Iraq says ISIS fighters 'bulldozed' 3000-year-old Assyrian ruins

[webfact]

Iraq says Islamic State militants 'bulldozed' ancient site
VIVIAN SALAMA, Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq on Thursday using heavy military vehicles, the government said.

A statement from Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities didn't elaborate on the extent of the damage, saying only that the group continues to "defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity" with this latest act, which came after an attack on the Mosul museum just days earlier.

The destruction of the site of one of ancient Mesopotamia's greatest cities recalled the Taliban's annihilation of large Buddha statues in Afghanistan more than a dozen years ago, experts said.

Nimrud was the second capital of Assyria, an ancient kingdom that began in about 900 B.C., partially in present-day Iraq, and became a great regional power. The city, which was destroyed in 612 B.C., is located on the Tigris River just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in June.

The late 1980s discovery of treasures in Nimrud's royal tombs was one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds. After Iraq was invaded in 2003, archaeologists were relieved when they were found hidden in the country's central Bank — in a secret vault-inside-a-vault submerged in sewage water.

The Islamic State extremists, who control a third of Iraq and Syria, have attacked other archaeological and religious sites, claiming that they promote apostasy. Earlier this week, a video emerged on militant websites showing Islamic State militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at the Mosul museum, sparking global outrage.

Last year, the militants destroyed the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah — and the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis, two revered ancient shrines in Mosul. They also threatened to destroy Mosul's 850-year old Crooked Minaret, but residents surrounded the structure, preventing the militants from approaching.

Suzanne Bott, the heritage conservation project director for Iraq and Afghanistan in the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning and Archaeology, worked at Nimrud on and off for two years between 2008 and 2010. She helped stabilize structures and survey Nimrud for the U.S. State Department as part of a joint U.S. military and civilian unit.

She described Nimrud as one of four main Assyrian capital cities that practiced medicine, astrology, agriculture, trade and commerce, and had some of the earliest writings.

"It's really called the cradle of Western civilization, that's why this particular loss is so devastating," Bott said. "What was left on site was stunning in the information it was able to convey about ancient life.

"People have compared it to King Tut's tomb," she said.

Iraq's national museum in Baghdad opened its doors to the public last week for the first time in 12 years in a move Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said was to defy efforts "to destroy the heritage of mankind and Iraq's civilization."

The Islamic State group has imposed a harsh and violent version of Islamic law in the territories it controls and has terrorized religious minorities. It has released gruesome videos online showing the beheading of captives, including captured Western journalists and aid workers.

A U.S.-led coalition has been striking the group since August, and Iraqi forces launched an offensive this week to try to retake the militant-held city of Tikrit, on the main road linking Baghdad to Mosul.

Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago and expert on Iraqi art, said Thursday that the IS group seems bent on destroying objects they view as idols representing religions and cultures that don't conform to their beliefs.

"It's the deliberate destruction of a heritage and its images, intended to erase history and the identity of the people of Iraq, whether in the past or the present," Green said. "And it has a major impact on the heritage of the region."

Green noted that in many of these attacks on art, pieces that can be carried away are then sold to fund the IS group, while the larger artifacts and sculptures are destroyed at the site.
___

Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik in New York and Amanda Myers in Washington contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-06

[Scott]

If Mohammad himself didn't see the need to destroy these places, I don't see why these people do. Some of the world's great treasures can survive thousands of years, but destroyed by this group of renegades.

[than]

It's time to vitrified IS

[NeverSure]

B@zturds.

[daoyai]

If Mohammad himself didn't see the need to destroy these places, I don't see why these people do. Some of the world's great treasures can survive thousands of years, but destroyed by this group of renegades.

By mohammad's time the city had already been destroyed and burried for a thousand years... modern archaeology revealed the ruins. This news sickens me in a special way.

Edited March 6, 2015 by daoyai

[winstonc]

in the name of islam yet again...

[jobsworth]

the christians in my country england behaved in the same way.

second commandment:-

thou shalt have no graven images before me.

or

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

most of the stone circles built by the celts (we think) were destroyed.

St Columba in Iona and Lindisfarne.

it is christianity that needs to be examined.

muslims are no worse than christians and in many cases better.

it is religion itself that must take the blame.

Edited March 6, 2015 by jobsworth

[car720]

If Mohammad himself didn't see the need to destroy these places, I don't see why these people do. Some of the world's great treasures can survive thousands of years, but destroyed by this group of renegades.

Sorry to say but I don't think that Mohammad has anything to do with these animals.

What is noticeably absent from all current commentary about them is just who or what is at the core and I don't mean their frontman.

For example, if they made a caliphate tomorrow who would be the caliph?

[vogie]

the christians in my country england behaved in the same way.

second commandment:-

thou shalt have no graven images before me.

or

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

most of the stone circles built by the celts (we think) were destroyed.

St Columba in Iona and Lindisfarne.

it is christianity that needs to be examined.

muslims are no worse than christians and in many cases better.

it is religion itself that must take the blame.

Are you referring to recent incidents, I don't think so. Your contribution must be the biggest load of trite I have had the displeasure of reading in a long time.

[Steely Dan]

Actually this show of hyper-piety is completely consistent with purist Islamic thought and must be seen as an attempt to boost their credentials as true followers of Islam. Here is a piece by the Economist again forgetting the liberal party line that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Other groups of the most pious have at various times done similar. For example giving the Sphinx a nose job, burning down the library of Alexandria, destroying the giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Churches are periodically destroyed by all the main Islamist groups, the older the better as far as they are concerned.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21645749-jihadists-are-attacking-more-regions-people-destroying-historys

As an aside a recent ISIS fatwa allows their members to play table football, provided the heads are removed from all the figures.

[arjunadawn]

If Mohammad himself didn't see the need to destroy these places, I don't see why these people do. Some of the world's great treasures can survive thousands of years, but destroyed by this group of renegades.

You know, this is one of the few posts that can both go to the heart of islam and also show where it has gone astray- somewhat. While destroying relics is not unique to islam islam has made it a cornerstone of their vilest islamic expressions, variously, under many caliphs and rulers, particularly in India. While Christians have done such things also their scope of evil nihilism actually remained a bit more limited whereas Islam was spread far and wide in conquest and mayhem. These are two examples; there are numerous examples of scorched earth policies but never for the reason Islam asserts. Islam rewrites the past, not eliminates it. Islam subsumes the past and revises it over time- See Was Buddha Islamic?.

The damage that has been done to previous civilization's records to posterity is enormous. Again, islam has not always behaved in this manner and there are examples of rulers who simply permitted or allowed previous civilizations to exist or not be subsumed, at the cost of taxes or tribute- still, some avoided wholesale destruction. However, besides an attempt by al Sisi, the modern islamic world seems devoid of great leadership. I would make one plug for one other muslim ruler, however this ruler seems to have no ambitions beyond his emirate. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum is by many accounts a progressive and highly respected man, as was his father. Failing these few, I see no real moderate leadership in the islamic world.

Lastly, the practices and jurisprudence regarding what is permitted in islam is not only the practices of the prophet and companions, and the koran, but the exegesis that evolved over a long period of time by scholars. Many who wish to destroy the Pyramids, the Buddhas of Bumiyan, and Assyrian relics do argue they're authorization. (There argument is beyond my knowledge).

[sir charles IV]

A closet IS sympathizer?hope not. What's that got to do with comparing it to Christians? Show some ticker and come out already.

[arjunadawn]

Actually this show of hyper-piety is completely consistent with purist Islamic thought and must be seen as an attempt to boost their credentials as true followers of Islam. Here is a piece by the Economist again forgetting the liberal party line that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Other groups of the most pious have at various times done similar. For example giving the Sphinx a nose job, burning down the library of Alexandria, destroying the giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Churches are periodically destroyed by all the main Islamist groups, the older the better as far as they are concerned.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21645749-jihadists-are-attacking-more-regions-people-destroying-historys

As an aside a recent ISIS fatwa allows their members to play table football, provided the heads are removed from all the figures.

I made a later post then this one and I hope it doesn't seem I am apologizing or defending, its just that Scott made a valid point, and the authority for destroying and subsuming seems to have developed over time, and yet not really much time. Example: "The furthest mosque." The prophet's night ride of course took him to the furthest mosque, which of course was not Jerusalem at that time. Al Lah forbid. Remember, the Jews of Medina rejected the prophet's offer to make the qibla (direction of prayer) toward Jerusalem. This affront was not lost upon the prophet a short time later when he killed them all, nor a short time later again when he conquered and slaughtered the jews of Mecca. Factually, the furthest mosque was not that far at all as there was no islam at all in Jerusalem. Practically, the prophet would have never asserted he flew to the jewish second temple.

This was exegsis and expediency later devised by differing caliphs from Damascus as they wrestled power and sought to move the precious places, or at least seat of power. Thus the perennial reduction of a prior people's relics is the second temple and so the erection of the Noble Sanctuary was political; indeed, a military statement. At that time, and sooner, as did the romans and many before, the muslims began erecting structures on other's holy places. But it must be always present when considering the geography of regional holy sites that islam plagiarized all from judeochristianity and in so doing felt obliged to reclaim, rename, or destroy any image as it was evidence of them having gone astray contrary to the mandate of heaven- images of deity, etc.

As Islam spread education and enlightenment was snuffed out. I suppose an analysis could be made that wherever islam spread dark ages ensued, eventually- with few exceptions. Example: a capital city which raped, robed, enslaved, and imported all the learned people and artisans from elsewhere may appear in history to be an example of a golden age, but this is hardly progress. I was unaware that the muslims destroyed the library. I had thought christians did it. I am aware early on muslims turned to egypt for conquest not because they necessarily wanted to but because they militarily needed to preserve depth in their conquest plans north and elsewhere- thus Egypt got an early visit from the companions. But i thought the library was destroyed in the 4th century, not 7th.

Thank you.

[arjunadawn]

*Deleted post removed*

I used a corresponding example regarding christianity not to arrive at the dreadful conclusion you have, but to take those few minds sitting on the intellectual fence and assure them I will go on to present a valid, not one sided, argument of why Islam does what it does with regard to destroying other cultures. Whereas christians may have done this or that, or Romans to the Greeks, and so on and so on, it doesn't matter one damn bit to me! I dont live then! I live now! I want my now to be safe for me and my children. I couldn;t give a crap who says god gives them authority, exercise it in the desert, not Paris.

I dont care about moral equivalency positions such as yours; that is an academic argument, better suited to people who observe the real world, rather than live in it. In a practical world what Romans and christians did makes no difference today; I want islam to be stopped today! Now! Inherent in the islamic religious exegesis itself is the authority to nihilism. If one can also tease that argument from the jewish or christian ten commandments you then have an added burden of showing where this has significantly or currently been employed as a cornerstone or cultural warfare for the sake of annihilation only.

It is utterly preposterous to reduce your argument to such a subjective assertion that "muslims are no better than christians and in many cases better." By what standard are you employing this reasoning? We are discussing the wholesale destruction of previous civilizations today; you note another religion seemed to have done something similar once upon a time- is this the faculty you employ to state muslims are no worse than christians and if so, by what standard do you further assert muslims are in "many cases better?" Of course you cannot possibly work your way out of the intellectual hole you've dug. Your point is meaningless and betrays both a bias and a bankruptcy of facts.

"It is religion itself that must take the blame." Indeed, the steak knife the DA asserts the wife stabbed the husband in the heart with is the culprit; "jail the steak knife." The gun itself committed the crime; "the gun must be hung." When trespassing, the shoes are the bad guys, not the man who walks in the shoes. Why should your logic not equally apply here? Why would humans be given a free pass for exercising the one thing all humans and scientists agree we have, and that makes life worth living, choice- free will? I have zero use for religion but blaming religion is at best an incomplete indictment.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Scott

[Scott]

Posts have been removed or edited. Please make sure your remarks are outside the nested quote.

[Equalizer]

the christians in my country england behaved in the same way.

second commandment:-

thou shalt have no graven images before me.

or

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

most of the stone circles built by the celts (we think) were destroyed.

St Columba in Iona and Lindisfarne.

it is christianity that needs to be examined.

muslims are no worse than christians and in many cases better.

it is religion itself that must take the blame.

Well you in all honestly in recent history it i have not seen images of Christians cutting of children's heads and sticking them on poles in a park or women having their throat slit and the blood emptying into a bowl.

http://www.catholic.org/news/international/middle_east/story.php?id=56481

Christians are oppressed and persecuted in Muslim countries, Egypt. Iraq, Syria, they are not tolerated and are the first on the list of genocide when militants take over. Muslims do not experience the same fate when they reside in Europe. This situation is a big wake up call for all the do gooders who demanded we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Humanity owes it to the world to wipe these evil bastards of the face of the planet and in saying this i mean a full on invasion by every country in the world who has any interest in the future of civilization. And i mean putting all differences aside until the job is done. Unfortunately we have people like Putin who has never once stepped up to the plate and sent people on the ground when situations like, ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other terror organizations are systematically slaughtering innocent civilians of ethnic minorities and other religions. That man is as bad as them, an evil bystander. Although you may not realize it the world is becoming a smaller place and whether you like it or not it does need policing if progress is to be made. China to should step up to the plate in the name of humanity too. All the world should make it clear that this evil branch of this religion will not be allowed on this earth. Its about time this is confronted head on and hard.

[JDGRUEN]

If Mohammad himself didn't see the need to destroy these places, I don't see why these people do. Some of the world's great treasures can survive thousands of years, but destroyed by this group of renegades.

Sorry to say but I don't think that Mohammad has anything to do with these animals.

What is noticeably absent from all current commentary about them is just who or what is at the core and I don't mean their frontman.

For example, if they made a caliphate tomorrow who would be the caliph?

The ISIS leaders proclaim very loudly that they are not only representing Islam but they are the true form of Islam -- therefore they believe they are Of Islam and that is all that counts...

[lust]

Such a shame. Gets me right in the feels. IS you dirty turds, kill yourselves.

[Mosha]

Not the 1st time an islamist group has done something like this. Remember the Buddhas in Afghanistan?

[Shaunduhpostman]

V.S. Naipaul, Hindu-Indian international literary star from Barbados has an interesting take on Islam in his book Beyond Belief. In that book, essentially an almost Paul Theroux like chronicle of travels through many countries, in this case the Islamic world, he tries to demonstrate with support from interviews with top people in the various countries he visits (Iran, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, a few others, maybe Iraq and Turkey I have forgotten) and through other things he encounters that essentially much of south and western Asia was essentially colonized by Arabs and that the medium of that colonization was Islam. He argues that the faith is essentially a tool for the Arab cause and that it is ultimately Arab supremacist much in the way that one could argue that the Mormon faith is heavily white supremacist in its rationalizations for the European conquest of the Americas. I don't know enough about Islam to make a judgement, but it wouldn't surprise me if Naipaul were right given the prevalence of bigotry, intolerance and general narrowness that runs through most of humanity.

[Steely Dan]

Regarding Alexandria, yes of course it has been burnt several times. I was thinking of the recent spree of destruction that followed Morsi being ousted.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/culture/2013/08/egypt-morsi-ouster-islamists-erase-cultural-identity.html#

Not forgetting AQIP burning books at Timbuktu

[MickGC]

Not the 1st time an islamist group has done something like this. Remember the Buddhas in Afghanistan?

Yes. That was mentioned in the OP.

If you look at the history of most of the foreign IS fighters they were either converted thieves, rapists, drug dealers or pedophiles. They produce most of the horrific videos. A nice bunch of fanatical religious morons to add to the muslim mix. The mongrels are building mosques in north and N/E Thailand now.

[Yahooka]

the christians in my country england behaved in the same way.

second commandment:-

thou shalt have no graven images before me.

or

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image

most of the stone circles built by the celts (we think) were destroyed.

St Columba in Iona and Lindisfarne.

it is christianity that needs to be examined.

muslims are no worse than christians and in many cases better.

it is religion itself that must take the blame.

But we managed to climb out of the pits of apathy and enlighten ourselves centuries ago compared to the retarted muslim extremists..............they will NEVER do it,nor will they have any interest to do so !!!

[callaway]

A friend at work just showed me a photo of children (approximatelty 15 or so) inside a cage. "It states" they will be burnt to death due to their parents not believing in what ISIS is trying to instil. I think these animals should have the full force of the free world come down upon them. How could anyone justify these sort of atrocities? Whatever it takes these animals must be stricken from this world. They have no place in it.

[callaway]

Not the 1st time an islamist group has done something like this. Remember the Buddhas in Afghanistan?

Yes. That was mentioned in the OP.

If you look at the history of most of the foreign IS fighters they were either converted thieves, rapists, drug dealers or pedophiles. They produce most of the horrific videos. A nice bunch of fanatical religious morons to add to the muslim mix. The mongrels are building mosques in north and N/E Thailand now.

In Seville in Spain a mosque was going to be built. After several large protests against it the local government said it could not do anything as the land was privately owned. Therefore the building of the mosque was going to go ahead. Some smart person came up with the idea to kill a pig and bury it on the site and throw the blood around the area. Consequently the mosque could not be built as it could not be erected on pig tainted soil. All the protests failed but for one pig......

[ourmanflint]

I just hope when ISIS is consigned to the history books, every single isis fighter is put on trial for genocide, rape and whatever else they have done together. Not a single one should be left unpunished, and we should leave the punishments to those who have lost family and friends. Im sure the turnout would be quite good for a traditional stoning, and the sale of false beards will go through the roof.

[arjunadawn]

V.S. Naipaul, Hindu-Indian international literary star from Barbados has an interesting take on Islam in his book Beyond Belief. In that book, essentially an almost Paul Theroux like chronicle of travels through many countries, in this case the Islamic world, he tries to demonstrate with support from interviews with top people in the various countries he visits (Iran, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, a few others, maybe Iraq and Turkey I have forgotten) and through other things he encounters that essentially much of south and western Asia was essentially colonized by Arabs and that the medium of that colonization was Islam. He argues that the faith is essentially a tool for the Arab cause and that it is ultimately Arab supremacist much in the way that one could argue that the Mormon faith is heavily white supremacist in its rationalizations for the European conquest of the Americas. I don't know enough about Islam to make a judgement, but it wouldn't surprise me if Naipaul were right given the prevalence of bigotry, intolerance and general narrowness that runs through most of humanity.

You are correct, as is your source. The Arabic language itself is not particularly remarkable nor possessing unsurpassed beauty for concepts nor the abstract or arts. Yet once the liturgy of islam was required to only be in Arabic, and the liturgy was spread by the sword or death, this ensured the survival of the language itself, and the exporting, more or less, of the arab culture. So it is not uncommon at all to meet people worlds away from arabia who can cite koranic verse in arabic, not speak arabic per se, and having never met an arab. It is beyond dispute that islam is a religion that elevates the faithful and does not accommodate rather demonizes all others. In this regard it is supremacist; thus, in this regard arab supremacy spread throughout the islamic world. My logic may have holes but I think it is fairly close to right.

[Lissos]

ISIS are essentially imposing their own kind of 'year zero' on the region.

Not only is Sykes-Picot on the cards to be erased in its entirety, but non Islamic heritage too.

Muhammad's toppling of the idols within the Kaaba upon conquest of Mecca is probably where ISIS get their 'inspiration' for this act of cleansing (as they will no doubt see it). I feel sickened by the destruction of heritage, wherever it is in the world or whoever is carrying it out. In British history, most of our Castles which allegedly had survived surprisingly intact since the Norman era, took a major battering during the Civil War years when re-occupied as military defenses by Royalist forces. In the vast majority of cases, Cromwell, upon conquering these fortresses, instructed for them to be destroyed so they couldn't be used again, a move that was perfectly logical in the circumstances of the time but these days seems like such a loss. Corfe Castle in Dorset is one example, blown apart by Cromwell's sappers, its towers spectacularly splayed and toppled in all directions today. Heritage that serves military purpose or doubles for that is more understandably a victim of war, but Cromwell also orded the melting down of huge amounts of Royal relics stretching back to the earliest days of Kings on this island. So much of ancient history is a question mark probably because we only see the few remaining dots here and there, as connecting relics were all destroyed during conflicts. Heritage is a relatively recent concept.

[NeverSure]

What's up with the PC stuff from officials and the press again still?

From the OP:

"Jack Green, chief curator of the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago and expert on Iraqi art, said Thursday that the IS group seems bent on destroying objects they view as idols representing religions and cultures that don't conform to their beliefs."

He means Jews.

Yesterday they bulldozed the City of Nineveh including Jonah's tomb. Jonah is revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews although he was a Jew. He wrote the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament, which the Muslims also have.

Although the whole world will mourn the destruction of some of the oldest relics of civilization we have in situ, this is primarily an assault on the Jews.

This was put up by The Daily Mail:

[Scott]

Off-topic posts removed.