Aurangzeb (1656-1707) ordered the local officials in Benares to protect the temples and Brahman temple functionaries. (Ref. Firman ordering mansabdar Abulhasan in Benares dt. Feb. 28, 1659, quoted by the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Page 689-90, 1911)
Mughal officials repeatedly oversaw and on occasion even initiated the renewal of Orissa%u2019s cult, that of Jagannath in Puri. By sitting under a canopied chariot which accompanying the cult%u2019s annual car festival, Shah Jehan%u2019s officials ritually demonstrated that it was the Mughal emperor operating through the appointed officers (mansabdar), who was the temple%u2019s and hence God%u2019s representative.
RE:Is he destroyer or safer?
by Secular Indian on Mar 07, 2007 03:09 PM Permalink
Just like his apostle, he probably started out making conciliatory noises. In the same way that the Koran makes positive noises about "to you yours and to me mine" but as Muhammad become more and more powerful the Koran verses became more and more bloody and intolerant.
In 1669 Aurangzeb issued a general order for the destruction of Hindu temples, and it is estimated that about 3000 temples were destroyed and converted into Mosques in the 750 years of Muslim rule in India. During the sultanate and later under Aurangzeb, many hundreds of thousands of Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam. The sentences of criminals and prisoners of war were ruthlessly executed with mercy and allowances only available to individuals embracing Islam. The Jaziya tax was both a heavy financial -burden and a badge of inferiority borne by the Hindu, which also stimulated conversions to Islam. In the 1860s a Muslim cleric in the Punjab region of India launched a murderous jihad initially against Sikhs, and then against all non-Muslim groups. In South India in 1921, jihadists carried out massacres, the forced conversion of Hindus, and the desecration of Hindu temples. The number of casualties over the centuries are at least and order of magnitude greater than suffered by the Jews in the holocaust, and the ongoing conflicts have been key to the economic and social disadvantages of Indian society. Although Indians are an industrious and educated people, the social, political, and economic costs of the ongoing conflicts are the cause of its poor economic performance compared to other industrialized nations.
RE:Is he destroyer or safer?
by Secular Indian on Mar 07, 2007 03:19 PM Permalink
Perhaps the equivalent example will be if he killed Muslims for refusing to convert to Hinduism.
