Gone forever, Afghanistan’s and the world’s loss!

I suppose the most recent and most appalling example of iconoclasm has to be the destruction of the Buddha images carved into the walls of the valley of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. It was, after all, there for the world to watch on all the news channels. I think anyone that has any sense of history, and any sense of responsibility to preserve things from the past was shocked that the Taliban was going to destroy something so old. Many leaders from around the world asked them not to.

If you think about why they did, you might have some understanding of a need to destroy something that old. But should we destroy things of a historical nature just because we don’t agree with it? Is it so important to a religion that it must destroy everything? Radical extremists seem to only think of themselves and what they believe with no regard for others. They seem determined to wipe from the face of the earth everyone that does not believe as they do.

You would think that in a so-called modern world, we would have learned more tolerance of others. But you see, there are those in other parts of the world that are not modern, indeed, they are not even a part of the society of the world. Shocking as it may seem, many societies and religions only want their own way.

Thank goodness, we live in a country that is free. A country, that in most cases, tolerates others and their beliefs. There are fundamentalists here in this country that are not tolerant. They would not allow others and their beliefs to survive. I would hope that we will learn from the destruction of the Buddha’s, that we will always be tolerant of others, that we will not make the same mistake. Tolerance of others should be a fundamental of society. Religion should not be used to destroy, but to build up.