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March 16, 2006
Russia's Hermitage Museum Opens Exhibit on Byzantine Culture in London
The State Hermitage Museum, one of the world's greatest repositories of art and history, opens an exhibit in March in London dedicated to the treasures and glory of Byzantium, the Greek Christian empire that for centuries defended western civilization against Muslim hordes until it finally succumbed in the mid 15th century to an onslaught of Turkish invaders.
Though the Hermitage is based in St. Petersburg, Russia, it has branches in several cities throughout the world, including London, where it has the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House. The Byzantium exhibit runs until September 3.
While credit must go to the Hermitage Museum for its organization of an exhibit dedicated to what was the most advanced civilization in the world despite being besieged by murderous and plundering Muslims hordes from the 7th century onward, it fails to connect the dots and properly inform the public about the obvious reason behind Byzantium's demise. That is no surprise considering that Hermitage director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, is a leading scholar of Islamic `art' (though the existence of such a concept is open to debate, especially in light of Islam's own ruling against images).
Dr. Piotrovsky dismisses the fact that Islam, starting from the moment it appeared in the 7th century, conquered and occupied the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, parts of North India and Spain, and slaughtered and repressed the mass of population who did not want to convert to Islam. Rather, he describes these bloody conquests as run-of-the-mill ``feudal wars'' carried out for mercantile reasons. The Crusades, however, resulted from the intrigue of ``European fanatics'' who victimized an unsuspecting and innocent Muslim world, while he glosses over the fact that the Crusades arose after the Byzantine emperor appealed to the West for help against the Turkish Muslim invaders.
No surprise then that Dr. Piotrovsky considers the West's current effort to defend itself against Muslim aggression as part of America's need to find an enemy after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Such arguments are probably not worth paying attention to, except for the fact that they come from someone who is considered a leading Islamic scholar and who unfortunately is listened to as an expert on Islam, both inside and outside of Russia. Dr. Piotrovsky is close to powerful people, such as President Vladimir Putin.
The sad truth is the example of Byzantium shows us that civilizations can be destroyed if they fail to defend themselves against a fanatic, determined and totalitarian enemy that does not allow its people to doubt its goals. Western civilization, however, with all its freedom, seems to have no shortage of people who are full of doubt, and who are not shy to push such feelings of cowardice and indecision upon the general public.
For those lucky enough to see the Hermitage's Byzantium exhibit in London, don't forget to pay homage to the millions of Greek, Syrian, Arab, Serb, Armenian and Bulgarian Christians who perished from the 7th to 15th century defending our freedom from Mohammed's totalitarian cult of the moon god, Allakh.
Posted by at March 16, 2006 5:10 PM
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