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| human-headed winged bull (photo credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen) |
ISIS is not only intolerant of people who do not conform to
its extreme religious belief; it is also averse to things that they deem
idolatrous. The latest victims of its atrocities are the Mosul Public Library
and the Mosul Museum which housed precious books and priceless artifacts and
other things of historic value.
On February 25, 2015, ISIS forces broke into the Mosul
Museum which housed several statues and artifacts that date back to the ancient
Assyrian, Akkadian, Greco-Roman and Islamic empires around Mesopotamia. That
region which is identified with the Fertile Crescent is considered one of the
cradles of civilization on which agriculture, writing and other fields of human
endeavor developed. Members of the ISIS used sledge hammers and electric
drills to pound and smash artifacts and other properties inside the museum.
Also on the last week
of February 2015, ISIS bombed the Mosul Public Library and burned about 8,000
rare books and manuscripts. ISIS considers those reading materials as promoting
infidelity and disobedience to Allah. Efforts by some local residents to
persuade the ISIS members not to destroy the library failed.
People around the world were horrified with the incidents considering
that the books are there to promote knowledge, and the artifacts and other
historical items are not objects of worship in the modern time. Those objects
are there as legacy of the past and lesson to link us to our world’s history. The
loss of the books and artifacts such as the gigantic human-headed winged bull because
of intentional destruction is a loss not only to the Iraqi people but also to
other people of the world.
During the US-led invasion of 2003, there were looting of
books and artifacts. But there were people who were able to save some of them by
hiding them in their homes. However, at present, the ISIS warned people that such
acts are now punishable by death.
The ISIS is notorious for its brutality to people who do not
share their views. And places that are deemed sacred to others such as churches
and mosques are not spared. Among those destroyed last year were the church of
the Virgin Mary, and the mosques at the tombs of prophet Younis or Jonah, Prophet
Jirjis or George and Prophet Seth.
In the religious traditions of Muslims, Christians and Jews Seth
was the third son of Adam and Eve. Jonah in the tradition was swallowed by a
whale because of his defiance to God’s order to go to Nineveh and prophesy against
it. Inside the fish belly, Jonah repented and pleaded to God to save him. After
three days the fish spewed Jonah out, and he then proceeded to follow God’s
order. In the Christian tradition, the story of Jonah relates to the death and
resurrection of Christ.
The Mosque which was a site of an ancient church that
contained the tomb of Jonah as well as the other mosques at the tomb of the
prophets was destroyed because people made them as shrines and places for
pilgrimage. ISIS considers the practice as idolatry because people divert their
worship from Allah who is the only one who deserves it. The ISIS considers the shrines
as sites of apostasy instead of places for prayer.
ISIS' aim is to establish an Islamic caliphate and impose
Sharia law. In consonance to those objectives it has to purge all practices and
relics which do not conform to their radical religious views. Many people
around the world have condemned the acts of the terrorist group, and Muslim
religious and political leaders have disowned it. Some of the Muslim nations even
joined forces with the western world to fight and eliminate the ISIS in Syria
and Iraq.
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