Salaam aleikum!
I am currently researching my new play for the Tricycle Theatre, provisionally entitled Selling Babylon, inspired by the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in April 2003.
I am at the stage where I have read pretty much all there is to read on the subject, and interviewed various archaeologists, curators, policemen and other specialists. But the final piece in the jigsaw is you!
If you are an Iraqi, or from elsewhere in the Arab world, I would be very eager to hear your answers to the following questions, or as many as you can spare the time to answer.
Please cut and paste them into an email and send to me at finkennedy@yahoo.co.uk
1. Where were you when you first heard the news about the looting of the Iraq Museum in April 2003?
2. What did you think about it?
3. Who do you think was responsible?
4. Do you think the Americans did enough to get the antiquities back?
5. Do you believe that the relics in the Museum belong to the Iraqi people?
6. Do you believe that ordinary Iraqis are within their rights to take and sell these relics?
7. As an Iraqi, do you feel you have a genuine connection with the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, which existed 3,000 - 5,000 years ago? In what ways?
8. Do you recall being taught about Mesopotamia in school? How was it presented to you?
9. Should foreigners (including foreign musuems) be allowed to buy, sell and collect the ancient relics from these civilisations? Why / why not?
10. Do you think it is important to preserve these relics for future generations? Why / why not? Where should this come on the list of priorities for Iraq?
11. If removing the relics from Iraq is the only way to save them, is this justified? Why / why not?
12. Are you a Muslim?
13. What do you think about the allegation that Muslims aren't interested in ancient history prior to the time of the prophet Muhammed (pbuh) because it is jahilliyah and hence taswir?
14. Do you believe Muslims have a duty to destroy such objects, like the Taliban did in Afghanistan with the Bamiyan Buddhas and the Kabul Museum?
15. Many private collectors of antiquities argue that they are 'rescuing' relics by buying them and looking after them when otherwise they would be destroyed by war, agriculture or construction. They argue that it is better to have these objects without their archaeologlical context than not to have either. The counter-argument is that buying relics encourages looting by creating a market. Where do you stand in this argument?
Thank you very much for your help! I am very grateful.
All contributors will receive formal acknowledgment in the theatre programme and play text published by Nick Hern Books. The play is likely to be on in one year's time at the Tricycle Theatre in London.