Buddhist Statues

I always enjoy The Scribe, and I should like to thank you for producing it. The articles are invariably fascinating. However, I do not think your comments on the destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan are helpful (Scribe 74, p. 28). I do not think that simply because the statues 'offend the followers of monotheism' they deserve to be destroyed.

There are many things we can choose to find offensive if we take certain texts too literally, or are feeling intolerant - pig farms, churches, different branches of the Jewish religion, for example - but we do not destroy them. We recognise that peace and tolerance are ends in themselves. Anyway, I question whether the statues are offensive to us at all. The Buddhists do not worship them, any more than we worship pictures of our family. [Some of our sages consider any representations of the human form to be offensive!]

You are correct to say that Buddhism is thriving: one reason that it is enjoying popularity amongst many people is that it is a philosophy of acceptance and tolerance.

Ronnie Horesh