The Taliban regime's effort to rally world Muslim opinion behind it by projecting the vandalism at Bamiyan and the large-scale destruction of artefacts in other parts of the country as being in consonance with Islamic tenets, did not fetch the expected support. Barring a few shrill voices from the fringe, extremist quarters, most Muslim countries as well as leading Islamic scholars have voiced their strong disagreement with the Taliban. They insist that Islam does not allow the destruction of the places of worship of others. "There is no compulsion in religion," says the Holy Quran, and in destroying the Buddhas, the Taliban are guilty of a heinous violation of the very religion that they claim to so passionately uphold.
Those familiar with Buddhism know that idol worship is quite foreign to the original teachings of the Buddha, and in this, they come very close to the Islamic position on the matter. Orthodox Hinayana Buddhism had no place for idols of the Buddha, depicting him in the form of symbols, instead, such as, a lotus or the wheel of the law. Yet, over the centuries, particularly owing to the influence of Hinduism and various Tantric traditions, the Buddha's simple creed was turned into an institutionalised religion, the Mahayana or the Great Vehicle, complete with its own priesthood and deities, who came to be represented, of which the 'historical' Buddha, became but one, in the form of idols. An indication of the impact of Mahayanist idolatry is that the Persian and Urdu term for idol, but, is derived from 'Buddha'.
That idols and idol-worship are foreign to the actual teachings of the Buddha does not, ofcourse, condone what talibs have done. Since they have invoked Islam in justifying the destruction of the Buddhas, one must judge their actions in the light of the teachings of Islam, and, in particular, early Islamic tradition as it evolved in South Asia. When Islam first made its presence felt in Afghanistan and India, soon after the death of the Prophet, the schools of Islamic law (mazahib) had not as yet developed. At that time, Afghanistan and India were largely Buddhist and Hindu. The Muslim armies which had taken control of Afghanistan and parts of western India, including Sindh and Multan, were faced with a new situation, about which the Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet (hadith) were silent, for the Islamic scriptures referred only to the Jews, Christians and idol-worshipping pagans of Arabia, laying down rules for Muslims to follow in their dealings with them.
When Muhammad bin Qasim invaded Sindh from the seaward side in 711 CE, the country was wracked by a civil war, with the Buddhist majority labouring under the oppressive rule of Brahmins. The Chachnama, the principal extant source on the history of Sindh in this period, says that the Buddhists welcomed the Arab Muslims with open arms as deliverers from the Brahminical tyranny. Several Sindhi Buddhist tribes went over to Islam, and in this Sindh was not alone.