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COVER STORY: AFGHANISTAN
THE DIVIDE IN INDIA
"I don't condemn the Taliban's decision." S.A.
Bukhari,
Imam, Jama Masjid
Mehdi
Hasan is one of the few Taliban members at the historic Dar-ul-Uloom at
Deoband in Uttar Pradesh who does not have the resources to visit his
home (24 Parganas, West Bengal) for his annual holidays. So these days
this student of Arabic and Religion at the 19th century institute keeps
himself occupied by tuning into the radio (TV and newspapers are banned
here). Hasan isn't too happy with what he has been listening to lately:
the scourge of the other "Taliban" in Afghanistan worries him.
"Destruction is not what Islam at this institute teaches us,"
he says. "Religion cannot permit a clan of bigots to destroy ancient
idols."
Deoband is where the two-nation theory was born. It was from here that
a chunk of Muslim clergy went to Pakistan and set up madarsas, never to
return. They later gave birth to the concept of Taliban. Little did the
Taliban theological leaders perhaps realise that religion could be so
twisted out of context. Says Abdul Khaliq, vice-chancellor, Dar-ul-Uloom:
"We don't support the Taliban action in any way. It is anti-Islamic."
Others like its spokesperson Adil Siddiqui go a step further. "The
Taliban is playing into the US' hands by exploiting religion. It's time
to declare Pakistan a terrorist state."
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Moderates: The Deobandis in Uttar Pradesh term the
Bamiyan anti-Islamic
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It
is possible that the hardliners among the Deobandis are on annual leave,
hence the open condemnation. There are enough clergymen, however, who
are ready to condone the Taliban's diktats. Some, in fact, have blatantly
politicised it. Like the head of Delhi's Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari,
who equated the action at Bamiyan with that of the Babri Masjid demolition.
He declared that he was prepared to negotiate with the Taliban on one
condition: A.B. Vajpayee should publicly denounce the Babri Masjid demolition
of 1992 and call it a national shame. Quick to react, the Shiv Sena burnt
his effigy; the Bajrang Dal wanted him arrested; the little-known Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Sena called him an ISI agent.
Bukhari's statement overshadowed the sentiments expressed by the majority
of Muslim clergy across the nation. The Indian History Congress (IHC)
and the Aligarh Historians' Society termed the demolitions acts of "sheer
vandalism". Shireen Moosvi, IHC secretary, says, "It is immaterial
if the Taliban claims that it is destroying idols to fulfil what are alleged
to be the prescriptions of Islam. No religion is entitled to sanction
the destruction of the works of another faith." Right-thinking men
like Moosvi and Hasan feel that religion should chart the road to peace.
His counterparts in Afghanistan do not quite agree.
-Sayantan Chakravarty
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