![The head of Lord Buddha statue that was on the display. [Courtesy National Museum, Maldives]](/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/The-head-of-Lord-Buddha-statue-that-was-on-the-display.-Courtesy-National-Museum-Maldives-231x300.jpg "The head of Lord Buddha statue that was on the display. [Courtesy National Museum, Maldives]")
The head of Lord Buddha statue that was on the display. Courtesy National Museum, Maldives
The scene took place at the Maldives’ National Museum where the destruction occurred. A group of five men who were a part of an Islamic Extremist group targeted artifacts dating from the Pre-Islamic era in Maldives. Of those destroyed, many Buddhist and Hindu relics were smashed and broken to pieces making them merely unrecognizable. Pieces destroyed, specifically included the “Bohomala sculptures, Hanuman statues, and the a sculpture of the Hindu water god, Makara.
The two five faced statues from Male were also brutally damaged. This five-faced male was the only remaining archaeological evidence of a Buddhist era in Maldives and it too was destroyed, completely destroying any true history of the country. In addition an 11th century coral stone of the Lord Buddha was also wiped out.
The museum staff were emotionally distraught and upset that any evidence of a Buddhist existence in Maldives was completely destroyed and torn down heartlessly. They stated that all their 12th century statues were lost which were made of coral and limestone. There is no way to restore them because they were very brittle and this makes it very difficult to remake, one of the staff members said. The Adhaalath Party, a Maldives Islamic group, who supports the newly elected President Mohamed Waheed, stated that the constitution does not allow idols anywhere in Maldives.
Maldives also does not permit non-muslims to become permanent citizens of the small island nation.
Sooner or later, extremist version of Political Islam will destroy culture that is perceived to be at odds with their world view. They are that committed. Make no mistake. Prudence calls for us to withdraw some of these invaluable artifacts behind the protective walls of the West before more is lost.
—SWL
the perpetrators should be tracked down by interpol and the UN and these people should be given life sentences. Irrespective of any religious or non-religious beliefs these artifacts are important in understanding the development of human civilisation. From a purely secular point of view, knowing whether a group of people colonised a specific area or not for example can tell us at what level of technology, art or craft a specific people were capable of for instance.
Anyone with such ridiculous levels of intolerence, lack of respect or sensitivity for others are pure scumbags. Such acts are crimes against humanity, in that they should not be considered isolated incidents. They should be considered in conjunction with what happened at Bamiyan, the destruction of medical texts (considered anatomically correct pictures blasphemous) and the fact that humanity itself suffers grave losses due to such acts. This is not the mindset of the humane, these people will not only continue to destroy human cultural heritage, they will attempt to irradicate all aspects of human culture, art, science, religion, past, present and future that doesn’t fit into to their disgraceful, shallow, backward, medieval world view. Worse still, these goals are intended due only through the subjugation of the rest of humanity. The whole of the world should unite against such barbarism, including ESPECIALLY, the moderate muslims of the world in total unison.
Human beings won’t do such type of acts, they won’t come under counts of HUMAN, they are devils of kalli yug.
after 30yrs there will be no country called maldives on world map.its going to disseapear
They have a wrong view. They will destroy all the ancient monuments belong to every other religion. They are not human beings. They are not like animals. There is no way for us to enlighten them to light. They are in utter darkness. It doesn’t matter. They don’t allow other people to live peacefully. World problems, environmental and population etc. arising up because of Islamic wrong view. Beware of their actions. Good humans should take precautionary actions soon, if they need to live on this planet. – B. Dhammajoti
Until recently, the people of the Maldives practiced a type of folk Islam which was influenced by Buddhism. They recited the Qur’an in the style of Buddhist chanting, the earlier mosques resembled Buddhist temples and the architectural designs of the mosques had a mix of Buddhist and Islamic influences, many Maldivian had had Hindu or Buddhist type names alongside Muslim ones and Dhivehi was written in a Brahmi based scrip[t. Now, the Maldives has been destroyed by these fundamentalist elements and now Maldives is so far gone that it look as it will never return back to its former glory. Had Hinduism and Buddhism still continued to exist in Maldives even after the arrival of Islam and Hindus and Buddhists had been able to coexist peacefully alongside Muslims, then the Maldives would have been a very different place now.
It seems quite obvious that wherever so-called “modern” versions of Islam (in other words any “radical” or “fundamentalist” form) occurs (that lacks progressiveness), then any other type of philosophy (political or otherwise), worldview, law, faith, creed, religion or even (anything so vague as) a “point of view” that does not agree with (their interpretation of) sharia then it must be banished, nay crushed out of existence, not allowed to exist anywhere, quite simply because the only “truth” that exists is (their interpretation of) sharia. Thus the concept of Nafs (or aspects of ego) that ought to be defeated or purified is correct, but explain the exact same human process (the destruction or transformation of negative emotions and/or mental states and the development of positive emotions and/or mental states) in terms of either fetters, defilements, hindrances and/or factors of enlightenment (Buddhist) or call it tikun or shvirat hamidot (Jewish) and it is wrong. Further, one can speak of stages of sainthood or levels of divine proximity, which would be deemed correct from an Islamic perspective, but in no way could the seven degrees of prayer (St.Theresa of Avila, Christian), the Jhanas (Buddhism) or stages of hitbodedut OR hisbodedus (Jewish) be considered truthful or accurate. If one studies and compares these varieties of religious or spiritual or mystical experiences or goals, what appears to the most glaring of truth is that they are speaking, referring or alluding to the exact same human experiences and the only difference between them is the linguistic or cultural perspective. To fight and argue, let alone vandalise or kill, over such parochial, provincial, xenophobic differences is something one would expect to have overcome or abandoned in childhood. Unfortunately, despite the glaring parallels of all faiths, these Islamists are unable to coexist with anyone. I call to all moderate Muslims and ask you, can Islam survive these animals or is it doomed to degenerate to this form of hatred and narrow mindedness (they do shout louder than the moderates don’t they, they are heard more by the rest of the world than those Muslims who love peace and cooperation) and since it is YOUR faith what are you doing to protect it from such rot and degradation ?
This is the inevitable cointinuing dogma of the islamists against vigrahaaradhana the principle of which is not understood by them nor do they have the decency of tolerance; the only way hindoos whose philosophy of life acceptrs all postulates and paths to god and therefore all variants of path to god are essentiallty hindoo is to maintain their majority and also be non violent; and also demonstrate our openness to all forms of worship ;in contrast with their meanness . Now since the shrines are preislamic, no power on earth lshould be allowed to destroy them.
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
Plato