my understanding of what is happening over there concerning the destruction of buddhist statues:
In Islam, moslems are supposed to make provision for other religions. However the same provision is not provided to all religions. Christians and Jews living under Moslem rule must have their churches and synagogues (places of worship) protected, so long as the Jews and Christians keep their religion within their community and in 'private.' This provision is provided because Christians and Jews are all what moslems call 'people' of the book, meaning of the monotheistic religions that came from the same one God that Islam came from. HOWEVER; idol worship is something abhored by monotheisic religions such as Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. It is for this reason that when Mohammed gained control of Mekkah one of the first things he did was destroy all the idols that people had worshipped in the kaba at the time and at the time before he had taken Mekkah. It seems that the taliban of afghanistan are following this as a precedent. As to the differing opinions among local U.S. moslems or other moslems around the world concerning whether or not the destruction of these buddhas is mandated by Islam, certainly in Islam, as in other religions, there are differing interpretations.
It seems to me that if the buddhist statues served solely the purpose of being a piece of the rich history of humanity or the if the statue was not something worshipped but only the statue of a person revered and held in high esteem(which incidentally Islam frowns upon as a lesser form of idolatry), then perhaps this is where differing interpretations may come from.
I guess the taliban see the buddhist statues as idols that are still worshipped by touring visitors or by buddhists from their more remote locations.
Then the next question is... Islam is intolerant of religions other than the 3 monotheistic faiths?
yes, well thats at least what my moslem friend says. that according to his understanding (and now mine), idolatry, homosexuality, fornication, backbiting --- all these sinful acts --- can be practiced in privacy without public scrutiny nor public punishment.. simply no one would know about it (except God who provide judgement later, for those of you who believe he exists)since u are doing it privately..
in the case of these statues, they are (obviously) public statues.
as for whatever the hell else the taliban has done, like oppressing women and depriving them of education or of bare necessities, Islam does not allow it, but it seems that way too many moslems do.
It is important to know that so many things moslem people do, is not Islam. it is straight up old world culture.
what determines how a people act is all too often their culture and not their religion.
i guess thats all i have to say for now..hope you guys benefitted something from this long read cause it took a while for me to type it.
once again just my two cents---
i like everyone else need to learn more.. before i speak too much about the topic.
[edit] after rereading some of the earlier posts, i realize that dialogue about the subject is certainly much better than just saying "f!ck those taliban"