Religion, heritage protection and modern nation-building in the Islamic world 1972–2000

Abstract

The link between Islam and global heritage protection has been a global concern since the Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in March 2001. In this article, we seek to answer how the relationship between global heritage protection and Islam made its way to Bamiyan, and what dynamics determined the relationship between Islamic religion and culture and the global protection of cultural heritage. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, we can conclude that within the Islamic world, the attitude towards heritage protection and the World Heritage system was far from uniform. In the second half of the last century, there is a distinct negative correlation between Islam as a political force for identity, and conformity to global heritage protection standards.  Countries that performed well in the World Heritage system were those with a stable secular system. And these countries have clearly created their own world heritage representation based on Western, Orientalist narratives, in which they have not granted a place to Islamic religion and culture.