Famed Moroccan Flutist Gets Rare Musical Instruments Destroyed by US Customs for Being 'Ecological Threat'

Photo Credit: Breitbart/Creative Commons

Boujemaa Razgui, a famed Moroccan flutist who regularly performs in Boston, was passing through New York’s John F. Kennedy airport on his way elsewhere packing eleven of his handmade Berber flutes he uses to perform. Mistaking them for bamboo, US Customs destroyed them.

Razgui’s flutes were in his luggage, which was taken out of his sight while he was transferring flights. He continued on his way to Boston from New York, and did not discover his flutes missing until he went home. When he called his airline, he was told to speak to Customs, who matter-of-factly notified him that all his flutes – which he was bringing to Boston to perform with – were destroyed. At no point during his time in New York was Razgui asked about the flutes or notified that they might be problematic.

According to Foreign Policy, which contacted US Customs, the agency will not apologize and believes that the flutes were destroyed for good reason – namely, that they were “an ecological threat.” “The fresh bamboo canes were seized and destroyed in accordance with established protocols to prevent the introduction of plant pathogens into the United States,” one official told the magazine, without indicating that the Customs officials knew what the flutes were when they were destroyed.