This act of vandalism has forced experts to recall another similar incident a much larger scale: the destruction of the huge Buddha statues by the Taliban in the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan in early 2001. The incident forced the museum to the Maldives to say that the Maldives, where the majority of the population from the XII century profess the Sunni form of Islam, the extremists are gaining weight.

Vaid Ali (Ali Waheed), director of the museum , which is built as a gift to the country, China, on Monday said that it may be possible to recover two or three of the victims of the statue, the rest are lost forever. "The collection was totally and completely destroyed. All the pre-Islamic period has been lost," - said the expert.

former employee of the museum, the historian Mohammed Nasim (Naseema Mohamed), said that what happened in the museum is particularly unfortunate in light of the fact that the Buddhist monuments in the state remains extremely low: for many years to destroyed either by the authorities or local residents themselves. According to Ali Vaid, each year in the country show only two or three new monuments of Buddhist period, mainly occurs during construction.

In recent years, some conservative Muslims urged to remove Buddhist statues from the museum, but no threat of destruction of nobody ever uttered. According to Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, (Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari), until recently, former Minister of Islamic Affairs of Maldives Republic law banning images of deities makes an exception for the ancient sculptures. "This is our heritage, and it must be protected for future generations" - New York Times brings words of the Minister.

representatives of the Islamist party "Adhaalat "taking part in protests that led to the resignation of President Mohamed Nasheed, on the other hand, condemned the act of vandalism. Although the party criticized the" anti-Islamic policy "Nasheed, it has never advocated for the removal from the museum of Buddha images, her representative said.

«We are very concerned about what had happened - said Iyad Hamdi Mohamed (Mohamed Iad Hamid), head of the Party Committee on Trade and Economic Development. - Our Party opposes extremism».

According to museum director Ali Vaid, a number of scientists and museums from several countries have offered their help in the restoration of the statues.

Prepared by Mary Estrova, AI