Ayodhya

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Letters from pioneer..

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Historical wrongs
Maulana Qureshi, the Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, has reportedly said that the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya “was the blackest incident in the history of the country.” He goes on to say that “it will not be forgotten till justice is done and the rule of law established”. In response, Mr A Surya Prakash, in his article, “Wounds on the Hindu psyche” (December 7), has cited incidents that were even more horrendous than the demolition of the Ayodhya structure. He gives examples of the temples at Somnath, Mathura and Varanasi and how they were demolished. Has Maulana Qureshi or any other Muslim ever bothered to find out how the Hindus may have felt, or still feel, when their own places of worship were razed? Let me cite just one more example of “the blackest incident in the history of the country”. The temple at Mathura that was demolished by Aurangzeb was not pulled down for the first time. A more “spectacular” demolition was recorded by Utbi, an associate of Mahmud Ghaznavi, in his Tarikh-e-Yamini. He describes the siege of Mathura in the following words: “The Sultan next directed his attacks against the sacred city of Mathura. There were magnificent temples all over the city and the largest of them stood in the centre of it. The Sultan was very much struck by its grandeur...He seized all the gold and silver idols and ordered his soldiers to burn all the temples to the ground. The idols in them were deliberately broken into pieces.” However, Nehru calls Mahmud an admirer of art and architecture. According to him, Mahmud “like many others conquerors used and exploited the name of religion for his conquests.” However, Mr Surya Prakash has said how Mahmud turned down the offer of large sums of wealth to spare the Somnath temple. Evidently, Mahmud was not just interested in wealth. In contrast, Hindus offered to relocate the Babri masjid. They were not interested in demolition of the structure but the site it stood upon. Many contend that Muslims destroyed Hindu temples for their wealth. It may be true but how does one explain the systematic destruction of idols? This can be explained only in terms of the Islamic abhorrence of idol worshippers. While Islamic rule is full of instances of demolition of Hindu shrines, Muslims remember only Babri Masjid’s demolition. It is time the so-called secularists gave up their pro-Muslim rhetoric and faced the reality. As for Muslim community leaders, before sitting in judgement upon Hindus, they ought to read what has been documented by medieval Muslim historians.
Vinod Kumar
USA, via e-mail<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->