27 February 2015 A.D. MOSUL: ISIS Rampage—Smashing 3000-Year Old Art & Books-Destructions
27 February 2015 A.D. MOSUL: ISIS Rampage—Smashing 3000-Year Old Art & Books-Destructions
ISIS thugs take a hammer to civilisation: Priceless 3,000-year-old artworks smashed to pieces in minutes as militants destroy Mosul museum
Islamic State thugs have destroyed a collection of priceless statues and sculptures in Iraq dating back thousands of years.
A man shown in the video said the items were being
destroyed because they promoted idolatry
Robinson, Julian. “ISIS thugs take a hammer to civilization.” Daily Mail. 26 Feb 2015. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2970270/Islamic-State-fighters-destroy-antiquities-Iraq-video.html?ito=social-facebook. Accessed 26 Feb 2015.
ISIS thugs take a hammer to civilisation: Priceless 3,000-year-old artworks smashed to pieces in minutes as militants destroy Mosul museum
- Extremists used power
drills and sledgehammers to smash ancient items
- They wrecked a series of
3,000-year-old statues at museum in Mosul, Iraq
- One vandal says items
being destroyed because they promoted idolatry
- Comes after thugs
destroyed thousands of books at Mosul Public Library
Islamic State thugs have destroyed a collection of priceless statues and sculptures in Iraq dating back thousands of years.
Extremists used sledgehammers and power
drills to smash ancient artwork as they rampaged through a museum in the
northern city of Mosul.
Video footage shows a group of bearded men in
the Nineveh Museum using tools to wreck 3,000-year-old statues after pushing
them over.
Scroll down for video
Extremists used sledgehammers and power drills to smash
ancient artifacts at a museum in the northern city of Mosul
Militant uses a power tool to destroy a winged-bull
Assyrian protective deity at the Ninevah Museum in Mosul, Iraq. The statue
dates back to the 9th century B.C.
One of the items, depicting a winged-bull
Assyrian protective deity, dates back to the 9th century B.C.
A man shown in the video said the items were
being destroyed because they promoted idolatry.
'The Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues
and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after
him,' the unidentified man said.
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The extremist group has destroyed a number of
shrines - including Muslim holy sites - in a bid to eliminate what it views as
heresy.
Militants are also believed to have sold
ancient artwork on the black market in order to finance their bloody campaign across
the region.
The video bore the logo of the ISIS group's
media arm and was posted on a Twitter account used by the group.
Yesterday it was revealed how terrorists had
blown up the Mosul Public Library, sending 10,000 books and more than 700 rare
manuscripts up in flames.
Leading members of Mosul society reportedly
tried to stop the fanatics destroying the building, but failed.
The director of the library, Ghanim al-Ta'an,
said that the extremists used homemade bombs in the attack, which took place on
Sunday.
He told Middle Eastern website Geran: 'ISIS
militants bombed the Mosul Public Library. They used improvised explosive
devices.'
Presumed destroyed are the Central Library's
collection of Iraqi newspapers dating to the early 20th century, maps and books
from the Ottoman Empire and book collections contributed by around 100 of
Mosul's establishment families.
Large segments of the priceless winged-bull Assyrian
protective deity are hurled to the ground as militants smash it to pieces
Isis first invaded the Central Library in
January. Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the
biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around
2,000 books - including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on
sports, health, culture and science - into six pickup trucks. They left only
Islamic texts.
'These books promote infidelity and call for
disobeying Allah. So they will be burned,' a bearded militant in traditional
Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby
who spoke to The Associated Press.
The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he feared retaliation, said the Islamic State group official made his
impromptu address as others stuffed books into empty flour bags.
Since the Islamic State group seized a third
of Iraq and neighboring Syria, they have sought to purge society of everything
that doesn't conform to their violent interpretation of Islam.
They have already destroyed many
archaeological relics, deeming them pagan, and even Islamic sites considered
idolatrous. Increasingly books are in the firing line.
Iraqis look at books on al-Mutanabi Street, home to the
city's book market in central Baghdad. Iraq is home to a great many culturally
significant books and manuscripts
Mosul, the biggest city in the Islamic State
group's self-declared caliphate, boasts a relatively educated, diverse
population that seeks to preserve its heritage sites and libraries.
In the chaos that followed the U.S.-led
invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, residents near the Central
Library hid some of its centuries-old manuscripts in their own homes to prevent
their theft or destruction by looters.
But this time, the Islamic State group has
made the penalty for such actions death.
A University of Mosul history professor, who
spoke on condition he not be named because of his fear of the Islamic State
group, said the extremists started wrecking the collections of other public
libraries in December.
He reported particularly heavy damage to the
archives of a Sunni Muslim library, the library of the 265-year-old Latin
Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and the Mosul Museum Library with
works dating back to 5000 BC.
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