In a move reminiscent of the Taliban’s shocking destruction of the two massive ancient statues of the Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, ISIS militants are destroying sacred temples and art in Iraq in the name of Allah. This picture was posted on an affiliated website of their destruction of the tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Mosul. It appears that Jonah may have survived the whale but could not escape the raw hatred of ISIS. In the meantime, sectarian atrocities have continued with the discovery of 50 blindfolded bodies south of Baghdad.
It appears that we have spent $4 trillion in both countries and lost thousands of soldiers only to have the the rise of the Taliban of Afghanistan and now an even worse group take control of much of Iraq (in addition to have Iran now openly intervening in the Iraq).
In an area where murderous religious fanatics are common, ISIS stands out as a particularly grotesque group that justified mass killings and destruction as the work of truly faithful Muslim. They are destroying tombstones and holy places as they move across the country. Jonah’;s tomb was gleefully destroyed by sledgehammers despite it being revered by Muslims and Christians alike.
The attack is the latest in the ISIS’s violent rampage across Iraq.
The Sunni group rejects the veneration of tombs and relics so they actively destroy the holy places of Shia, Christians and others. We have seen such atrocities committed by other Muslim extremist groups in other countries. Jonah is called the Prophet Younis by Muslims. They also reportedly destroyed the shrine of the Prophet Seth (Shayth). Dozens of shrines and Shia mosques in Mosul and the town of Tal Afar have been destroyed. They have also killed at least three Sunni clerics in Mosul who refused to leave the city. They are Khattab Hassan, 43, Riyadh al-Wandi, 39, and 48-year-old Abdul Ghafoor Salman.
Source: Daily Mail
I thought Obama had declared mission accomplished on these guys?
Saucy–exactly. Nothing is more scary than a faceless enemy. That is exactly the tool the government used to strip away the rights. This pervasive fear of a faceless enemy has permeated most of our culture now. Just look at the police departments. It’s an evil man’s tool to use the card W did at that time. I think we should all take the time to revisit how heinous that administration was, and maybe see the scars it has left behind. There is irrational fear on this blog all the time. Someone is out to get us all the time–even though no entity has ever had the broad reach of power that this country has.
So why did anyone think a democracy would take hold there?? Come on?? Just more delusional beltway politics. They all tell each other inside their beltway habitat how wonderful they are, and they come up with stunning ideas like, “hey, yeah man, they need a democracy like ours, that will make everything O-K!” Then the carefully engineered populations chose to vote in the muslim brotherhood, Hamas, or whatever flavor of hate was in vogue. Ooooops. Don’t think the smart guys figured it would work out that way. Doesn’t work out that way on TV, anyway.
Annie wrote “George Bush said Islam was a religion of peace.”
‘W’ was also the genius who devised the phrase “war on terror.” Imagine during FDR’s speech asking for a declaration of war if he had mentioned a “war on bombs in Hawaii” instead of a war on Japan.
That said, sometimes I wonder if “war on terror” was not actually brilliantly Machiavellian because it enabled him to easily expand the war to Iraq, which he couldn’t have done if he had declared war on the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Dredd wrote “Wrong-wingers say the same thing about the nation that has killed more innocents than any other nation”
As usual, Dredd posts the most ridiculous comments.
I could write a tome proving his statement incorrect, but I will just give one example. The worst mass murderer in all history is either Mao or Genghis Khan. Mao killed tens of millions, perhaps as many as 100 million, especially in his Cultural Revolution. Khan also probably killed tens of millions, but ancient history is often difficult to enumerate.
Annie wrote “It took a dictator like Saddam Hussein to keep Iraq from its own devices”
You only took that thought halfway. The truth is that Muslims cannot live under a peaceful government. Because Islam, which means submission, demands that Muslims live under sharia, Muslims will eventually move to create an Islamic government similar to Iran.
The proof for this is history. There has never been a peaceful Islamic country. All of them have been one of three things: an Islamic dictatorship (e.g. Saudi Arabia and Iran), a secular dictatorship (e.g. Iraq under SH), or one in transition which is on its way to becoming another Islamic dictatorship (e.g. Iraq today).
Iraq had two strikes against it. First, Islam. Second, the fact that the politicians crafting the Versailles Treaty did not understand that Iraq was not a stable country as designed. Sunni and Shia tribes have been at war since the death of ‘M’. Some politicians favored the creation of Kurdistan which would have been formed from the Kurdish portions of today’s Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria, which would have eliminated a lot of today’s violence in the area.
P.S. The moderate Muslims liberals often refer to are actually lapsed Muslims, because the concept of moderate Islam is impossible, by definition.
TheSaucyMugwump (@TheSaucyMugwump)
Liberals often proclaim that only a tiny percentage of Muslims are brutal killers …
===========================
Wrong-wingers say the same thing about the nation that has killed more innocents than any other nation (“kill anything that moves”).
Religiously (On The Origin of the Crusader Pathogen – 2).
Holy killers?
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010917-11.html
George Bush said Islam was a religion of peace.
What Annie said.
“the violence passages”
Change to “the violent passages.”
It took a dictator like Saddam Hussein to keep Iraq from its own devices. Thanks to Bush Cheney for taking out the domino that started the entire collapse of the region.
Liberals often proclaim that only a tiny percentage of Muslims are brutal killers, i.e. the ones who misunderstand the peaceful Koran. Let’s do the math on that assumption. There are 1.5 billion Muslims. 1% is a tiny percentage. 1% of 1.5 billion is 15 million.
And what if that percentage is actually higher?
* * * * *
One of the things one learns in a comparative religion course is that the Bible is arranged chronologically, with the New Testament following the Old Testament. The latter is violent, but the former contains Jesus’ message of peace, so only the truly nutty hold onto the violence passages.
The Koran, however, is arranged by size of chapters; it is not arranged chronologically. One must study the Koran to determine the proper sequence. ‘M’ was born in Mecca and remained under the control of Meccan tribes until he left in 622 and moved to Medina. His early works were peaceful because Meccan tribes would not tolerate anything else. But after he moved to Medina, his work because much darker and violent. The principle of abrogation requires Muslims to embrace the latest teachings of ‘M’ and consider the earlier ones less important. This explains why liberals can point to peaceful passages as proof that Islam is a religion of peace, while Muslims know that the most recent, violent passages are actually the ones devout Muslims must obey.
Didn’t most people see this coming back in ’03? Is it really a surprise? This country is so full of itself thinking it can engineer new alternative civilizations. I guess inside the beltway politics and philosophy behave more like Coyote and Road Runner physics.
Iran and Iraq. The two “eye: countries when Bushie boy was President. He invaded the wrong one. But then again, why invade either pirate territory? They are not “countries” or nation states. They can never be civilized nation states. Fly over if you must but please flush twice when you do.
That would be the ancient city of Nineveh, which is now Mosul.
Nineveh was the oldest and most populous city of the ancient Assyrian Empire, situated on the east bank of the Tigris opposite modern Mosul (in Iraq ).
What’s new news, ISIS took 88 lbs of uranium from Mosul University. ISIS also hocked scud missiles and raided all the military ammo dumps, and stole $400 million from the bank. But this is old news.
When is the other shoe going to drop?
Reblogged this on Centinel2012 and commented:
This should be a warning to any and all that think Islam is a peaceful religion. There is little difference between radial Island and American progressives both have as their agenda the destruction of all that doesn’t fit with what they ‘know’ is true!
Destroying art is not as sadistic as destroying lives, homes, and infrastructure. It is not as depraved as taking land occupied by natives, for the benefit of immigrant settlers.
And these are the people to whom many wanted us to give money when they were part of the opposition to ASSAD. When will we ever learn; when will we ever learn.
Embraced by the Sunnis and fueled by money these medieval murderers are showing us what theocracy looks like. Does anyone think that SCOTUS and the rest of the religious fanatics in this country and their defenders are looking at this and thinking? Of course, thinking for the religious fanatics in our country is forbidden unless it involves thinking and planning their next round of attacks on the rest of us.
Dave:
I dont think the Tea Party is trying to destroy our history, the liberals are trying to do that and have actually done a pretty good job of it. What the Tea Party is trying to do is to restore our historical roots in limited government and individual rights.
I abhor religion yet feel disgusted when reading about the destruction of such historical sites. One doesn’t need to subscribe to Greek myth to appreciate its architecture, for instance.
They want to destroy our shared history in order to usurp the future. Just like the Tea Party.