Salafist Movements Threaten World Cultural Heritage
Radical Islamism threatens its own cultural heritage along with that of others, writes Hedieh Mirahmadi. The international community has a vested interest in empowering moderate Muslim civil-society organizations and networks to protect the world’s cultural and historical legacies.
The face of radical Islamism has rocked headlines in recent months, demonstrating to the world the threat it poses to Islam’s own cultural heritage.
Many were shocked when spiritual leader Said Efandi al-Chirkawi was killed in a suicide bombing in the tiny Russian Republic of Dagestan by a woman pretending to be one of his students. Nearly 100,000 mourners attended the funeral of the revered cleric, who had been working to bring peace between warring Islamic factions. This was the second such spiritual leader in this remote region to have been killed by radical Islamists in the past year alone.
