Islamists destroying Timbuktu’s history

I wish I could say this was a surprise . . . The Islamic militants who have taken control of Mali, including the fabled city of Timbuktu, have begun a spree of destruction. In this case, smashing 15th-Century and earlier tombs and Sufi mosques.

Once again the world is watching with increasing alarm as religious extremists destroy centuries-old historical sites because they find them offensive.

In 2001 it was the towering statues of Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, that were turned into rubble by the Taliban.

Now, Muslim extremists in Mali are pillaging tombs and other sites sacred to Sufis in Timbuktu the “city of 33 saints” and a city so important to trade in past centuries that it inspired the expression “from here to Timbuktu” — a “metaphor for exotic, distant lands,” as Trek Nature writes.

NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton tells our Newscast Desk that witnesses say Ansar Dine militants have even smashed the sacred entrance to Timbuktu’s 15th century Sidia Yahya mosque. Its door, local Sufis believe, must remain closed. “Tradition has it that that particular portal would only open on the last day of the world,”

Time magazine writes.

On Monday’s Talk of the Nation, Ofeibea told host Neal Conan that Ansar Dine is imposing Islamic law — Shariah — in Timbuktu and towns across north Mali “and they say that these tombs, these mausoleums of Muslim saints, are idolatrous.” That’s the same excuse the Taliban gave about destroying the Buddhas.

“These tombs and these historic sites in Timbuktu go back to the 15th century,” Ofeibea added. “So this is not only Timbuktu’s history, it’s Africa’s history.”

The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee has “condemned the acts of destruction of mausoleums in the World Heritage property of Timbuktu and called for an end to these ‘repugnant acts.’ “

While the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor is calling it a “war crime”, and UNESCO is condemning the destruction, nobody is actually going to do anything about it except wring their hands helplessly . . . much as they did when similar fanatics destroyed centuries-old Buddha statues in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Ansar Dine, the Islamic fundamentalist sect controlling the region, says that “the only tribunal we recognize is the divine court of Shariah,” not the United Nations or the world court. He continued, “The destruction is a divine order” not to build on top of graves, so that people don’t get confused and venerate saints as if they are gods.

This command, direct from Mohammad himself, tells us how much faith he had in his people to understand basic concepts and follow simple commands.

Gotta give him credit, he knew his people.

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