The Bridge Betrayed and The Buddhas of Bamiyan explore dimensions of cultural eradication in forms of genocide, destruction of buildings and art, and the demolition of key symbols. In The Bridge Betrayed, Michael Sells discusses the religious nationalism exemplified by the Serbs and Croats in Bosnia and their attempts to destroy the Bosnian Muslim culture. Similarly, less than ten years later, the Taliban destroyed components of Bamiyan culture. Llewelyn Morgan analyzes this cultural devastation in his book, The Buddhas of Bamiyan. However, the destruction in this case involves religious nationalists, but is not solely motivated by the nation of Islam. The destruction of cultures that occurred in Bamiyan and Bosnia, due to religious nationalism, …show more content…
Along with the genocide, the nationalists destroyed many institutions of the Bosnian culture. In August of 1992, the Serb army shelled the Bosnian National Library, which was only one “component of a systematic campaign of cultural eradication.” The film The Love of Books highlighted the affects that the cultural eradication of the National Library, and other forms of art and institutions had in Bosnia. The goal of the nationalists was the eradication of the Bosnian Muslims along with the components of their …show more content…
The United Nations focused on the supply of humanitarian aid rather than stopping the genocide. They put a system in place enlisting UN peacekeepers as “suppliers of humanitarian aid to Bosnia—as hostages.” Sells claims that the West did not take the necessary actions needed to stop the crimes. He argues that if the air strikes were initiated in 1992 to prohibit the genocide, the lives of most Bosnian and US peacekeepers would have been saved. The UN and the western world took too long to intervene in Bosnia, but justified their lack of actions by claiming they were very much involved with the aid and support. Still, the nationalists of the violence “were protected by a policy designed by the policy makers of a western world that is culturally dominated by Christianity.” Since the West is compromised of many Christians, they could not bring themselves to kill a nationalist group comprised of people fighting for Christianity, according to Sells. The political leaders did not take a stand against the Serb and Croat religious nationalists in Bosnia to obstruct the mass
Culture is made up of three main components: ethics, aesthetics, and religion (Lincoln 52). The lines of culture become skewed as it often blends in with political and religious views. In Western Europe during the time of the Reformation, the Church was the central ruler of the society. This meant that religion was not only a cultural view, but also a political one. As time moved on, the Church became less important, but today’s standards still connect religion to culture. This becomes an issue as individuals who are noticeably outside the culture in forms or religion are often judged and looked down upon (Lincoln 56). Due to this outcast it can cause anger to certain religions and culture which can often lead to these acts of violence. With the hate between cultures, religion becomes the justifiable mean on which violence can occur. Many individuals can state that God wants them to make their own religion superior, and one way they can draw attention to their religion is terrorism and other forms of violence. Due to this connection to culture, religion can not be separated into it’s own personal category, as it is forever affected by the changes and culture of the community (Lincoln 57). As time and culture progress, the religion of the community will either change with it, or fight the changes which will often cause conflict. This can be seen in the results of the practice of Jihad, the Reformation and
The Buddha in the Attic is written to represent the unheard experiences of many different women that married their husband through a picture. They were known during the early 1920s as the pictures brides ranging in different ages, but naive to the world outside of America. Though the picture bride system was basically the same as their fathers selling their sister to the geisha house, these women viewed being bought to be a wife by a Japanese male in America as an opportunity for freedom and hope for a better life (Otsuka, 2011, p.5) For some of these women, the choice to marry the man in the picture wasn’t an option and chose to die while on the boat instead of marry a stranger, while others accepted their fates with grace. The book continues
Genocide is a pressing issue with a multitude of questions and debates surrounding it. It is the opinion of many people that the United Nations should not get involved with or try to stop ongoing genocide because of costs or impositions on the rights of a country, but what about the rights of an individual? The UN should get involved in human rights crimes that may lead to genocide to prevent millions of deaths, save money on humanitarian aid and clean up, and fulfill their responsibilities to stop such crimes. It is preferable to stop genocide before it occurs through diplomacy, but if necessary, military force may be used as a last resort. Navi Pillay, Human Rights High Commissioner, stated, “Concerted efforts by the international community at critical moments in time could prevent the escalation of violence into genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing.”
Siddhartha and Moses’ lives were each filled with faith, and their life experiences circulated around their beliefs. Throughout Siddhartha’s life he had faith that there was a level of wisdom, called enlightenment, which he was constantly searching for as a means to bring him spiritual peace. It is clear that his faith is strong when Siddhartha says, “How now, Govinda; are we truly on the right path? Are we really growing towards a realization? Or are we perhaps, just going in circles - we who think that at some point we shall escape the circle of existence?” (Hesse 24). On the other hand, Moses was brought before God and was given a task to free the Hebrews by following God’s word and having faith in Him. In the Bible God states to Moses, “Come now! I will send you to Pharaoh to lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (The Catholic Youth Bible, Exodus 3-10). Siddhartha lived a life of faith as demonstrated during his childhood, his time with the Samanas, and his time with Vasudeva. Moses also lived a life of faith through journeying back to Egypt, confronting the Phar...
Church, Kenneth. “Jihad.” Collateral Language. Ed. John Collins and Ross Glover. New York: NYU Press, 2000. 109-123.
With the knowledge of a previous attack against Christian groups, it is surprising the lack of aid that comes from the world. In an article published in 1920 that states “Armenia is a victim both of the war and the peace, persecuted by her enemies and now almost deserted by her friends.” 9 While the Armenians had the sympathy of the world, “the fear of opening the vexing Eastern question... has held back the administration of justice.” 10 Armenia looked to Germany, Russia, Britain, and America but did not find relief. To the Armenians, “no government or nation has ever attempted to stop,” 11 the attacks against them. During these attacks, it is estimated that the Armenian genocide had “one million or 1.5 million victims,” 12 This number is strictly the deaths of Armenians and does not include groups like the Assyrians and Greeks that were also killed during the
The history of humanitarian aid has been muddied by cases of NGOs and UN groups enabling violent groups by providing too much support and aid. During the Rwandan Genocide, two ethnic groups, the Hutus and the Tutsis, clashed and thousands of Tutsis were killed at the hands of the Hutus. Many people fled the country seeking refuge, and agencies set up refugee camps in some of the neighboring countries, beginning one of the largest humanitarian aid disasters that the world has ever seen (Lassiter 54). Many ex-combatants found their ways into these cams, receiving food and aid supplies. Some of these camps were even used as military bases where the ex-combatants could rally and then leave to kill their enemies. Thinking that they could curb reliance on aid workers and agencies, the aid was put under the control of the Rwandan soldiers. Because of the prejudice of the soldiers, only people of certain races and ethnicities received aid. The availability of aid to the military and militants enabled them to accomplish military objectives without fear of retribution. While the aid problems in the aftermat...
Greenfield, Daniel M. "Crime of Complicity in Genocide: How the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia Got It Wrong, and Why It Matters." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 98.3 (2008): 921-24. HeinOnline. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.
Various schools of thought exist as to why genocide continues at this deplorable rate and what must be done in order to uphold our promise. There are those who believe it is inaction by the international community which allows for massacres and tragedies to occur - equating apathy or neutrality with complicity to evil. Although other nations may play a part in the solution to genocide, the absolute reliance on others is part of the problem. No one nation or group of nations can be given such a respo...
About two years ago I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir “Infidel” and was immensely moved by her story, especially the atrocities she went through in her childhood in Africa and the way she struggled to flee from an oppressive life. At that time, I could not imagine that anyone (except fanatic Muslims), let alone victims of the same oppression that she was, would not share her feelings and views. However, the reading of Ian Buruma’s Murder in Amsterdam sheds light on bigger and obscure components of this story, which clearly influenced some people to disapprove her behavior – even Islamic women. Like in Hirsi Ali’s story, Ian Buruma also identifies nuances in the main episode of the book – an episode that at face value could be described as a murder of a fierce critic of Islam, Theo van Gogh (Hirsi Ali’s friend), by a Muslim extremist, Mohammed Bouyeri. According to Buruma, although the common theme is immigration – involving two guests, Hirsi Ali and Bouyeri, and one host, Van Gogh – there is no single explanation for what happened. Instead, each of these three characters, he explains, was influenced by a blend of personal experiences and external forces. It was thus the clash between their diverse cultural values and personal identities that ended up leading to the tragic morning of November 2nd, 2004, the day of Van Gogh’s murder.
“Culture belongs to the imagination; to judge it rationally is to misunderstand its function” (Wilson 79). In “The Butterfly Mosque” by G. Willow Wilson, she acknowledges culture and explains why cultures can differ so greatly. She emphasizes why its highly inconclusive to try to find a meaning behind ones culture. As a young American Muslim women she is faced with cross cultural ironies as she tries to find her identity and where she fits in. Her conversion to Islam brings into light her internalized prejudice and the different perspectives of Westerners towards the Middle East and vice versa. In her memoir, she depicts both positive and negative aspects of both cultures and, her struggle to find a common ground between the two.
Robinson, B.A. (2002, October 14). Islam: Is it a religion of violence or of peace.
In "Between Cult and Culture: Bamiyan, Islamic Iconoclasm, and the Museum," Finbarr Barry Flood expresses many ideas concerning Islamic iconoclasm. His focus was on the ."..iconoclastic practices of Muslims living in the eastern Islamic world, especially Afghanistan and India." Flood discusses issues with traditional patterns considering Islamic iconoclasm and the "many paradoxes" that "complicate" our understanding of Islamic iconoclasm. Throughout this essay we become familiar with "essentialist conceptions of Muslim iconoclasm" as well as "political aspects of what has largely been conceived of as a theological impulse." These points later provide a basis for analyzing the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha by the Taliban in March 2001. "It will be argued that their obliteration indexed not a timeless response to figuration but a calculated engagement with a culturally specific discourse of images at a particular historical moment."
Baldauf, S. (2009). Why the US didn't intervene in the Rwandan genocide. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2009/0407/p06s14-woaf.html [Accessed: 21 Feb 2014].
Kenneth Jost. 2005. “Understanding Islam.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.