The Taliban in Afghanistan has announced plans to force Hindus to wear an identifying label on their clothing, allegedly to "safeguard" the rights of Hindus in Afghanistan.
This follows the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in February.
South Asia is a powder keg of tension. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the partition of the former British colony in 1948, and have both recently developed and tested nuclear weapons. Pakistan has been a supporter of the
Taliban and seems reluctant to separate themselves. India has also fought a war with China in the Himalayas in the 1960's, and is rumored to have designs on Nepal and other small neighbors.
Not the place for major religious tension, in other words.
Islam is a foreign
concept to most Americans, but it is, nonetheless, a great religion. As such,
there is no need to mark the Hindus in the way the Jews were marked in
Germany. Islam is a sturdy and obviously proud faith. The Hindus pose it
no harm.
The Taliban are, by any reasonable standards, extremists. Aside
from the destruction of the Buddhas, they adhere to such a strict form of Islam
that women cannot educate themselves and, in many cases, can't even get medical
care.
Eventually humanity will win out and the extremism will be
tempered. One hopes it will happen before the Hindus are safeguarded any
further.