Assorted historians with a penchant for Indian history have often romanticized the idea of Mughal supremacy. For the longest time, the average Indian was fed fallacies regarding the greatness of this line of invaders, and was conditioned to believe that no greater ruler than the Mughals had ever ruled over his land. Lately, the illustrious stories of Mughal grandeur have been exposed as nothing but the figments of a lazy mind’s twisted imagination, and most Indians have awakened to the hollowness of these stories.
However, there is one segment of Indian society that still considers the Mughals to be the best thing to have happened to India since antiquity. A Muslim movie director from the Indian film industry recently claimed that the Mughals were the “original nation builders.” That is quite an ambitious title to be bestowed upon those whose reign was marked by destruction, plunder, mass slaughter and rape. Contrary to being a “nation builder,” the first Mughal emperor was infamous for razing the historic Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in the 16th century, and erecting a mosque, the Babri Masjid, over its ruins.
A close look at their pattern of administration would place them in proximity to the present Taliban that just took over Afghanistan by force. There are more similarities between the militant outfit and the “great invaders” and we shall reflect on them as we go.
The Hindu Ram temple was not the lone target of Islamist bigotry and intolerance. Babur, the first Mughal emperor, wrote in September 1528 that he had ordered both of the statues of the Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed. The sixth Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, used heavy artillery to take down the statues and smashed the legs of the Buddha idols. In 2001, the Taliban carried out a total demolition of the ancient idols by means of dynamite, thereby completing the task that had been ordered and left incomplete by the esteemed Mughals.
Hindu historians state that over 40,000 temples were destroyed in Northern India during the period of Muslim rule. This is the same fanatical suppression of “non-believers” that the Taliban exhibits when they force the custodian of the Sikh Gurdwara Thala Sahib to take the Nishan Sahib (the holy religious flag) off the roof of the structure.
Back in July, an Afghan interpreter for US Army was beheaded by the Taliban. Beheading is a common pattern of execution that almost all Islamic jihadis practice, and the Mughals practiced it as well. The execution of Hemu, Guru Tegh Bahadur and hanging of the heads of 2000 Sikhs on spears and marching to Delhi to force the Sikhs into embracing Islam are all examples of how the Islamic barbarity that is besieging the world today is just a recurrence of atrocities seen during the 1000-year-long stretch of the Islamic rule in India.
The Taliban’s burning down of a library in Kabul is reminiscent of Bihar’s Nalanda University going up in flames after Turk-Afghan attacker Bakhtiyar Khalji’s invasion.
During the period of Islamic rule, non-Muslims in India were compelled to pay jizya to be allowed to practice their religion. The jizya, a tax non-Muslim subjects are required to pay to the Islamic ruler while inhabiting Islamic land, contributed heavily to the total revenue of the ruler’s treasury. Back in 2009, the Taliban imposed jizya on the Hindus, Sikhs and Christians in Pakistan. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, UK-based Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary insisted that the jihad group impose the jizya on the non-believers in Afghanistan, too.
If you think the Taliban taking in girls as young as 12 as sex slaves is an invention of the 21st century radical Islamic spirit, be prepared to stand corrected. Over hundreds of millions of Hindu women faced unspeakable atrocities throughout the Islamic reign in the land. They were captured, paraded naked, raped, and taken as sex slaves. Those who were killed were luckier. Muslim soldiers would kill babies with spears, cut out their hearts, and make the mothers eat the organ. Some mothers would get decorated with garlands made from their children’s heads. The harems of Islamic rulers were packed with women they received through marriage, trade, war, or as “gifts.” As Islamic law allows men to have sexual intercourse with their female slaves, it is alleged that one of the most glorified Mughal rulers, Akbar, had over 5000 sex slaves in his harem.
However, the most significant similarity between the Mughals of Medieval India and the Taliban of the present day is the fact that much like historians have whitewashed the sins of the invaders and looters of India, today’s Leftist media is burning the midnight oil to give an image makeover to the jihadis of Afghanistan.
Until 2019, Islamic apologists denied that the Ram Mandir was ever in Ayodhya. In 2050, they will question the existence of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and in 2070 they will claim that the Twin Towers existed only in fiction. No Islamic jihadis took them down.
However, there is one segment of Indian society that still considers the Mughals to be the best thing to have happened to India since antiquity. A Muslim movie director from the Indian film industry recently claimed that the Mughals were the “original nation builders.” That is quite an ambitious title to be bestowed upon those whose reign was marked by destruction, plunder, mass slaughter and rape. Contrary to being a “nation builder,” the first Mughal emperor was infamous for razing the historic Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in the 16th century, and erecting a mosque, the Babri Masjid, over its ruins.
A close look at their pattern of administration would place them in proximity to the present Taliban that just took over Afghanistan by force. There are more similarities between the militant outfit and the “great invaders” and we shall reflect on them as we go.
The Hindu Ram temple was not the lone target of Islamist bigotry and intolerance. Babur, the first Mughal emperor, wrote in September 1528 that he had ordered both of the statues of the Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed. The sixth Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, used heavy artillery to take down the statues and smashed the legs of the Buddha idols. In 2001, the Taliban carried out a total demolition of the ancient idols by means of dynamite, thereby completing the task that had been ordered and left incomplete by the esteemed Mughals.
Hindu historians state that over 40,000 temples were destroyed in Northern India during the period of Muslim rule. This is the same fanatical suppression of “non-believers” that the Taliban exhibits when they force the custodian of the Sikh Gurdwara Thala Sahib to take the Nishan Sahib (the holy religious flag) off the roof of the structure.
Back in July, an Afghan interpreter for US Army was beheaded by the Taliban. Beheading is a common pattern of execution that almost all Islamic jihadis practice, and the Mughals practiced it as well. The execution of Hemu, Guru Tegh Bahadur and hanging of the heads of 2000 Sikhs on spears and marching to Delhi to force the Sikhs into embracing Islam are all examples of how the Islamic barbarity that is besieging the world today is just a recurrence of atrocities seen during the 1000-year-long stretch of the Islamic rule in India.
The Taliban’s burning down of a library in Kabul is reminiscent of Bihar’s Nalanda University going up in flames after Turk-Afghan attacker Bakhtiyar Khalji’s invasion.
During the period of Islamic rule, non-Muslims in India were compelled to pay jizya to be allowed to practice their religion. The jizya, a tax non-Muslim subjects are required to pay to the Islamic ruler while inhabiting Islamic land, contributed heavily to the total revenue of the ruler’s treasury. Back in 2009, the Taliban imposed jizya on the Hindus, Sikhs and Christians in Pakistan. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan, UK-based Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary insisted that the jihad group impose the jizya on the non-believers in Afghanistan, too.
If you think the Taliban taking in girls as young as 12 as sex slaves is an invention of the 21st century radical Islamic spirit, be prepared to stand corrected. Over hundreds of millions of Hindu women faced unspeakable atrocities throughout the Islamic reign in the land. They were captured, paraded naked, raped, and taken as sex slaves. Those who were killed were luckier. Muslim soldiers would kill babies with spears, cut out their hearts, and make the mothers eat the organ. Some mothers would get decorated with garlands made from their children’s heads. The harems of Islamic rulers were packed with women they received through marriage, trade, war, or as “gifts.” As Islamic law allows men to have sexual intercourse with their female slaves, it is alleged that one of the most glorified Mughal rulers, Akbar, had over 5000 sex slaves in his harem.
However, the most significant similarity between the Mughals of Medieval India and the Taliban of the present day is the fact that much like historians have whitewashed the sins of the invaders and looters of India, today’s Leftist media is burning the midnight oil to give an image makeover to the jihadis of Afghanistan.
Until 2019, Islamic apologists denied that the Ram Mandir was ever in Ayodhya. In 2050, they will question the existence of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and in 2070 they will claim that the Twin Towers existed only in fiction. No Islamic jihadis took them down.
