Maldives sculpture by British artist torn down for being threat to 'Islamic unity'

An under-water sculpture installed in the popular idyllic islands of the Maldives and commissioned by a high-end hotel brand has been demolished after it was judged anti-Islamic.

The work, Coralarium, "a semi-submerged tidal gallery space" by British sculptur, diver and naturalist Jason deCaires Taylor was unveiled in July at the Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi resort, but was last week taken apart.

The artwork, which took over nine months and a team of marine engineers, steel fabricators, divers and mould-makers to build, was broken apart in a matter of hours by pickaxes, saws and rope, by order of the Maldives government.

The islands' autocratic government said that the work, which included hybrid form sculptures – part-human, part-plant, part-coral - represented "idols" and ordered its demolition. The work had been subject to a series of complaints from religious scholars.

The original proclamation was made in July, so when deCaires Taylor’s artwork still remained in September, the Civil Court ruled that the resort had seven days to remove the offending structures. The court ruled that the Coralarium posed a threat to “Islamic unity and the peace and interests of the Maldivian state” and that its removal was necessary to “protect the five tenets of Islamic shariah.”


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/maldives-sculpture-torn-apart-for-being-anti-islamic/

The bulk of the Maldives GDP comes from international tourism; with their fishing, forestry and farming sectors being way, way behind.

It is often said that a country "gets the government they deserve.."

And it looks like the Maldives government is determined to destroy their national economy -- much like a few other non-democratic/totalitarian countries before them, the likes of Uganda, Zimbabwe, Chad, Venezuela, North Korea, Haiti...

Didge wrote:An under-water sculpture installed in the popular idyllic islands of the Maldives and commissioned by a high-end hotel brand has been demolished after it was judged anti-Islamic.

The work, Coralarium, "a semi-submerged tidal gallery space" by British sculptur, diver and naturalist Jason deCaires Taylor was unveiled in July at the Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi resort, but was last week taken apart.

The artwork, which took over nine months and a team of marine engineers, steel fabricators, divers and mould-makers to build, was broken apart in a matter of hours by pickaxes, saws and rope, by order of the Maldives government.

The islands' autocratic government said that the work, which included hybrid form sculptures – part-human, part-plant, part-coral - represented "idols" and ordered its demolition. The work had been subject to a series of complaints from religious scholars.

The original proclamation was made in July, so when deCaires Taylor’s artwork still remained in September, the Civil Court ruled that the resort had seven days to remove the offending structures. The court ruled that the Coralarium posed a threat to “Islamic unity and the peace and interests of the Maldivian state” and that its removal was necessary to “protect the five tenets of Islamic shariah.”


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/maldives-sculpture-torn-apart-for-being-anti-islamic/

Backward ideology will send a country backwards.

Let them worry about their five bloody pillars when their nation is swimming with the fishes in a century's time...

"Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people"

Heinrich Heine

If a religion is so good and perfect, what could possibly be detrimental to it, be it a sculpture, a painting, a poem, a book, criticism or whatever.

I lived in the Maldives as part of the in-house band for six months and they treat their Bangladeshi workers like absolute crap.

It was a holiday/honeymoon island (later swept away by the tsunami in the early 2000’s and then rebuilt) and one of the stipulations in my band’s contract was that we were to bring “no pork or religious jewellery ie crosses.”

I often wonder why people would travel with pork.