Islamic Rebels Burn Medieval Manuscript Library

[Just_Believe18]

That is religious extremism for you. When you break down social structure and rely solely on religion to guide your sense of morality and governance on others, this is what you get. Islam is living in the Dark Ages. I hope Muslim nations can come out of this purgatory and join the rest of us in civilization.

 

[xbuzzerx]

This really makes me mad. I know it 'shouldn't' make me more mad when people burn irreplaceable historical books and documents than when they kill people, but it really does. That's not just something like petty murder, it's like assault on human consciousness and shared human history.

 

[maxpowr9]

That is religious extremism for you. When you break down social structure and rely solely on religion to guide your sense of morality and governance on others, this is what you get. Islam is living in the Dark Ages. I hope Muslim nations can come out of this purgatory and join the rest of us in civilization.

Religion isn't the only thing that could whitewash history. Many Asian countries during their "reformations" in the 20th Century altered much of their histories. Hell, the Chinese still refuse to acknowledge Tibet as part of their country.

 

[ChickenGuy]

This really makes me mad. I know it 'shouldn't' make me more mad when people burn irreplaceable historical books and documents than when they kill people, but it really does. That's not just something like petty murder, it's like assault on human consciousness and shared human history.

I know how you feel, it angered me too when I heard about this on the news just now. This is the face of the disgusting plague on our world that is 'modern' radical Islam. A literal destroyer of history, of culture, of music, of art, of human experience. And the torturer and executioner of those who don't obey them.

It must be fought, and it must never be appeased.

 

[Jack Springer]

That is religious extremism for you. When you break down social structure and rely solely on religion to guide your sense of morality and governance on others, this is what you get. Islam is living in the Dark Ages. I hope Muslim nations can come out of this purgatory and join the rest of us in civilization.

That is MUSLIM EXTREMIST. Get your story straight.

Our current President can't even use the phase "muslim terrorist" or "muslim extremist".

This is not new. The taliban did similar things in Afghanistan and radical Muslims have threatened to do destroy ancient historical sites in Egypt.

 

[CowboyBob]

It pisses me off to see extremists destroy antique treasures.

Nazis did it too.

 

[Kulindahr]

Small minds with infantile responses.

I've held in my hands rare ancient texts from several religions, some of them dead. Never did I for a moment think of doing any damage to them; rather I was awed and honored to be able to study such links to the past.

These people are barbarians endangering the entire human race. The only solution is the one they prefer: extermination.

 

[CowboyBob]

I have a cousin who does genealogy work. She told me that if you have ancestors where the Nazis were, your genealogy comes to a dead end and can't go back too far. Nazi carnage destroyed a lot churches during WWII in Russia, Poland, Prussia, Czechoslovakia, etc. For centuries it was those churches which kept detailed records of births, deaths, baptisms, marriages, and the like and those records are gone forever.

She can trace roots of families going back to the 1200's if their families were from England, Scotland, Sweden and any other areas not caught up in the Nazi conflict. On my paternal side the Nazi's destroyed those Prussian / Russian / Czech churches but on my maternal side (Norway/Sweden) I go back centuries.

As I said, it pisses me off when antiquities are destroyed.

 

[Jack Springer]

Wars destroy.

Carpet bombing by the the Allies destroyed millions of records also in WW2. We did the same thing to the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's.

 

[ChickenGuy]

Wars destroy.

Carpet bombing by the the Allies destroyed millions of records also in WW2. We did the same thing to the former Yugoslavia in the 1990's.

It's a VERY different event. We weren't on a single-minded and fervent zeal to eradicate German or Yugoslavian culture and history from the face of the planet. Indeed, when the Allies reached Rome, they were specifically told in their bombing raids that they must avoid many of the famous buildings.

I'm a bit surprised to find you apparently equivocating and being the least 'hawkish' about this issue. I'd have thought you'd be at the forefront of tackling overseas terrorism and extremism?

On another point....

The instant it was known the mindless Islam-crazy thugs were taking over, someone in Mali (for example the museum/cultural authorities) should have had the foresight to smuggle all these treasures out of the region if they could, or maybe alternatively to have made copies of these manuscripts to be held overseas in a safe place. Same goes for women, children, and virtually everything you could think of. Either that of arm yourself and fight. Horrible barbarian excuses for human beings.

 

[Just_Believe18]

That is MUSLIM EXTREMIST. Get your story straight.

Our current President can't even use the phase "muslim terrorist" or "muslim extremist".

This is not new. The taliban did similar things in Afghanistan and radical Muslims have threatened to do destroy ancient historical sites in Egypt.

Once again, I question your reading comprehension and if you're ever really listening in on the discussion. If you read my entire post, I specifically criticize the extreme elements of Islam. I even mention Islam and Muslim in the same sentence, which I thought would trigger your eyes to at least gaze over that sentence.

 

[Telstra]

Probably they don't represent islam anymore.
They just want power and made up their own rules but hide behind the name islam.

 

[xbuzzerx]

That is MUSLIM EXTREMIST. Get your story straight.

Our current President can't even use the phase "muslim terrorist" or "muslim extremist".

This is not new. The taliban did similar things in Afghanistan and radical Muslims have threatened to do destroy ancient historical sites in Egypt.

Every religion I can think of has had its moments of extremism and doing things like this Jack-- including Christianity.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to comment on this as one gross example of what religious extremism does.

 

[palbert]

Have we so quickly forgotten Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasterys when, among other things, he ordered the confiscation and destruction of the Monasterys' books and writings. Or for that matter like action by the Reformist Crowns of other Northern European Kingdoms.

This does not condone; but such actions are not new.

 

[Kulindahr]

A common complaint the Islamic fundamentalists make everywhere is that the West is corrupting their culture. How then does it make sense to destroy evidence one's own past? Maybe it's the intellectualism they hate. I will never understand this ideology completely. These Islamists just seem to hate everything that is wholesome and good in the world. Some are even actively trying to stop the eradication of polio, which is on the verge of being completely wiped out in the remaining three endemic countries.

I watched a clip from one Islamist preacher whom I suspect represents a broad swath of Islamic fundamentalism. He flat out asserted that no book should exist but the Qur'an.

 

[Kulindahr]

Any group that believes in burning any books deserves to be sent to oblivion. In that I include some of the "white power" groups, which have advocated burning anything authored by non-whites.

 

[Jack Springer]

I was just pointing out the obvious that wasn't addressed. War is hell.

In regards to your opinion that I would be the most hawkish, you have a lot to learn about me and conservatism.

It's a VERY different event. We weren't on a single-minded and fervent zeal to eradicate German or Yugoslavian culture and history from the face of the planet. Indeed, when the Allies reached Rome, they were specifically told in their bombing raids that they must avoid many of the famous buildings.

I'm a bit surprised to find you apparently equivocating and being the least 'hawkish' about this issue. I'd have thought you'd be at the forefront of tackling overseas terrorism and extremism?

On another point....

The instant it was known the mindless Islam-crazy thugs were taking over, someone in Mali (for example the museum/cultural authorities) should have had the foresight to smuggle all these treasures out of the region if they could, or maybe alternatively to have made copies of these manuscripts to be held overseas in a safe place. Same goes for women, children, and virtually everything you could think of. Either that of arm yourself and fight. Horrible barbarian excuses for human beings.

 

[Jack Springer]

Every religion I can think of has had its moments of extremism and doing things like this Jack-- including Christianity.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to comment on this as one gross example of what religious extremism does.

You can include atheism on that list -- but we are talking about what's happening today and what needs to be done today -- we can't do anything to change what happened in the past.

 

[Jack Springer]

^^
Yes, the culture of Islam brought so much to progressive culture in the past.

 

[xbuzzerx]

You can include atheism on that list -- but we are talking about what's happening today and what needs to be done today -- we can't do anything to change what happened in the past.

What are you talking about? I'm atheist and I've read the Bible (multiple translations), parts of the Qu'ran and the entire Baghavid Gita. (Hardly understood any of it, it makes the Bible read by comparison like a transcript of an episode of Barney the Purple Dinosaur.) Plus I have a ridiculous reverence for history so even if something is religious in nature-- a piece of artwork or an ancient manuscript, I'm still horrified if someone destroys it.

Also atheism isn't a religion.

^^
Yes, the culture of Islam brought so much to progressive culture in the past.

Yes, at many points it did. It's responsible for slowly teaching Europe most of the secrets brought from China along the silk road that enabled the age of discovery-- oh little things like the compass and gunpowder-- and at points the Muslim world even protected the Jews from Christian persecution.

Please know something about history before you try to make comments about it.