Founded in 1798 by the scientists accompanying Napoleon on his invasion of Egypt and responsible for the monumental 20-volume Description de l’Égypte (1809–28), L’Institut d’Égypte was burned down on Dec. 17 by crowds rampaging in the vicinity of the National Assembly building.
Remarkably for a learned institution, its doors were open to the public to meander and imbibe, though few did. During my three-year residency in Cairo in the 1970s, it served as a place of refuge, when the city was too much with me, as well as a regular destination for my foreign visitors. I treasured this little-known gem for its library of 200,000 volumes focused on Egypt, its symbol as the capstone of Orientalist learning in Egypt, its evocation of a different and better era, and the quietude it offered in a city with few such oases.
And now the barbarians came and destroyed it with a Molotov cocktail. The walls still stand but the building is gutted, its invaluable contents burnt.
Comments: (1) This attack brings to mind a host of prior acts of destruction of historical monuments in Egypt, including the medieval defacement of the Sphinx and the Cairo arson of 1952. Outside Egypt, assaults coming right to mind include the Muslim destruction of Hindu temples in India, the Turkish destruction of churches in northern Cyprus, the Palestinian sacking of the Tomb of Joseph, the Taliban destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha, the Iraqi pillaging of museums, libraries, and archives, the Saudi destruction of antiquities in Mecca, and the Malaysia destruction of an historic Hindu temple. This barbarism, in other words, fits into a larger pattern. What is it about Muslims and history? As this listing suggests, too many of them hate not only what is non-Islamic but even their own heritage
(2) The former minister of state for antiquities affairs, Zahi Hawass, campaigned for the return of the country’s treasures. I vote against that. Better they be safe where they are than exposed to the fury of modern-day Egyptians, especially given that Egypt’s mufti recently ruled against the private display of statues, a possible first step toward a state-sanctioned destruction of Egyptian antiquities. In addition, observers rightly worry that the imcomparable Egyptian Museum may be targeted next.
@#$%! idiots.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMuslims belong to a culture that has never produced anything of value. For them, the only way to build themselves up, is to tear everyone else down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAlgebra? Astronomy? Chemistry? Moorish architecture? Translation and curation of Classical philosophy? The Arabian Nights?
I can get behind the idea that contemporary Muslim culture is very backward in many countries, but to say that Muslim culture "has never produced anything of value" is boorish and ignorant.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think your statement is too broad.
I think it applies to modern Islam and its cultures.
I think things of value were produced, but only in a period of maybe 100-300 years ending 500-700 years ago.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI disagree. Even during the period you mention, the only thing "produced" by the Muslim culture, was in fact "borrowed" from cultures that they had conquered and transfered to new areas.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSad, but your opposition to returning ancient artifacts to Egypt is wrong. Think strategically. Send them back: to withhold them does (really) smack of colonialism, and you're not considering what a PR coup it is when the Islamists do things like this. The destruction of the statues at Bamiyan showed the world, in a way the MSM never could/would, the nature of the Taliban regime.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet the modern Egyptians have their ancient artifacts; let them destroy them as they imprison women in burqas and rape them in the streets. It's a basic PR lesson that Republicans, and Americans generally, seem bizarrely incapable of learning: when your enemy is busy destroying himself, LET HIM.
So, you see no value in the artifacts, themselves?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSeems like a pretty obvious and gross distortion of what I said...meaning that you picked a good handle.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseA gross distortion?
Did you not advocate returning the artifacts to Egypt so the sort of morons who burned L’Institut d’Égypte can destroy them - just to prove to the world that they *are* morons?
I simply asked if you see no value in the items themselves? If you do, then please explain your comment more thoroughly.
As for the *very* funny comment about my "handle", it reveals your bias quite handily. But, do note, that you are only the second commenter on NRO to actually assume that connection. I think that says something positive about the general intelligence of the other NRO commenters. :)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI said they're their artifacts to do with as they like; and they are.
I said that were they returned and destroyed, that would be a net positive for the West because it would show the nature of the Islamists in a way our media will not.
None of that suggested I don't see value in the artifacts. It is a classic liberal trick that if someone says, "well, we could do without this-or-that", the liberal will scream back, "you think there's no value in that??"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou believe the value of the artifacts themselves is less than the value of "show[ing] the nature of the Islamists". I disagree. Fine.
You really need to learn to make your arguments without the ad hominem. I was not "screaming", nor was I using a "trick", liberal or otherwise.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey aren't "their" artefacts.
You've dug yourself into a hole of your own stupidity and ranting about "liberals" won't get you out of it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh and re your handle: It's interesting that you think that just because I believe GWB was a demagogue and a disaster, that means I have a "bias" of some kind. It means I'm capable of thinking.
I think, for example, that anyone on the right should consider GWB a disaster whereas those on the left should generally find him a fellow-traveller.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat GWB said: I'm having a hard time seeing the concerns he raised as a distortion, and you did say that if we return antiquities to Islamic countries and they are destroyed, it would be worth it for the negative PR.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I said that were they returned and destroyed, that would be a net positive for the West because it would show the nature of the Islamists in a way our media will not. None of that suggested I don't see value in the artifacts. "
It says, it does not suggest, that the only value you see in the artifacts, in the contents of the Institut, in monuments of antiquity is as objects to be destroyed by Muslims, for the public relations and "educational" purposes of "showing how bad they really are."
This destruction you advocate, yes, advocate, for public relations and "educational" purposes, is not a net positive for the West or for Civilization in any regard, because it destroys the civilizational heritage of our race. A heritage that modern Islam has not the slightest capabilities of contributing to.
There have been stories in the reputable press relating to the religious psychotics in Saudi Arabia who are destroying Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia, because they violate the psychotic views of the Wahabists about ancestor worship.
Your views, sir, are repellant, abhorrent, and disgusting.
Merry Christmas to you.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFinally, someone gets it, the game, the frigging absurdity of right wing politics. The blame game does us no good. What is needed is a sense of subtly, wisdom, irony, and even humor. We do have the best system of government -- bad as it is -- and unless and until we operate with faith in democracy which means working cooperatively, rejecting the non-sense that corporations are people too (or do you proposed that the BP explosion and subsequent deaths are actionable. And how do you give a corporation then a lethal injection for the reckless murder of 11 individuals...and on and on...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore and more "mainstream Islam" accepts this barbarism and glorification of intolerance and ignorance. The Third World War has already begun and it is between enlightenment and the Darkness that Islam has become. Having a guy with the name "Hussein" as Prez hasn't helped stop this slide into barbarism either.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's probably not all that effective to criticize Muslims for their "glorification of intolerance and ignorance"... and then follow that observation immediately with this sentence: Having a guy with the name "Hussein" as Prez hasn't helped stop this slide into barbarism either.
Unless you were striving for irony? If so, congratulations, you've succeeded brilliantly ;-)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually it is both ironic and sad. Barry Hussein touted his Muslim exposure/heritage as a positive which was to bring/enhance tolerance and understanding within the Muslim world toward the United States. Of course it was all W’s fault that the Muslims hated us, so Barry would make sure the tectonic shift from hate to love for the US within the Muslim world occurred. However, in the real world it hasn’t worked out quite that way. What is truly sad is that far too many here in the US believed the nonsense Obama spewed and ignored the fundamentalist Islamic forces at work around the world. So it is ironic, sad and more dangerous for all.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is bad, but it would be far worse if our diversity is also a causality of this.
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