The man, a student at Keio University, admitted the smashing Buddhas at Sensoji Temple and hinted that he had been responsible for other, similar crimes.
The story, filed under “crimes by foreigners” by Sankei MSN, has prompted some responses that relate to fears of an increasing foreign presence in Japan, while others have pointed out that idolatry in all forms is forbidden in Islam, and might therefore have prompted the man’s behavior.
From MSN Sankei:
Buddha Statue Smashed at Sensoji Temple, Saudi Arabian Graduate Student At Keio University Arrested; Implicated In Damage At Other Temples
 |
| The damage to the statues. |
At around 1:10am on June 11, there
was a call to a police box of the Asakusa division of the Metropolitan
Police that stated “a foreign man has smashed a statue of Buddha” at
Sensoji Temple, Taito ward, Tokyo.
In the grounds of the temple, police also discovered four other statues
of Buddha that had cracks in them. When the man, who had been close to
Sensoji’s main hall, was voluntarily questioned by police, he admitted
damaging the statues of Buddha. Therefore, he was arrested on suspicion
of criminal damage.
The arrested man is Saudi Arabian
national Mohammad Abdullah Saad (31), a graduate student at Keio
University resident in Minamikase, Saiwai ward, Kawasaki City. The man
is said to have hinted that he “has smashed Buddhas at other temples”,
and police are in the process of confirming this.
In the small hours of June 11, the suspect allegedly smashed three stone Jizo bosatsu and one bronze statue of Kannon.
According to police, the statues of
Buddha that were damaged were those in small wayside shrines without
doors and those in the open air.
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