De-Islamizing Islam

OCTOBER 1 De-Islamizing Islam When I visited Afghanistan during the last days of communist Russia’s political domination, I found Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, entirely intact, but today, under the so-called Islamic regime of the Taliban, the greater part of Kabul has been destroyed. And now the people of Afghanistan are faced with such great hardship as they have never before faced in their entire history. The Taliban hold Russian communism to be “kufr” while regarding themselves to be the representatives of Islam. How strange it is that “kufr” inflicted only minimal harm upon Afghanistan, while “Islam” has almost totally ruined the country—to such an extent that people are compelled to flee from their own homeland. Sadly, all this is being done in the name of Islam. Judging from the result, one can say that this is nothing more or less than the de-islamization of Islam. Added to the long horrible list of depredations carried out in the name of the Afghan version of Islam, there is the extremely sad event of the demolitions which began on March 1, 2001. Following the order of their religious chief, the Taliban began blasting the statues of Gautam Buddha with dynamite and attacking them with bulldozers. They said that they were doing this in accordance with the teachings of Islam, for Islam did not permit idolatry. This is a totally non-Islamic act. It is true that Islam is against idolatry, but there is certainly a clear difference between weaning people away from idol-worship and the destruction of idols. There are verses in the Quran which state: “Do not worship idols.” But there is no verse in the Quran which says: “Destroy idols.” The way of Islam is to purify the heart of idolatry: it is not to destroy statues made of stone. Let us look at the history of Afghanistan in this connection. According to early tradition, Islam entered Afghanistan during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad himself. Later, the Prophet’s close Companion, Khalid ibn Walid came here with other believers. At that time the majority of the population were Buddhist. Many of them converted to Islam. This process of the peaceful propagation of Islam continued and, by the end of the 10th century A.D., Islam had spread throughout Afghanistan.