"In Central Asia, Islam had wiped out Buddhism together with Nestorianism, Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, and whatever other religion it encountered. The Persian word for idol is but, from Buddha, because the Buddhists with their Buddha-status were considered as the idol-worshippers par excellence. The Buddhists drew the wrath of every Muslim but-shikan (idol-breaker), even where they had not offered resistance aganinst the Muslim armies because of their doctrine of non-violence. As a reminder of the Buddhist past of Central Asia, the city name Bukhara is nothing but a corruption of vihara, i.e. a Buddhist monastery; other Indian names include Samarkhand and Takshakhand, i.e. Tashkent. In India, Buddhism was a much easier target than other sects and traditions, because it was completely centralized around the monasteries. Once the monsteries destroyed and the monks killed, the Buddhist community had lost its backbone and was helpless before the pressure to convert to Islam (as happened on a large scale in East Bengal)."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Elst, Koenraad (1992). Negationism in India: Concealing the record of Islam. Chapter II. (also in Arun Shourie & Sita Ram Goel: Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them? Vol. II.)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Buddhists
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Persecution of Buddhists
9 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Persecution of Buddhists →
Related Quotes
"There can be no doubt that the fall of Buddhism in India was due to the invasions of the Musalmans. Islam came out as…"
"We came down on them like a flood, We went out among their cities, We tore down the idol-temples, We shat on the Budd…"
"She (Romila Thapar) would do well to read some histories of Buddhism and Jainism in this country to know that 1) Budd…"
"In Mongolia has been discovered a mass grave containing the remains of thousands of Buddhist monks liquidated by a fo…"
"During the sixth and early seventh centuries AD the whole tract was controlled by Turkish rulers, but in the course o…"
"The Muslim conquests of Central Asia also put an end to its Buddhist art. As early as the eighth century, the monaste…"
"The monastery of Fondukistan flourished for about three or four centuries and came to an end only in 10th or 11th cen…"
"There was a time when Buddhism was flourishing in Afghanistan too. Prof C.S. Upasak, in his History of Buddhism in Af…"
"The Soviets had scattered the Witnesses around different locations, hoping their faith would slowly die out. In fact,…"
"During the Second World War, Jehovah’s Witnesses found themselves targeted because their apocalyptic and pacifist sta…"