There is a revolt in the Maldives, led by the police who refused to obey an order to break up an anti-government protest, and the former president, Mohamed Nasheed, has been forced out of power and replaced by another guy - Mohammed Waheed Hassan (a former UN employee). In the wake of these events a mob (apparently Islamic radicals) is reported by the Maldavian police to have stormed the Maldives national museum and smashed Buddhist statues. “A mob entered the museum yesterday (Tuesday). They smashed many statues. This included some statues of Buddha,” police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam told AFP. In an interview with AFP on Wednesday, Nasheed said a mob including Islamist hardliners had attacked the museum because they believed some of the statues inside were “idolatrous.”Islam is the official religion of the Maldives and open practice of any other religion is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
AFP, 'Maldives mob smashes Buddhist statues in national museum', Al Arabiya News 08 February 2012
Photo: Pre-Islamic objects in Maldives Museum
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7 comments:
what will happen in egypt if islamic fanatics take over there!??which is not impossible.this is why i believe encyclopedic museums are the way forward.
very sad news.
kyri.
Umm, Kyri, I am not at all happy with that automatic and generalised collocation "Islamic fanatics" of yours - it goes with "let's impose sanctions" and then "bomb them".
As for a "takeover", Egypt was conquered by Moslem armies in 639 it also has seen Christian communities since the first desert monasteries (go and see some of them and seeing where and how these people lived, you might rethink the notion of 'fanatics').
It may have escaped your notice, but take it from me that Egypt has been under Islamic government for nearly 1400 years. In that time, it has seen some iconclasts - the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah for example. But then Christianty has never escaped that either. Look at any English Medieval church.
I am all for so-called "encyclopedic museums" when the collections really ARE that (and not just a jumble like Sir John Soames' Museum - which of course has its own charm). What I do feel however is that the term should not be used as an excuse for hanging on to all and any trophy art some of which really should now - as a gesture of international goodwill - be sent back to where they were taken from. Let us recast them now in the form of bastions of museum ethics and international collaboration, rather than institutionalised antiquitist one-upmanship.
i call anyone who destroys cultural artifacts [using religion as an excuse] "fanatics".there is no other word for them.of course the christians also have many skeletons in their cubbords.
kyri.
ps.i dont propose to bomb anyone,live and let live is what i say,i dont care what religion anyone is as long as they leave me and my way of life alone.
as for egypt,well,its early days yet but there have been attacks allready.if you take lebonon as an example and other middle eastern countrys i predict that over the next few years,there will be mass emigration of christians from egypt.at the moment there is an exodus of biblical proportions of christians from the middle east,iraq,lebonon and syria have seen there christian populations halved over a decade.soon there wont be any left.im not particularly a religios person i just say things how i see them.
kyri.
paul,what items [as a gesture of international goodwill]do you propose should be sent back.maybe museums are afraid that any returns would open the flood gates.
kyri.
Why? Is it all nicked?
The BM has an exhibition about Mecca done with collaboration of the saudis, I did not hear anyone saying that this or that from the BM "should go back" as a result. I think the museums exaggerate about the flood gates here. It is a shame that the Cairo meetings seem to have ended, it would be good to see a proper "shopping list" from all the nations concerned.
What to go back? Anything involving vandalism, so the Parthenon Marbles for sure. Benin, yes, at least a goodly portion. The Rosetta Stone not necessarily. Nefertiti, I don't know. Dendera, to go back if it can be re-erected on site.
A lot of these museums received/bought a lot of stuff that was entirely legitimately purchased on the market (by that I mean of course that which has documentation confirming that it was legitimately on the market). They obviously should not be required to hand that back - though if asked very nicely might consider it under certain conditions (eg long term loans).
just wanted to pick your brains on what you thought should go back,the benin bronzes and the parthenon marbles,i cant argue with those,rosetta stone and the bust of nefertiti a big no for me,the dendera yes,im sure it can be erected back where it belongs.
so i agree with you on this one.of course most of these items were legaly acquired but there is also a moral issue.
kyri.
its funny you should say "nicked"
my father,an old school greek cypriot communist,with a chip on his shoulder from the days of colonial british rule on a trip to the bm when i was a child said to me "son,this is the biggest haul of stolen artefacts to be found anywhere in the world.look at those chinese vases,do you think the chinese gave them away"he used to tell me everything was stolen,which of course its not but it stuck in my mind for years.
kyri.
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