Mail Call.

The Taliban Strikes Again

Our March 12 story on the Taliban's plan to destroy ancient Buddhist statues prompted many readers to deplore what one called "a dastardly act." Another remarked, "The Taliban is laying waste to its nation's art and history." Some, however, asserted that the indignant response of some Western nations was hypocritical. "The whole world has suffered from the destruction of natural and cultural riches by industrialized nations," commented one critical reader.

Doing Away With History

You're right, NEWSWEEK, the Taliban has "succeeded only in angering the world" by going on a rampage against Buddhist idols ("Destroying the Afghan Past," SOCIETY & THE ARTS, March 12). But the world has had to reckon with many such Philistines through the ages. Nearly a decade back, the Babri Mosque in Ajodhya, India, was completely demolished by members of the party that is in power today. And yet now the Indian government has come out strongly against what happened in Bamiyan. It is difficult to digest such hypocritical self-righteousness on their part.

Ratna Sansar Shrestha--Katmandu, Nepal

The destruction of Buddhist temples and statues is nothing new in the history of Islam in West and South Asia. The reason there are virtually no ancient Hindu or Buddhist temples anywhere in northern India is that they were razed by marauding Muslim conquerors nearly a millennium ago. Visitors to Delhi's Quwwat ul-Islam mosque (India's oldest) can discover that it is constructed of stones from demolished Hindu temples, the images nearly obliterated but still visible. The Katmandu Valley in Nepal, by contrast, is so rich in ancient Hindu and Buddhist shrines and manuscripts precisely because it was largely spared the ravages of Muslim invasion and iconoclasm. Some Muslim communities, on the other hand, have preserved the sacred art of other faiths with respect and loving care. I was delighted to come across one of the most extraordinary collections of Buddhist statuary I've ever seen in the municipal museum of Peshawar in Pakistan, 50 miles from the Afghan frontier.

Bill Templer--Shumen University