Academia, International, Religion, Society

Islamic State Burns Over 8000 Rare Books As Demonstration of Faith

AQMI_Flag.svgThe_House_of_Leaves_-_Burning_4We have previously discussed the burning of rare books by Islamic State. Now, a new report says that the group has burned more than 8,000 rare books and manuscripts in Mosul. They then reportedly bombed the Mosul Public Library according to the director of the library. A new video also shows ISIS fighters smashing works of art, including a 9th Century figure.

The latest losses including manuscripts from the 18th century, Ottoman-era books, a sand glass used by ancient Arabs and Iraqi newspapers from the early 20th century. ISIS also destroyed the church of Mary the Virgin in Mosul and Mosul’s University theater.

What is fascinating is how similar these Islamic extremists are to the Nazis in their extermination campaigns coupled with the destruction of cultural and intellectual centers. In some ways, Islamic fascists are more dangerous because they combine this murderous culture with a promise of eternal salvation. As we have seen from the Nazis to the Stalinists to the Kymer Rouge to the Islamic State, intellectuals and their work are some of the first groups to be attacked by these forces of ignorance and hatred.

The thought of the loss of these early Islamic works is heartbreaking. I am only imagine the pain of this director and so many others to see their intellectual history literally go up in smoke.

101 thoughts on “Islamic State Burns Over 8000 Rare Books As Demonstration of Faith”

    1. Inga – you are quite capable of Googling. The articles on Planned Parenthood are out there, just look.

  3. Let me introduce you to your new best friend, GOOGLE. It’s been all over the news. I don’t want to do a search on “Mein Kampf.” It’s being republished in Germany first.

  4. There have been multiple scandals in which schools contracted with Planned Parenthood to teach sex ed in high schools. These experts taught about bondage, S&M, choking, how to know if you’re ready for abusive rough sex, how to be submissive to your boyfriend, how to use sex toys, how for young girls to experiment with sex that leaves bruising.

    Normal People – idiots!!!

    Liberals – conservatives are as bad as ISIS! They don’t want sex ed!

    It’s just too funny.

  7. On another note, the Belgian copyright just expired on Mein Kampf, which is set to be republished for the first time in decades.

    Normal people – this is not a book we want to buy with our taxpayer money and provide in a library, regardless of whether it is legal to buy it.

    Liberals – Book burning! Limiting books in public libraries! Conservatives are as bad as ISIS!

    1. Karen S wrote regarding Mein Kampf: “Normal people – this is not a book we want to buy with our taxpayer money and provide in a library, regardless of whether it is legal to buy it.”

      I would sure hope this is NOT a “normal people” position. Adolf Hitler had a huge impact on history, and his book is an insight into his mind in his own words. Any educational system in our lifetime should have a copy of Mein Kampf. It really should be required reading in my opinion. English versions are available online for free, so there is no need to concern yourself with taxpayer money.

  9. Here in CA, a school added teaching kids about sexting to first graders.

    Normal people – why in the world would you talk about sex with 6 year olds who are not emotionally mature enough, you idiots!

    Liberals – Book burning! Limiting information! You don’t care about kids! You’re as bad as ISIS!

    Droll.

    1. Inga – Salinas, CA, the home of John Steinbeck, burned his books (which took place in Salinas). When he won the Nobel Prize for Literature (an actual prize, not that fakey Nobel Peace Prize), Salinas named the city library after him. Because of budget problems the library is currently closed.

  12. The march down the road of censuring books is what is similar. It’s beyond ignorant not to see the danger in witholding information in order to push a worldview.

  13. Why, why, why were any precious artifacts left within the reach of ISIS? This is what they do. It’s interesting that Professor Turley compares them to the Nazis, because I completely agree. Too often, Nazi comparisons are bandied about too easily, but in this case, I do believe that ISIS is just as bad as the Nazis. When they start burning your enemies alive in cages, and then dump construction rubble on the, they’ve given themselves completely over to evil, and there’s no fixing them.

    It is a heartbreaking loss.

    Comparing conservatives to ISIS, who burned someone alive, is completely ignorant.

    Isaac – you are right. This is the upcoming face of war.

    When WWII was fomenting, there were people who excused the Nazis, too, or said that other groups were just as bad. That delay allowed the Nazis to gather power, and led to the losses of so many lives. You’d think we would have learned from history.

  14. My father-in-law is an 89 yo survivor of the Lodz Ghetto and several of The Reich’s slave labor camps. My late mother-in-law, of blessed memory, walked out of Auschewitz-Birkenau at the age of 19 minus the large family she arrived there with. At lunch today, Dad and I were were addressing the world view of the subject under discussion. I told him it reminded me of the two waves of Einsatzgruppen which the Nazis sent into Russian to murder what historians suspect was about 900,000 mostly Jews, BEFORE they brought the Wehrmacht in. I also reflected on what I thought was missing in today’s 40-somethings and younger with regard to the Middle East issues. In the immediate post WWII era, the ‘Cold War’ embraced the world. The two prinicipals fought under their proxies…Arab States vs Israel, with the memory of the struggle against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan still fresh. Also then faced with a very real nuclear arms race and the Communist threat. Today’s 40-somethings have none of that memory as motivation. Ask them who King Farouk was and they give you a dumb look. Gamel Abdul Nassar [Saddam Hussein’s role model], the UAR, the Egypt-Israeli War which brought the Israeli Army to the front door of Cairo!! Huh?? Today’s 40-somethings live in a geopolitical isolation booth when it comes to Israel’s importance in preserving an island of democracy in an ocean of dictators, and despots. Unfortunately, there’s no way for a 72 yo to impart this internalization to individuals who weren’t old enough to develop critical thinking skills until at least 1985-1990.

  15. Oklahoma and Texas and other red states are marching down that same road. Whitewashing history, tearing out pages of biology books because they mentions abortion. They’re not yet burning the books, that would look bad, but they’re doing the next best thing.

  18. Nick

    Tactical nukes might work against thousands of Russian tanks making for Paris but with the insidious way ISIS weaves itself into the fabric of the towns and cities it captures, there might be a lot of innocent lives lost.

    If the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have taught us anything it is that in chaos there is opportunity for this collective madness that is presently termed religious extremism. If the US and or any other countries need to field armies in the hundreds of thousands that is and will be possible. However, the present activities of thugs in the Middle East and Africa illustrate the need for smaller groups of between a thousand and ten thousand highly mobile, highly trained, and well backed up with technology in both weaponry and logistics. The ability to insert a regiment into a situation and extract them quickly has proved its effectiveness.

    In 1987, 450 French Foreign Legionnaires jumped into the middle of a hostage situation being perpetrated by rebel forces lead and advised by East German and Cuban officers. In a few days almost 5000 hostages were taken out by Belgian forces and the FFL waxed several hundred rebels with a half dozen killed on their side. With proper logistical support a small group of highly trained soldiers can defeat the thugs in specific areas lowering the potential for innocent lives lost.

    This is the upcoming face of war. The West, and especially the US, will be involved regardless of opinion to the contrary. The Arab nations in the area are inept and involved in one way or another on both sides. The only way to stop the thuggery is to surgically take it out, using special forces and Western trained local armies. At the moment the problem is the present administrations of the US, Great Britain, and France are dickin around.

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