VOA常速英语:保护宗教少数团体的文化遗产

The United States remains committed to protecting religious minorities – their communities and their culture - worldwide.
美国始终致力于保护宗教少数团体——不论是他们的社区还是文化——这项工作在全世界范围内都有进行。

“This is an important expression of the values of the United States in that we want to protect diversity of thought and belief,” said Knox Thames, Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia.
“这是美国价值观的一个重要体现，因为我们想要保护想法和信仰的多样性，”Knox Thames如是说道，他是近东亚以及南亚和中亚地区的宗教少数团体特别顾问。

This effort, said Special Advisor Thames, is of great importance in Syria and Iraq, where ISIL or DAESH seek to wipe out much of civilizational history:
这份努力，特别顾问Thames表示，于叙利亚和伊拉克而言至关重要，因为ISIL和达伊沙都在试图将两个国家的大部分文明化历史抹杀掉。

“In that work we saw where DAESH was committing genocidal acts against Christians, Yezidis and Shia Muslims. At the same time that they were killing people, they were also trying to erase any evidence that they ever existed – destroying their churches, their mosques, their cemeteries. And if we were going to defeat DAESH militarily, we also need to take steps to protect the places that matter to these people –that they are also trying to exterminate. And so, from that work we started focusing on the cultural heritage of religious minorities.”
“在保护宗教少数团体的过程中我们看到，达伊沙正在对基督徒、雅兹迪以及什叶派穆斯林进行种族灭绝。他们在杀害宗教徒的同时，还试图将这些人存在过的痕迹全部抹去——摧毁他们的教堂，他们的清真寺，甚至他们的墓地。如果我们想要在军事上打败达伊沙，那么就还需要采取措施，保护对这些宗教徒来说意义重大的地方——也就是这些暴徒也想要毁灭的地方。因此，从保护宗教少数派的工作中，我们开始专注于宗教少数群体的文化遗产。”

The U.S. State Department partnered with the Smithsonian Institution to engage religious minority groups directly, providing them with training and information on preserving cultural sites and objects that are at risk. Some of these preventative methods are simple, but effective, said Special Advisor Thames:
美国国务院联合史密森学会，与宗教少数群体直接接触，为他们提供保护濒危文化遗址与物品的培训和信息。其中一些预防方法虽然简单，但却很有效，特别顾问Thames称：

“There was a training that went on in northern Syria, where churches were trained about how to stack sand bags in front of ancient frescos and murals so that if a mortar shell were to land,the explosive force would be dissipated by the sand bags – it wouldn’t hurt the mural.And they had these very striking before and after pictures of a room full of sandbags, the bomb tragically hit, the sand bags are exploded but the mural is fine.
“我们在叙利亚北部进行了一次培训，培训内容即指导教会如何在古老的壁画前面堆沙袋，这样一来如果有迫击炮弹落地，沙袋便可以将爆炸力消散掉——而不会对壁画造成损伤。”把屋内壁画前后全部放满沙袋，一旦很不幸地遭受了炸弹袭击，那么爆炸的只会是这些沙袋，而壁画却会完好无损。

Trainings also include information on protecting movable artifacts by creating digital documentation of the items that can be stored remotely.The Smithsonian Institute has created a special outreach program in Erbil, Iraq, that is dedicated to the effort.
培训内容还包括向人们传递以下信息，即通过对物件建立可远距离存储的数据文档，来保护可移动的史前古器物。史密森学会在埃尔比勒和伊拉克成立了一个特殊的扩展项目，也是用来协助这项工作。

“These communities that are so unique, that create this mosaic of culture and religion,” said Special Advisor Thames.“They can be pieced together and protecting their common culture can be a way to do that.”
“这些社区是那么的独一无二，他们创造出了有关文化和宗教的各种镶嵌图案，”特别顾问Thames如是说。“他们可以拼凑在一起，而保护他们的共同文化就是方法之一。”