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Islamic Clerics Return Empty-Handed From Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD, March 12 (News Agencies) - Islamic clerics late Monday returned empty-handed from Afghanistan after failing to persuade the ruling Taliban militia chief to withdraw the edict ordering destruction of Buddhist relics, a report said.
"They wanted us to stop the destruction but failed to convince us that destroying statues is un-Islamic," Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported quoting Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen.
Three top Muslim clerics who traveled with a delegation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were tasked to persuade the Taliban to scrap the edict.
Taliban's Cultural Minister Qudratullah Jamal, who is in charge of the demolition process, said the delegation of Islamic clerics had come to the "wrong place."
They should have gone to India to enquire about the demolition of the historic Babri mosque by Hindu fanatics in 1991, as well as to Jerusalem to contest the Israeli occupation, Jamal said.
The OIC delegation was headed by Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmud and arrived in Kandahar on Sunday.
It included Egypt's top religious leader, Mufti Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel and top Sunni clerics, Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi and Mohamed al-Rawi.
Wassel told reporters in Cairo Saturday that "from a religious viewpoint it is clear, these statues are part of humanity's heritage and do not affect Islam at all."
"Why these Islamic clerics did not go India when the Babri Masjid was being demolished. Why under present conditions do they not go to Bait al-Moqdas (Jerusalem) which is the Muslims' place and property," he said.
Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a decree two weeks ago to demolish the statues, saying his decision was based on orders of God and the Qur'an, Islam's holy book.
The militia ignored a world outcry over the destruction and rejected appeals from United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan who met Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Mutawakel in Islamabad, to the stop the destruction.
UNESCO's special envoy to Afghanistan has confirmed the ruling Taliban militia has destroyed the ancient Buddha statues at Bamiyan, the agency's director general said Monday.
"I was distressed to learn from my special envoy, Pierre Lafrance, that the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas has been confirmed," Koichiro Matsuura said in a statement released at the U.N. cultural organization's Paris headquarters.
Matsuura called the demolition of the 1,500-year-old figures "a crime against culture."
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