News : Middle East : iconoclasm rejected "by all God-given religions," declares the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi : President Hollande and UAE set up $45m fund and support "safe havens" for heritage at risk

The United Arab Emirates have led Islamic countries in unequivocally condemning iconoclasm carried out in the name of Islam. At the conference on safeguarding endangered cultural heritage, held on 2 and 3 December in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, said, &q...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Art newspaper (International ed.) 2017-01, Vol.26 (286), p.5-5
Main Author: Cocks, Anna Somers
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The United Arab Emirates have led Islamic countries in unequivocally condemning iconoclasm carried out in the name of Islam. At the conference on safeguarding endangered cultural heritage, held on 2 and 3 December in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, said, "The destruction of heritage sites by terrorist groups, and illicit trafficking by groups that aim to obliterate the international heritage of humanity, are rejected by all God-given religions and human nature." Hitherto, there has been only muted condemnation in the Middle East of the destruction wrought by fundamentalist Islamists over the past two years at Palmyra, Nimrud and in Timbuktu, to mention only the most famous sites. Middle Eastern media reveal that this is partly due to anger at the West apparently caring more about stones than flesh and blood. A minority have publicly expressed support for Isil's view that these monuments are haram--forbidden--but the number of actual sympathizers with this point of view is not known and must vary very much between Lebanon at one extreme and Wahabi Saudi Arabia at the other. [Publication Abstract]
ISSN:0960-6556