ISIS blows up ancient Burial site and Mosque of Jonah (of the whale story) in Mosul

Adamantium

http://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/galleryformatter_slide/2014/07/24/mosul%20mosque2.jpg

http://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/galleryformatter_slide/2014/07/24/mosul%20mosque.jpg

BAGHDAD: Islamic extremist militants blew up a revered Muslim shrine traditionally said to be the burial place of the Prophet Jonah in Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, on Thursday, residents of the city said.

The residents said the Islamic State militants, who overran Mosul in June and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law on the city, first ordered everyone out of the Mosque of the Prophet Younes, or Jonah, then blew it up.

The mosque was built on an archaeological site dating back to 8th century BC and is said to be the burial place of the prophet, who in stories from both the Bible and Qur’an is swallowed by a whale.

It was renovated in the 1990s under Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein and until the recent militant blitz that engulfed Mosul, remained a popular destination for religious pilgrims from around the world.

Several nearby houses were also damaged by the blast, said the residents, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared for their own safety. The residents told The Associated Press that the militants claimed the mosque had become a place for apostasy, not prayer. The extremists also blew up another mosque nearby on Thursday, Imam Aoun Bin Al-Hassan mosque, they said.

The attack came hours after Iraqi lawmakers elected veteran Kurdish politician Fouad Massoum as the nation’s new president, as they struggle to form a new government amid the militant blitz that has engulfed much of northern and western Iraq.

Iraq is facing its worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops amid the blitz offensive last month by Al-Qaeda breakaway Islamic State group that captured large swaths of land in the country’s west and north, including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul. The militants have also seized a huge chunk of territory straddling the Iraq-Syria border, and have declared a self-styled caliphate in the territory they control

so...militant Islamic extremists blow up mosques now? what?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIaq4RKwVt4

I heard about this group a few weeks ago and assumed that they were as powerful as teenager wannabe Anoyomous in his basement, with that map of their, I laughed.

catallus

I read this this morning and I'd say we have to take anything said about that group in particular and what's actually happening in Iraq in general with a huge pinch of salt.

wes

Adamantium wrote: »

so...militant Islamic extremists blow up mosques now? what?

They do this all the time, be the Mosques, Sunni, Sufi, or Shia. There a rather intolerant lot.

Hande hoche!

Reminds me of the Taliban and the giant Buddhas.

Spunge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6GLoKkkCtY

mickydoomsux

wes wrote: »

They do this all the time, be the Mosques, Sunni, Sufi, or Shia. There a rather intolerant lot.

Their religion of peace really does seem to have a lot of warring factions and horrendous punishments for perceived sleights.

Hande hoche!

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Their religion of peace really does seem to have a lot of warring factions and horrendous punishments for perceived sleights.

Cue mention of crusades, Salem witch trials, Madeleine laundries, etc.

Manic Moran

It's a shame. I drove by the tomb almost every day on my commute about ten years ago, it was quite possibly the best thing in the city. The locals took care of it, it was in wonderful condition, the tomb was on the top of a terraced hill. I am very disappointed (frankly, disgusted) that this shower have decided to blow it up.

And yes, it does remind me of the Buddhas. I don't know how well they'll be able to restore this one. It obviously wasn't built at the time Jonah died, so a rebuild, once the city is back under civilized control, shouldn't be out of the question.

Then again, on the scale of things, the recent decree that all females should undergo FGM is even more concerning. If this new Iraqi President has any influence and can convince the PM to create a more inclusive government, I'll be more than happy to see the US return to Iraq and get rid of these nutters.

My Loch Ness Monster at the tomb: http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/nessjonah.JPG

kneemos

No doubt if the US could breath life back into Saddam they'd be more than happy with his brand of madness over what's happening at the moment.

Muise...

Manic Moran wrote: »

It's a shame. I drove by the tomb almost every day on my commute about ten years ago, it was quite possibly the best thing in the city. The locals took care of it, it was in wonderful condition, the tomb was on the top of a terraced hill. I am very disappointed (frankly, disgusted) that this shower have decided to blow it up.

And yes, it does remind me of the Buddhas. I don't know how well they'll be able to restore this one. It obviously wasn't built at the time Jonah died, so a rebuild, once the city is back under civilized control, shouldn't be out of the question.

Then again, on the scale of things, the recent decree that all females should undergo FGM is even more concerning. If this new Iraqi President has any influence and can convince the PM to create a more inclusive government, I'll be more than happy to see the US return to Iraq and get rid of these nutters.

My Loch Ness Monster at the tomb: http://data.primeportal.net/iraq/nessjonah.JPG

Art, architecture, music (in Mali insurgent Islamist nutters banned music, in a culture of the most exquisite guitar playing and proto blues/rock heritage) and women's faces and women's sexual pleasure (and through this everybody's pleasure) - these aren't actually religious fundamentalists but a crazed crusade against joy. :mad:

keano_afc

Its appalling whats happening there and its getting little to no coverage in the press. Christians have been there since Jonah went there and now for the first time in thousands of years they've been expelled.

ScumLord

I understand that the Muslim faith frowns upon idolising anything. I can appreciate it too when you see the idolisation that goes on in the Catholic church. But this kind of thing just makes no sense to me, I don't understand how they can attack their own heritage like that, the tomb of their profit, it just makes no sense. I'm disgusted, I can't imagine how decent Muslims must feel about this, it must be heart breaking and scary to have people like that move in around you.

Karl Stein

Medieval scum. Iraq was probably more stable under Saddam than it has been since the US et al invaded in 2003.

The disaster that keeps on taking. What a mess.

Victor

keano_afc wrote: »

Christians have been there since Jonah went there and now for the first time in thousands of years they've been expelled.

Christianity wasn't formed until 800 years after Jonah.

Karl Stein wrote: »

Iraq was probably more stable under Saddam than it has been since the US et al invaded in 2003.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but it is hard to say that. Saddam brought purges, brutalisation of the population, the Iran-Iraq War, the Tanker War, the Kuwait War and wars with the Shia and Kurds in the 1990s and finally the Iraq War.

ScumLord

Victor wrote: »

I'm not saying you are wrong, but it is hard to say that. Saddam brought purges, brutalisation of the population, the Iran-Iraq War, the Tanker War, the Kuwait War and wars with the Shia and Kurds in the 1990s and finally the Iraq War.

At least Saddam's terror was somewhat confined to your standard brutal dictatorship stuff. These guys are essentially erasing the regions history by carrying out acts like these. That mosque will just be historical text from now on, the people in that area have lost a link to their past.

Piliger

This kind of thing used to bother me but not any more. These primitive muslim societies haven't contributed anything to the world or to society for a millennia, and the value of these ancient edifices are long gone. Blow them all up I say ... we in the real civilisations of the world have moved on. by a thousand years.

Harry Palmr

So then no chance of Simon Cowell heading to Iraq to spread his word...ah well.

ScumLord

Piliger wrote: »

This kind of thing used to bother me but not any more. These primitive muslim societies haven't contributed anything to the world or to society for a millennia, and the value of these ancient edifices are long gone. Blow them all up I say ... we in the real civilisations of the world have moved on. by a thousand years.

As a human being I see all these buildings as part of my heritage as well. Mosques of that era were the pinnacle of architecture at the time, it represents a time in human history when great leaps in science and mathematics were made. The people that built that mosque had a huge influence on the modern world we live in, and now that link has been destroyed.

It's wrong in so many ways, we can add it to the list of great buildings that have been destroyed so that all future generations are left with is a pile of rubble and ruins.

iDave

Havent they demanded all women in their control go through FGM?

Karl Stein

Piliger wrote: »

These primitive muslim societies haven't contributed anything to the world or to society for a millennia, and the value of these ancient edifices are long gone. Blow them all up I say

This is exactly the type of disgusting attitude that led to the destruction of Iraq by 'civilised' Western 'Christian' nations in 2003.

Sick.

NewCorkLad

Karl Stein wrote: »

This is exactly the type of disgusting attitude that led to the destruction of Iraq by 'civilised' Western 'Christian' nations in 2003.

Sick.

The good old USA have a lot to answer for throughout the Middle East

Friend Computer

Piliger wrote: »

This kind of thing used to bother me but not any more. These primitive muslim societies haven't contributed anything to the world or to society for a millennia, and the value of these ancient edifices are long gone. Blow them all up I say ... we in the real civilisations of the world have moved on. by a thousand years.

An instance where comparisons to Nazism are entirely justified.

buried

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Reminds me of the Taliban and the giant Buddhas.

Very similar to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan. The Taliban's decision to destroy those huge statues was taken after a heavy lobbying campaign by foreign militants inside Afghanistan supported by a series of fatwas sent from Wahhabi clerics in Saudi Arabia (fatwa of Sheikh Ali Bin Khodeir al-Khodeir - Feb 2001, reproduced in Jacquard, Les Archives Secretes d'al-Qaida, p 312)
I would not be surprised this vile crime on civilization sprang from something similar.

ScumLord

buried wrote: »

Very similar to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

At least that made some sort of sense, different religion and all. Blowing up their own Mosques and desecrating the tomb of their own profit just makes no sense at all.

Donkey Oaty

iDave wrote: »

Havent they demanded all women in their control go through FGM?

They're insane enough to demand anything, but this particular story is controversial - they've denied it, and there are doubts about whether it is accurate. Guardian report here.

P_1

ISIS are disgusting excuses for human beings. Fine you want to follow a particular strange definition of Islam, go for it but fcuk you if you want to force others into following it too.

Piliger

Karl Stein wrote: »

This is exactly the type of disgusting attitude that led to the destruction of Iraq by 'civilised' Western 'Christian' nations in 2003.

Sick.

No it's not an attitude. It's a fact and your choice to ignore it is your own. Your complete nonsense about Iraq only undermines your post.

Piliger

Friend Computer wrote: »

An instance where comparisons to Nazism are entirely justified.

What a complete joke.

Pyr0

I don't care very much for religion itself but I acknowledge it's affect on our cultural and artistic development as a species, i feel sad at the loss of such ancient structures and the history surrounding them, you can't just rebuild something like that.

They say to really destroy a people you need to destroy not just their bodies but their history too, it's been attempted time and time again by so many creeds and ideologies, I can't see it ever stopping.

Hopefully (As with other extreme ideologies) somebody will step in a put a stop to all this fanatical killing and burning.

Muise...

ScumLord wrote: »

At least that made some sort of sense, different religion and all. Blowing up their own Mosques and desecrating the tomb of their own profit just makes no sense at all.

To outsiders, our sectarian conflicts in the North look utterly senseless (because they are...). I was living in France in 2001, and had to "explain" why people were lining the streets in a part of Belfast to spit on children on their way to school through an area occupied by the other sect. I'd say in every country with a Muslim majority, Shia or Sunni, this kind of thing makes almost everyone angry and sad.

Pyr0

Piliger wrote: »

This kind of thing used to bother me but not any more. These primitive muslim societies haven't contributed anything to the world or to society for a millennia, and the value of these ancient edifices are long gone. Blow them all up I say ... we in the real civilisations of the world have moved on. by a thousand years.

They have contributed a lot to the world and society. For a long period of time the Muslim world were at the forefront of scientific, cultural and mathematical development, it wasn't until the 16th/17th centuries that Western Europe began to catch up in these fields.