In Iraq, they destroy, before the cameras, the remains of the ancient city of Nimrod. They are the extremists of the so-called “Islamic state”. A shame and horror against the respect for our human heritage, against memory, culture, art and common sense.
Silently, without a camera, the Saudi government is destroying the remnants of the past, places of memory of Arab civilisation, religions, even the history of Islam in the name of the “purification” of the rituals which should prevent idolatry, deviation from worshiping the only One. Vestiges and buildings are razed … in silence. And the world is silent. What is the difference?
A clue. Around the Center and the Kaaba in Mecca, designer Shops abound, Malls, McDonald’s and company … To the glory of the consumer culture. The “polytheistic idolatry of the market” does not seem to bother those leaders who want to “purify” the Muslim monotheism.
These economic considerations explain the selective indignation (Western or otherwise) of those who love art a bit … and money a lot.
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Professor Tariq Ramadan is a man of no need to introduction. He holds MA in Philosophy and French literature and PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Geneva. In Cairo, Egypt he received one-on-one intensive training in classic Islamic scholarship from Al-Azhar University scholars. Tariq Ramadan is Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies at Oxford University (Oriental Institute, St Antony’s College ). He is also teaching at the Faculty of Theology at Oxford. He is at the same time a Visiting Professor in Qatar (Faculty of Islamic Studies) and in Morocco (Mundiapolis) and a Senior Research Fellow at Doshisha University (Kyoto, Japan).[/symple_box]
