[Newsbot]

Title: Timbuktu UNESCO shrines destroyed by Islamist rebels
Category: History
Posted By: ShepherdsDog
Date: 2012-07-01 17:25:53

[ShepherdsDog]

One has to wonder how safe Egyptian antiquities are with the Muslim Brotherhood in power. the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and in other areas of religious strife, the uneducated and unevolved desecrate sites not related to their own twisted interpretation of their faith.....The vandalism of the icons and frescos in the Hagia Sofia is another example, of how little they have changed over the centuries.

[martin14]

Religion of peace at it again.

Watch for the condemnation from the lefties... not.

[ShepherdsDog]

let the bitches whine...they can't help themselves, as it's part of their nature and we can't change it.

[EyeBrock]

I'm thinking of joining 'Dykes for the Taliban' or 'Socialist Queers against capitalist antiquities'.

Just so I can cover off a few pet causes.

[xerxes]

martin14 martin14:

Religion of peace at it again.

Watch for the condemnation from the lefties... not.

Posted without comment...

$1:

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 10 (AP) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has
almost finished destroying two towering statues of Buddha and will complete
the job soon despite an international outcry, a top Taliban official said
Saturday.

"We have destroyed 80 percent of the statues. There is only small amount
left and we will destroy that soon," Abdul Hai Muttmain, a spokesman for
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, told The Associated Press in a
telephone interview.

He spoke as Egypt's chief Muslim cleric headed to Afghanistan to plead for
the preservation of the statues, which are revered as historical icons of
Afghanistan's pre-Islamic past. Other Muslim figures were expected to make
similar trips this week.

"Everyone who is coming now is too late," Muttmain said. He said Taliban
soldiers were using explosives to destroy the statues, which are 120 and 170
feet high and are carved into a mountain in Bamiyan, about 75 miles from the
capital, Kabul.

Two weeks ago, Omar ordered the destruction of the massive Buddhas from the
third and fifth centuries and all other statues in Afghanistan. He said
the edict was meant to discourage idolatry.

The Taliban, who rule roughly 95 percent of Afghanistan, had stopped
blasting away at the statues for three days last week to observe the Muslim
festival of Eid al-Adha, but reportedly started again Thursday.

Reports from opposition troops, who face Taliban forces on a civil-war front
line a few miles from the Buddhas, said soldiers using cannon and explosives
destroyed large pieces of the statues Thursday afternoon.

It has been impossible independently to determine the conditions of the
Buddha statues because the Taliban has refused to allow anyone into the
area.

Information Minister Quadratullah Jamal said the Taliban will provide
evidence of their destruction later, but did not say when.

"We cannot give details about the pace of destruction work. But we will
inform you once it is completed," he said.

Omar's order has drawn worldwide outrage. The U.N. General Assembly urged
the religious militia on Friday to halt the destruction immediately, and
several Islamic nations including Pakistan, considered the closest ally of
the Taliban, have also urged the militia to reverse its decision.

The Taliban adhere to a harsh version of Islam that is criticized by most of
the Islamic world.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider met with Omar on Saturday and
said the Taliban leader rejected his nation's pleas to save the nation's
statues.

Omar said that "it was not possible for them to review the decision,"
Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"From the discussions it became apparent that the process of destruction of
the statues, including those at Bamiyan, was initiated immediately after the
issuance of the edict," it said.

Jamal also said the decree was irrevocable.

"The edict will be implemented," he said. "There is no question of changing
the decision."

Jamal said other nations should help Afghanistan preserve historical
monuments that do not defy the edict.

"The international community can help us to preserve and protect our
cultural heritage apart from statues," he said.

Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported Saturday that Grand Mufti Nasr
Farid Wasel, the nation's leading Islamic cleric, was on his way to
Afghanistan to meet with the Taliban. Wasel has condemned the Taliban's
destruction of pre-Islamic statues.

Also, Qatar-based Islamic scholar Youssef al-Qaradawi was planning to lead a
delegation to Afghanistan within a few days to meet with Omar and try to
persuade him to reconsider his decision, a Web site run by Qarawadi reported
on Friday.

[ShepherdsDog]

what you don't mention is the fact that Omar originally said the statues should be preserved in 2000 because there were no Buddhists worshippers left in Afghanistan, so there was no threat of idolatry. He also said that the statues would generate much needed tourist revenue for the country.

The next year, the mullahs had a meeting and decided that yes they were idols and needed to be destroyed. Even the Iranians said that they were being too strict in their interpretations, and that the statues should be preserved for historical reasons. The Iranians are also restoring former Zoroastrian holy sites based on their historical significance.

The threat comes from these small groups of extremists who always seem to rise to power. It's not the guys in the suits we have to worry about. They're the nice face the extremists want the world to see, and they are only there so long as the religious authorities deem them useful.

[GreenTiger]

In this case the Islamic extremists are targeting Islamic sites as they aren't Islamic enough, weird.

[GreenTiger]

In this case the Islamic extremists are targeting Islamic sites as they aren't Islamic enough, weird.

[maldonsfecht]

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

In this case the Islamic extremists are targeting Islamic sites as they aren't Islamic enough, weird.

Think of the destruction of art, icons and relics during the English Reformation... Protestant v. Catholic. They deemed the Catholic system decadent and idolatrous.

The West has gone through its growing pains certainly. Fortunately, they did not think to blow up Stonehenge or other such things. However, in the Scandinavian countries, many rune-stones were uprooted and broken down to provide stone for churches and other projects...





Not apologising in any way for this slime. I hate that they're doing this; I remember watching them use AK's and RPGs in destroying the mountain statues in Afghanistan 12 years ago. It's awful stuff.

[Freakinoldguy]

maldonsfecht maldonsfecht:

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

In this case the Islamic extremists are targeting Islamic sites as they aren't Islamic enough, weird.

Think of the destruction of art, icons and relics during the English Reformation... Protestant v. Catholic. They deemed the Catholic system decadent and idolatrous.

The West has gone through its growing pains certainly.

Yes, but as a society we have progressed beyond the 15th century which is something the Islamists deemed completely unnecessary.

So there they sit mired in the past with their quaint little quirky beliefs, that so many Canadians find ammusing and not dangerous at all.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it.

[BartSimpson]

I've had the same thoughts that the antiquities in Egypt are in danger due to the islamist majority running that country now. It won't be long before they start the destruction of the temples and the melting down of ancient gold artifacts.

[Gunnair]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

maldonsfecht maldonsfecht:

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

In this case the Islamic extremists are targeting Islamic sites as they aren't Islamic enough, weird.

Think of the destruction of art, icons and relics during the English Reformation... Protestant v. Catholic. They deemed the Catholic system decadent and idolatrous.

The West has gone through its growing pains certainly.

Yes, but as a society we have progressed beyond the 15th century which is something the Islamists deemed completely unnecessary.

So there they sit mired in the past with their quaint little quirky beliefs, that so many Canadians find ammusing and not dangerous at all.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it.

Well, they sit in the past because that's where they are socially. They will likely evolve as did Christianity and like Christianity, it'll be messy because there will be group that evolve quicker and those that evolve slower. The Taliban is one of those groups that evolves slower.

[BartSimpson]

Gunnair Gunnair:

Well, they sit in the past because that's where they are socially. They will likely evolve as did Christianity and like Christianity, it'll be messy because there will be group that evolve quicker and those that evolve slower. The Taliban is one of those groups that evolves slower.

I'd kind of prefer to see the members of the Taliban decompose as opposed to waiting five hundred years or more for those ignorant troglodytes to 'evolve'.

[desertdude]

Not that the Taliban are a great bunch to hang out with, but why. What have the Taliban done to you ?