"... When in 2001 the Taliban in Afghanistan destroyed the ancient Buddhist statues at Bamiyan, many Westerners were outraged - but how many of them actually believed in the divinity of the Buddha? Rather, we were angered because the Taliban did not show appropriate respect for the "cultural heritage" of their country. Unlike us sophisticates, they really believed in their own religion, and thus had no great respect for the cultural value of the monuments of other religions..."
Only the sort of person who pontificates on what he knows absolutely nothing about could talk like that about "the divinity of the Buddha," when there are exactly as many Buddhists who believe in the divinity of the Buiddha as there are Muslims who believe in the divinity of the Prophet. And only an ignoramous would talk about the Taliban (an asset of the Pakistan ISI, itself an asset of the US CIA) having or not respect for the cultural heritage of "their" country, when that country didn't even exist when the statues were carved and when they were legally recognized as part of the cultural heritage of *humanity*, a group of which Zizek is presumably a member.
Shane Mage
"To be Greek, one must have no clothes.
To be Medieval, one must have no body.
To be Modern, one must have no soul" (Oscar Wilde)