NIQASH: Will this affect how the Islamic State group can use the Internet in Iraq?
Al-Damluji: Well, I don't know. It's very difficult to control this and even if you managed to put a stop to it, you wouldn't be able to stop some people from accessing it.
NIQASH: Let's talk about the cultural aspect of the Committee's work for a moment. After all, as you have mentioned before, you're actually an architect by profession and everyone else on the Committee works in the media. Is culture in Iraq still important at the moment? After all, some would say: why should we care about culture when people are dying?
Al-Damluji: This makes me so angry. Killing the spirit of people, the identity of people, is not unlike killing the person. Culture is very important.
NIQASH: What are the main challenges to this aspect of your work at the moment?
Al-Damluji: The main challenge is a lack of funds. Another challenge is that many people don't take supporting culture seriously. You feel that it is a lower priority in Iraq and that is a big problem.
NIQASH: Why is it that?
Al-Damluji: I don't know why they don't care. Maybe because since 2006 the governments have been Islamist governments. And maybe they feel culture is, well, not exactly Islamist.
NIQASH: Are you able to do anything about the damage that the extremists are doing to Iraq's historical monuments and antiquities?
Al-Damluji: We are holding a kind of seminar on April 8. We are going to bring all the different international ambassadors in Iraq together because we believe that a large part of these antiquities are being smuggled - so we are going to try and find ways of putting an end to that market, with the help of the ambassadors. It's also an exercise to tell them that we do care about this issue.
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