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Without wanting to nourish Woppit's desperate craving for attention, I find it somehow ironic that he works off Thomas More St (in [u]Saint[/u] Katherine's by the Tower). Now More, as every schoolboy knows, wrote the classic work Utopia, in which exists a place where there was, amongst other things, complete religious freedom and tolerance, yet an intolerance of atheism. 🙂
Religious intolerance has sadly, as has been mentioned already in this thread, caused the destruction of priceless artefacts and architecture throughout the World, from ancient civilisations in South America, to the more recent destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.
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Let's keep safe what we've got, because one day, it will be gone.
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A fine example of a worthy place of worship.....
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Let's keep safe what we've got, because one day, it will be gone.
The survival of the Blitz by St Paul's is interesting.
Churchill knew what an important symbol it was and threw a huge amount of resources into protecting it. Far out of proportion to the lives at stake.
Part of Luftwaffe strategy was to demoralise the British by bombing our cultural heritage. In order to target these areas, they used a German guide book to Britain written by someone called Baedeker and these raids became known as the Baedeker blitz. Towns such as Bath, Exeter and Cantebury that had no strategic value whatsoever were all given a pasting and much heritage destroyed and lives lost.
😥
Religious intolerance has sadly, as has been mentioned already in this thread, caused the destruction of priceless artefacts and architecture throughout the World, from ancient civilisations in South America, to the more recent destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.
Elfin - The Bamiyan Buddahs is an interesting case study. Originally, it had been stated that he statues were destroyed on religious grounds, however it was later claimed that the instigation for the destruction followed Taliban reaction to a UNESCO offer of funding for the statues preservation. The Taliban angrily claiming that money was available for statues whilst Afghan children were dying of starvation due to sanctions -
If money is going to statues while children are dying of starvation next door, then it makes it harmful, and we destroy it
Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi quoted in Crosette 2001.
Of course religious iconolasm as a political weapon is as old as the hills as these empty niches from my local church testify. A spooky resemblance to the empty niches of the Bamiyan buddahs I'm sure you'll agree.
[url= http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5051/5559629170_e480c304cb.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/trailmonkey/5559629170/ ]P1010931[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/trailmonkey/ ]trailmonkey[/url], on Flickr
Very interesting, TM. Although I'm sure the religious thing had some influence on their actions. Idolatry is expressly forbidden in Islam, so the Buddhas wooduv bin contrary to the culture of the Taliban. I'm pretty sure if UNESCO were offering money to preserve an ancient mosque, things wouldn't have turned out the way they did.
Does go some way towards explaining the destruction of the statues, as previously it did seem just an incredibly intolerant and senseless act. Those statues have bin there since before Islam even began, and no-one seemed to be particularly bothered by them previously. I'd imagine the Muslims living in that area would've benefitted from tourism in the region.
I've always had suspicions and doubts about the true reasons for their destruction. Thanks for that info.
Molgrips,
Any chance of a pic of the inside of the Asamkirche on Sendlingerstrasse? Baroque opulence a go go.
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Just for you Elf 😀 😳 8)
Wunundred!
I love you Emma. 😳
One for you:
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Coventry.
one nundred!!!!!!! lol
Edit: Knob 😆 😥