ISIS Plans To Destroy Ancient Walls Of Nineveh In Northern Iraq

The ignorant ISIS animals have their eyes set on destroying the ancient archaeological walls of Nineveh in northern Iraq.  The Assyrians (Christians) have systematically been massacred and displaced over the centuries.

(AINA) -- According to the Assyrian website www.ankawa.com, ISIS is planning to destroy the walls of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire and one of the most important archaeological sites in Iraq. Nineveh was sacked in 612 B.C. when the Assyrian Empire was overthrown.
Residents of the Bab Nergal area of Mosul said ISIS has informed them that it will blow up the walls of Nineveh with the start of operations to liberate Mosul by the Iraqi army.

In the last month ISIS has seized the content of the cultural museum in Mosul as well as destroyed Assyrian monuments in the city, which ISIS claims "distort Islam."

Assyrians are the the only indigenous people of Iraq, going back to 4750 B.C. In 2003, just before the U.S. invasion, there were 1.5 million Assyrians living in Iraq. Today there are about 500,000 remaining. A sustained, low grade genocide (report) perpetrated by Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds drove hundreds of thousands of Assyrians into exile in Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

On August 7 of 2014, ISIS moved into the Nineveh Plain, the last stronghold of Assyrians in Iraq, forcing nearly 200,000 Assyrians to flee their homes and villages, where they now live as refugees in the Dohuk and Arbel areas.

Of course this wouldn't be the first time Muslim extremists destroy historical treasures. The Taliban bombed the ancient 6th century Buddha statues in Bamiyan. ISIS destroyed an 1,800 year old church in Mosul. Salafists in Egypt want to destroy the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They've even targeted Muslim sites. Islamists destroyed ancient treasures in Timbuktu, Mali. And Hamas destroyed part of an ancient harbor to make room for a terrorist training camp.  They just don't care. History means nothing to them.

Source: AINA

Hamas Destroys Part Of UNESCO Site To Make Room For Terror Camp

Anthedon Harbor in Gaza has been around for 3,000 years. UNESCO has placed it on its tentative list of ancient treasures, but it obviously didn't have much worth to the Gazans since Hamas razed part of the site to make room for a large military (read terror) training camp.

Perhaps the reason they have no respect for Anthedon Harbor is because it predates Islamic rule. Then again, Mali militants have destroyed designated UNESCO ancient sites in Timbuktu that were Islamic, so I guess it just doesn't matter. Violence trumps heritage in the case of some Muslims.

The military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea last month, the Al-Monitor news website reported.

The 3,000-year-old seaport discovered in 1997 was named an international heritage site by UNESCO in 2012, and is the oldest harbor in Gaza. It contains mosaic floors with historical pillars from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ages, according to Al-Monitor.

“Due to rising population in the region, the ministry appreciates the urgent need for using new pieces of land,” the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism said in a statement, Al-Monitor reported. “This is why the ministry has agreed with the different responsible parties on using a limited part of the location temporarily in a way that won’t harm the underground monuments there in any way.”

Much of the port is covered with sand to protect the artifacts until they can be excavated.

The deputy tourism minister in Gaza, Muhammad Khela, told Al-Monitor, “We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all.” He added that if UNESCO had excavated the seaport, it could not have been taken over.

UNESCO is silent.

“UNESCO’s admission of Palestine as a member state in 2011, which caused the organization to lose almost a quarter of its budget when the U.S. suspended its contributions, was justified as a measure to help protect world heritage sites in Palestinian areas,” the letter said. “Yet as Hamas turns a cultural heritage site into a terrorist training ground — the antithesis of culture — the silence of UNESCO now places the very credibility of the organization at stake.” [Letter from UN Watch to UNESCO]

Remind me why we send Palestine aid?

Egyptian Salafist Wants To Destroy The Pyramids and Sphinx

Usually Muslim extremists have a penchant for destroying historical sites of other religions, like the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2011, but occasionally they go hog-wild and destroy some of their own. Take the Islamists in northern Mali that have systematically destroyed a bunch of mausolea of various Muslim saints in the world heritage site of Timbuktu.

Now some Egyptian Salafist ignoramus (involved with the Taliban destruction of the Buddhas) wants to destroy the pyramids of Giza (one of which is considered one of the Seven Wonders of The World) and the Great Sphinx.

Murgan Salem al-Gohary told Egypt’s privately-owned Dream TV2 channel over the weekend that the Sphinx and pyramids are “idolatrous” and must be destroyed, Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reported.

The newspaper said Gohary is a jihadist leader with links to the Taliban and that he had previously helped smash Buddha statues in Afghanistan ten years ago.

“The idols and statutes that fill Egypt must be destroyed. Muslims are tasked with applying the teachings of Islam and removing these idols, just like we did in Afghanistan when we smashed the Buddha statues,” Gohary said in a Saturday night television interview, according to al-Masry al-Youm.

Who lets these people have access to the airwaves?

Gohary had spent time in prison during Hosni Mubarak's reign, but after his release travelled to Afghanistan, then Syria, where he was sent back to Egypt.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry claims they have:

“taken the necessary precautions to prevent violations of the law or any abuses of anything in the public domain or archaeological treasures including the pyramids."

But the Coalition to Support Tourism (CST) doesn't believe the government has done enough, and are planning on suing President Morsi and the tourism minister for "lack of response" if nothing is done.  After all, the economy in Egypt is a mess and what else do they have other than tourism?

Tunisian Salafis Targeting "Un-Islamic" Cultural Events Worrisome

Angry Tunisian Islamists

Tunisia is taking a quick dive into Islamist hell.  I'm not sure what was expected when the people voted overwhelmingly for an Islamist leadership, but they're certainly getting what they voted for. Perhaps some were foolishly duped into thinking that they could trust the so-called 'moderate' Islamist Ennahda party's vows of moderate Islam; but guess what, it 'aint happening. The ultra-conservative bearded Salafis are flexing their muscles and the Islamist-led government is doing nothing to stop them.

It starts slowly, with little things like cultural events. Salafis destroyed art they believed to be offensive at an art exhibit/fair in June. And they're back targeting the arts again. This time it was the "un-Islamic" Bizerte music and theatre festival that was attacked by a bunch of Salafis bearing arms which left five people wounded. Four men were arrested, but people there said it took a good hour before the police did anything about the melee, and that the government isn't doing anything to control the Salafis thuggish behavior. And the attacks on culture have increased to the point that some producers are cancelling events.

Last week, the director of a festival at Gboullat, in the northern Beja region, announced he was cancelling the event under pressure notably from the Salafi -- adherents of a strict Sunni interpretation of Islam similar to the one practiced in Saudi Arabia.

Another festival had been cancelled at the end of July, in Sejnane, with the organizers again blaming radical Islamists, who interrupted the event, saying it was unacceptable during the month of Ramadan.

But the Bizert festival isn't the only event that has been targeted recently, in fact there have been a spate of attacks since the violent confrontation in June that left many wounded and one dead.

It was the third and most violent such incident in just three days, after Salafi prevented an Iranian group from performing at a Sufi music festival in Kairouan, south of Tunis, saying their Shiite chanting amounted to a violation of Islamic values.

On Tuesday, renowned Tunisian actor Lotfi Abdelli was prevented from performing his comedy act “100% Halal” by hardline Islamists who had occupied the auditorium.

The fact that the Salafis are allowed to wreak havoc and yet anti-government protests are quickly dealt with has some believing that the Ennahda are involved.

“They leave the Salafi alone,” said Tunisian actress and playwright Leila Toubel.

“How can we believe that this government and Ennahda are not involved? I would like to think that there is nothing to it, but these people (the Salafi) go unpunished, they make their own law,” Toubel said.

She accused the ruling Islamists of “complicity at least by silence.”

And some online media sites, like Kapitalis, feel the same way.

“What is serious about all this, more than the activism of these religious extremists, which grows by the day, is the laxity of the authorities who give in every time when faced with the diktats of some bearded fanatics."

Although the ministry of culture weighed in on the cancelled Abdelli show by saying it was an “attack on freedom of expression and a dangerous threat to cultural rights,” it's doubtful anything will be done; after all, an Islamist is an Islamist, whether they claim to be moderate or not.

It starts with the cultural events, and then eventually it will creep into other areas of life, until it is too late to do anything about it.