Iconoclasm in Islam

The starting point of this part of the dialogue was this tweet in which i tagged Mufti Yasir.

I’ll start with the relevant portion of this exchange of twitter messages.

Q: Islam has constantly insulted and broken Hindu temples. Can you deny it?

A: Islam has never demolished a SINGLE temple anywhere around the world. Evidence is your responsibility since you claim it.

Q: Have you heard of Kashi Vishwanath? Ram Mandir in Ayodhya? Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan?

Unless you now say Alamgir Aurangzeb was ‘UnIslamic’. Please reply.

A: Ram Mandir is yet to be proven. You have to prove that the demolishen was due to Islamic teachings.

Q: So temples were broken, you agree. Your point being Aurangzeb was unislamic in doing so. Is that what I should prove?

A: You should prove that the demolishen of temples was Islamic because this is what you claimed.

Q: I can prove how Alamgirs and warriors or Islam behaved. I assume behaviour of the best among you should qualify for Islamic theology.

A: You need to prove the following
1 What Alamgir did was Islamic
2 He was the best among us
3 He didn’t get any help by Hindus
No more claims

Q: People and communities behave based on fundamentals. This proving will go into uncomfortable territory of quoting Quran.

Hope you will have the maturity to handle criticism and scepticism. Trivialising criticism as blasphemy to shut dissent is common in Islam.

A: Sure. You may qout Quran but make sure you do it with the context. Don’t be cherry picker. Read a page before and a page after the verse.

Criticism is not blasphemy. Mockery is and it must be avoided.

Q: All writings to affect of iconoclasm in Islam will be rejected by you as humbug. Standard response of all clergy.

Therefore, i cannot prove anything in isolation. A healthy dialogue should lead to unravelling of ideology and behaviours.

This conversation was interrupted mid-way by a parallel thread on a similar topic.