[Reader-list] Muslim posters - a late feedback

[Yousuf]

Dear friends
I am forwarding a friend's recent feedback on one of
my Sarai postings, which some of you might be
interested in reading.

Yousuf
 
--- Jagannathan <jagan_n at mantraonline.com> wrote:

> Dear Yousuf, 
> You mention somebody pointing out
> that the Buddha was an iconoclast, and would have
> been happy to see the destruction of the Bamiyan
> Buddhas. While we are in no position to say what the
> Buddha might have said or done, I must put the
> historical record straight. There is no record of
> the Buddha expressing any desire to destroy any
> icons. In fact, there is no historical evidence of
> there being any idol worship in the time of the
> Buddha. While we believe that there would have been
> idol worship, the first actual evidence we have is
> from about three hundred years after the date of the
> Buddha. Secondly, what the Buddha objected to was
> deifying him. His teaching did not not offer support
> for life-- ie, praying for illness to be averted,
> asking for blessings and boons for success in your
> affairs etc... It was mainly an ethical system for
> personal moral upliftment. It was in that context
> that he did not want to be worshipped as even in the
> course of his life he refused to perform miracles
> (unlike Jesus), and told his chief disciple Ananda
> that the dharma that he had preached should be their
> guide in the future. As to the second aspect of
> whether he would have approved of the destruction of
> the idols-- his was essentially so tolerant a
> system, in fact, called 'the middle path' that
> Buddha would probably have always been in favour of
> live and let live, even if certain philosophies or
> modes of thinking were absolutely at variance with
> his own. So, my opinion is that he would have not
> really have berated the worshippers of his images,
> at the most he might have said that it was of no
> real use; it would be better to live morally pure
> lives! Love, bharati
> 
> From: Yousuf 
>   To: reader-list at sarai.net 
>   Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 2004 3:30 PM
>   Subject: Religious popular art : posting #5
> 
> 
>   Sarai Fellowship 2004: Muslim Religious Posters
> 
>   What You See is What You Believe: 
>   The Tangible Versus Intangible Divinity
> 
>   Among the common users of Muslim devotional
> posters
>   interviewed during this study, many are unclear
> and
>   sometimes confused about the nature of attitude
> and
>   status to be given to these images, unlike, say
> Hindu
>   devotees, who would use the image or idol of a
> deity
>   solely for worshipping. Since most of the devotees
>   (interviewed) came from poor or lower middle class
> or
>   rural areas, many were probably not familiar with
> the
>   concept of iconoclasm in Islam. They broadly knew
> that
>   idolatry is certainly unIslamic (this is what
>   differentiates them from the Hindus), but the
> images
>   of local saints, their tombs, other Islamic
> folklore,
>   and many symbols of composite culture ingrained in
>   their collective/folk memory, are openly accepted
> and
>   venerated, without drawing any lines between
> Islamic
>   and unIslamic - until someone with a
> Wahhabi/purist
>   bend of mind comes and tells them that what they
> are
>   doing is not right.
> 
>   So, what exactly goes on in the minds and hearts
> of
>   the religious people who fall in the gray area
> between
>   iconoclasm and idolatry? We may begin by exploring
>   first what is Islamic iconoclasm. The prohibition
> of
>   religious iconography existed even before Islam.
>   Recently, when the world was crying on the
> demolition
>   of Buddha's statue in Afghanistan's Bamian by the
>   Taliban, somebody pointed out that one person who
>   would be happiest to see this demolition is Buddha
>   himself, as he was himself one of the first
> destroyers
>   of religious icons. 
> 



		
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today!
http://vote.yahoo.com