) as a safeguard against idolatry. (See Qur’an 6:74, 14:35, 22:30, etc.)
But why these actions, now? The Bamiyan episode may hold some clues. In July 1999, Mullah Omar actually ordered that the Buddhas be preserved. They were not being used as objects of worship (there being no Buddhists in Afghanistan in centuries). Moreoever, “The government considers the Bamyan statues as an example of a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors. The Taliban states that Bamyan shall not be destroyed but protected.” But in March 2001 a new decree called for the destruction of all such images. Mullah Omar explained to a Pakistani journalist in April 2004, “I did not want to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me. I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living human beings - the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddhas’ destruction.”
It sounds entirely illogical. The westerners, Omar reasons, were more concerned with saving a statue than with saving people in a country at war for sixteen years, vying with Ethiopia as the world’s most impoverished state. The U.S. and the west in general did little to alleviate hunger in Afghanistan. Hence, perhaps, [Omar’s] indignation. He no doubt thinks the west doesn’t have its priorities right. But is his thinking about art so distant from that of the architects of the Iraq War, who failed to protect the Baghdad Museum from looters, calling the looting “creative chaos”? Or the U.S. military whose vehicles have crushed artifacts in Babylon dating back to the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II? Or the U.S. troops who used the ninth-century Malwiya Minaret in Samarra as a lookout and sniper post, drawing a bomb attack that damaged its top tier? I don’t sense that preservation of culture looms large among the priorities of the Bush administration; it’s concerned with conquest, not art and religion.
The deeper karmic causes lie, in time and space, far outside the beautiful Swat Valley.
If this is justifiable then so is destruction of babri Masjid, as it wasn’t a place of worship anymore then. And comparision of this place of heritiage with kababa is very stupid, no offence to anyone. With the same logic then other christian countries should start destroying the muslim heritages in their countries and muslims should stop crying foul play. Is there any difference in their actions and yours?
An ancient Bodhi tree was burnt and chopped down in my neighborhood in Islamabad for the same reasons that Sawat Bhuda has been defaced now and Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed earlier. We have already talked about it in detail elsewhere on this blog.
To those of you who wear religion on their sleeves let me ask this : Caliph Omar conquered Egypt in the 7th century but did not destroy the massive statue of Abul-Hol (Sphinx) and other statues or symbols of any relgion. But Mullah Omar of the Taliban destroyed the Bamyan statues in the name of whatever brand of religion he believed in. Whose traditions would you prefer to follow? Caliph Omar’s or Mullah Omar’s?
Adil,
No one has time in this world like you…to write about stupid things. You have mentioned about all buddha stuff…have you tried to draw public attention towards the human rights voliation done by mushraf government in same areas and wht those ppl have stood up againist him. if you dont know the facts then better try to find them rather than spreading stupid enlightened moderation.