Artist & Heritage Victims of Kuffarphobia Discussions - The 4 Freedoms Library
2024-03-29T07:39:55Z
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Ancient Sites Destroyed by ISIS
tag:4freedoms.com,2021-10-09:3766518:Topic:273819
2021-10-09T03:01:12.894Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
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<div class="Caption__Wrapper"><div class="Caption Caption--hideEndBug"><div class="Caption__TextWrapper"><div class="Caption__Text"><span class="Truncate Truncate--collapsed"><span><span class="RichText">The ancient city of Palmyra, located in war-torn Syria, flourished as a Roman trading outpost around A.D. 200. ISIS militants seized it in May, and are destroying some of its historic buildings.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="RichText Caption__Credit">PHOTOGRAPH BY YOUSSEF BADAWI, EPA/COBIS</span></div>
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<div class="ResponsiveWrapper"><div class="Article__Headline"><h1 class="Article__Headline__Title"><strong>Here Are the Ancient Sites ISIS Has Damaged and Destroyed</strong></h1>
<p class="Article__Headline__Desc">Shocking destruction in the Syrian city of Palmyra is part of the militant group's ongoing campaign against archaeology.</p>
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<div class="Article__Header__Meta"><div class="Byline__Content"><div class="Byline__Group"><span class="Byline__ByCopy">BY</span><span class="Byline__AuthorRow"><span class="Byline__AuthorContainer"><span class="RichText Byline__Author Byline__Author--withDesc">ANDREW CURRY</span><span class="Byline__Meta Byline__Meta--description">NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Byline__TimestampWrapper"><div class="Byline__Meta Byline__Meta--publishDate">PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1, 2015</div>
<div class="Byline__ReadTime Byline__Meta"><span class="Byline__Bullet">•<span> </span></span>12 MIN READ</div>
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<div><p>Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria continue their war on the region’s cultural heritage, attacking archaeological sites with<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150106-isis-bulldozes-assyrian-palace-nimrud-iraq-archaeology/"><span> </span>bulldozers</a><span> </span>and explosives.</p>
<p>The so-called Islamic State (ISIS) released a video that shocked the world last month by showing the fiery destruction of the Temple of Baalshamin, one of the best-preserved ruins at<span> </span><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150826-syria-palmyra-islamic-state-isis-archaeology-history/">the Syrian site of Palmyra</a>. Last weekend, explosions were reported at another Palmyra temple, dedicated to the ancient god Baal; a United Nation agency says satellite images show<span> </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/world/middleeast/isis-militants-severely-damage-temple-of-baal-in-palmyra.html">that larger temple has largely been destroyed</a>.</p>
<p>The destruction is part of a propaganda campaign that includes videos of<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150227-islamic-militants-destroy-statues-mosul-iraq-video-archaeology/"><span> </span>militants rampaging through Iraq's Mosul Museum</a><span> </span>with pickaxes and sledgehammers, and the dynamiting of centuries-old Christian and Muslim shrines.</p>
<p>ISIS controls large stretches of Syria, along with northern and western Iraq. There's little to stop its militants from plundering and destroying sites under their control in a region known as the cradle of civilization.</p>
<p>The militant group is just one of many factions fighting for control of Syria, where a civil war has left more than 230,000 dead and millions more homeless.</p>
<p>The group claims the destruction of ancient sites is religiously motivated; Its militants have targeted well-known ancient sites along with more modern graves and shrines belonging to other Muslim sects, citing idol worship to justify their actions. At the same time, ISIS has used looting as a<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140626-isis-insurgents-syria-iraq-looting-antiquities-archaeology/"><span> </span>moneymaking venture</a><span> </span>to finance military operations. </p>
<p>(<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150702-ISIS-Palmyra-destruction-salafism-sunni-shiite-sufi-Islamic-State/">Read: ISIS Destruction of Ancient Sites Hits Mostly Muslim Targets</a>.)</p>
<p>“It’s both propagandistic and sincere,” says Columbia University historian Christopher Jones, who has<span> </span><a href="https://gatesofnineveh.wordpress.com/iraq-heritage-crisis-news">chronicled the damage on his blog</a>. “They see themselves as recapitulating the early history of Islam.”</p>
<p>A guide to cultural sites that ISIS has damaged or destroyed so far:</p>
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<h2>Palmyra</h2>
<p>Palmyra thrived for centuries in the desert east of Damascus as an oasis and stop for caravans on the Silk Road. Part of the Roman Empire, it was a thriving, wealthy metropolis. The city-state reached its peak in the late 3rd century, when it was ruled by Queen Zenobia and briefly rebelled against Rome.</p>
<p>Zenobia failed, and Palmyra was re-conquered and destroyed by Roman armies in A.D. 273. Its colonnaded avenues and impressive temples were preserved by the desert climate, and in the 20th century the city was one of Syria’s biggest tourist destinations.</p>
<p>(<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150826-syria-palmyra-islamic-state-isis-archaeology-history/">Read: How Ancient Palmyra, Now in ISIS's Grip, Grew Rich and Powerful</a>.)</p>
<p>ISIS seized the modern town of Palmyra and the ancient ruins nearby were seized in May. The militants initially promised to leave the site’s columns and temples untouched. Those promises were empty: In August,<span> </span><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150820-syria-archaeologist-isis-protecting-artifacts/">they publicly executed Khaled al-Asaad</a>, a Syrian archaeologist who oversaw excavations at the site for decades, and hung his headless body from a column.</p>
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<div class="Image__Wrapper Image__Wrapper--relative"><img alt="Isis allegedly blowing up part of Palmyra" class="" src="https://i.natgeofe.com/n/3eb7edf5-6678-4921-862e-5068a46f49be/2palmyraagain.jpg?w=600&h=338"/></div>
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<div class="Caption__Wrapper"><div class="Caption"><div class="Caption__TextWrapper"><div class="Caption__Text"><span class="Truncate Truncate--collapsed"><span><span class="RichText">The Temple of Baal Shamin at Palmyra was attacked last month by ISIS fighters using improvised explosives. The grou...</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="RichText Caption__Credit">PHOTOGRAPH BY KYODO, AP</span></div>
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<p>And the group released photos last month of militants rigging the 1,900-year-old Temple of Baalshamin with explosives and blowing it up. It was one of Palmyra’s best-preserved buildings, originally dedicated to a Phoenician storm god. Now it is nothing but rubble.</p>
<p>Just days later, explosions were reported at the Temple of Baal, a nearby structure that was one of the site’s largest, and a<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/world/middleeast/isis-militants-severely-damage-temple-of-baal-in-palmyra.html"><span> </span>United Nations agency says the building was flattened</a>.</p>
<h2>Mar Elian Monastery</h2>
<p>The Christian monastery was captured in August, when ISIS militants captured the Syrian town of al-Qaryatain near Palmyra. Dedicated to a 4th-century saint, it was an important pilgrimage site and sheltered hundreds of Syrian Christians. Bulldozers were reportedly used to topple its walls, and ISIS posted pictures of the destruction on Twitter.</p>
<h2>Apamea</h2>
<p>A rich Roman-era trading city,<a href="http://www.sacred-destinations.com/syria/apamea"><span> </span>Apamea</a><span> </span>has been badly looted since the beginning of Syria's civil war, before ISIS appeared. Satellite imagery shows dozens of pits dug across the site; previously unknown Roman mosaics have reportedly been excavated and removed for sale. ISIS is said to take a cut from sales of ancient artifacts, making tens of millions of dollars to fund their operations.</p>
<h2>Dura-Europos</h2>
<p>A Greek settlement on the Euphrates not far from Syria's border with Iraq,<span> </span><a href="http://www.sacred-destinations.com/syria/dura-europos">Dura-Europos</a><span> </span>later became one of Rome's easternmost outposts. It housed the world's oldest known Christian church, a beautifully decorated synagogue, and many other temples and Roman-era buildings. Satellite imagery shows a cratered landscape inside the city's mud-brick walls, evidence of widespread destruction by looters.</p>
<h2>Mari</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/MesopotamiaMari.htm">Mari</a><span> </span>flourished in the Bronze Age, between 3000 and 1600 B.C. Archaeologists have discovered palaces, temples, and extensive archives written on clay tablets that shed light on the early days of civilization in the region. According to reports from locals and satellite imagery, the site, especially the royal palace, is being looted systematically.</p>
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<div class="Image__Wrapper Image__Wrapper--relative"><img alt="the Temple of Bel in Syria" class="" src="https://i.natgeofe.com/n/59ca526e-22a9-4e6a-b19e-d9d8372a973a/3isisarch.jpg?w=2560&h=1920"/></div>
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<div class="Caption__Wrapper"><div class="Caption"><div class="Caption__TextWrapper"><div class="Caption__Text"><span class="Truncate Truncate--collapsed"><span><span class="RichText">The Temple of Baal was one of the main attractions at Palmyra, a Roman-era trading outpost in the desert northeast of Damascus, Syria. A UN agency says it was mostly flattened over the weekend by explosions detonated by ISIS.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="RichText Caption__Credit">PHOTOGRAPH BY SANDRA AUGER, REUTERS</span></div>
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<h2>Hatra</h2>
<p>Built in the third century B.C.,<a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/277"><span> </span>Hatra</a><span> </span>was the capital of an independent kingdom on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Its combination of Greek- and Roman-influenced architecture and Eastern features testify to its prominence as a trading center on the Silk Road. Hatra was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.</p>
<p>In 2014, Hatra was taken over by ISIS and reportedly used as an ammo dump and training camp. A video released by ISIS in April 2015 showed fighters using sledgehammers and automatic weapons to destroy sculptures in several of the site’s largest buildings. "The destruction of Hatra marks a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing underway in Iraq," UNESCO head<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/07/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-hatra-idUSKBN0M30GR20150307"><span> </span>Irina Bokova said at the time</a>.</p>
<h2>Nineveh</h2>
<p>Ancient Assyria was one of the first true empires, expanding aggressively across the Middle East and controlling a vast stretch of the ancient world between 900 and 600 B.C. The Assyrian kings ruled their realm from a series of capitals in what is today northern Iraq.<a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1465/"><span> </span>Nineveh</a><span> </span>was one of them, flourishing under the Assyrian emperor<a href="http://www.ancient.eu/sennacherib/"><span> </span>Sennacherib</a><span> </span>around 700 B.C. At one point, Nineveh was the largest city in the world.</p>
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<div class="Caption__Wrapper"><div class="Caption"><span class="RichText Caption__Credit">NG MAPS</span><div class="Caption__Meta Caption__Meta--bottom"><span class="RichText Caption__Meta__Text">SOURCE: INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR</span></div>
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<p>Its location on the outskirts of Mosul—part of the modern city is built over Nineveh's ruins—put it in ISIS's crosshairs when the group took over the city in 2014. Many of the site's sculptures were housed in the Mosul Museum (see entry below), and some were damaged during the rampage through the museum documented on video. Men were also shown smashing half-human, half-animal guardian statues called lamassus on Nineveh's ancient Nirgal Gate. “I’m not sure there’s much left to destroy in Mosul,” says Columbia’s Jones.</p>
<h2>Mosul Museum and Libraries</h2>
<p>Reports of looting at Mosul's libraries and universities began to surface almost as soon as ISIS occupied the city last summer. Centuries-old manuscripts were stolen, and thousands of books disappeared into the shadowy international art market. Mosul University's library was burned in December. In late February,<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/26/isis-destroys-thousands-books-libraries"><span> </span>the ISIS campaign escalated:</a><span> </span>Mosul's central public library, a landmark built in 1921, was rigged with explosives and razed, together with thousands of manuscripts and instruments used by Arab scientists.</p>
<p>The book burning coincided with the release of the video showing ISIS fighters rampaging through the Mosul Museum, toppling statues and smashing others with hammers. The museum was Iraq's second largest, after the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Statues included masterpieces from Hatra and Nineveh.</p>
<p>Margarete van Ess, head of the German Archaeological Institute's Iraq field office, says that a trained eye can tell that about half of the artifacts destroyed in the video are copies; many of the originals are in the Iraq Museum.</p>
<h2>Nimrud</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/n/nimrud_ancient_kalhu,_iraq.aspx">Nimrud</a><span> </span>was the first Assyrian capital, founded 3,200 years ago. Its rich decoration reflected the empire's power and wealth. The site was excavated beginning in the 1840s by British archaeologists, who sent dozens of its massive stone sculptures to museums around the world, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum in London. Many originals remained in Iraq.</p>
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<div class="Image__Wrapper Image__Wrapper--relative"><img alt="nineveh iraq" class="" src="https://i.natgeofe.com/n/62d9a555-82d7-4949-b161-e1e267d55cf3/4isisarch.jpg?w=2560&h=1710"/></div>
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<div class="Caption__Wrapper"><div class="Caption"><div class="Caption__TextWrapper"><div class="Caption__Text"><span class="Truncate Truncate--collapsed"><span><span class="RichText">The walls of Nineveh were built around A.D. 700 to protected the Assyrian capital, at the time probably the largest city in the world. In February, ISIS fighters released video of fighters smashing sculptures and gates at the ancient site.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="RichText Caption__Credit">PHOTOGRAPH BY RANDY OLSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION</span></div>
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<p>The site itself is massive: An earthen wall surrounds 890 acres. The Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says ISIS bulldozed parts of the site, but the extent of the damage isn't yet clear. Some of the city was never uncovered and remains underground—protected, one hopes.</p>
<h2>Khorsabad</h2>
<p><a href="https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/projects/excavations-khorsabad">Khorsabad</a><span> </span>is another ancient Assyrian capital, a few miles from Mosul. The palace there was built between 717 and 706 B.C. by Assyria's King Sargon II. Its reliefs and statues were remarkably well preserved, with traces of the original paint still decorating depictions of Assyrian victories and royal processions.</p>
<p>Most of the reliefs and many of the statues were removed during French excavations in the mid-1800s and by teams from Chicago's Oriental Institute in the 1920s and '30s, and are now in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad as well as in Chicago and the Louvre in Paris. It's not clear what part of the site ISIS targeted.</p>
<p>"We don't have photography showing how far the damage might go," van Ess says. "The only information right now is from local people and Iraqi antiquities ministry."</p>
<h2>Mar Behnam Monastery</h2>
<p>Established in the 4th century, the monastery was dedicated to an early Christian saint. The holy site, maintained since the late 1800s by Syriac Catholic monks, survived the Mongol hordes in the 1200s but fell to ISIS in March. The extremists used explosives to destroy the saint’s tomb and its elaborate carvings and decorations.</p>
<h2>Mosque of the Prophet Yunus</h2>
<p>Mosul's Mosque of the Prophet Yunus was dedicated to the biblical figure Jonah, considered a prophet by many Muslims. But ISIS adheres to an extreme interpretation of Islam that sees veneration of prophets like Jonah as forbidden. On July 24, ISIS fighters evacuated the mosque and<a href="http://www.iraqinews.com/features/urgent-isil-destroys-mosque-biblical-jonah-prophet-yunus/"><span> </span>demolished it with explosives</a>.</p>
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<p>Like many of Iraq's sites, the mosque was a layer cake of history, built on top of a Christian church that in turn had been built on one of the two mounds that made up the Assyrian city of Nineveh.</p>
<h2>Imam Dur Mausoleum</h2>
<p>The<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2014/1108/Islamic-State-seeking-to-delete-entire-cultures-UNESCO-chief-warns-in-Iraq"><span> </span>Imam Dur Mausoleum</a>, not far from the city of Samarra, was a magnificent specimen of medieval Islamic architecture and decoration. It was blown up last October.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology">https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/150901-isis-destruction-looting-ancient-sites-iraq-syria-archaeology</a></p>
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UNESCO Assigning Jewish Historical Sites to Islam
tag:4freedoms.com,2016-10-29:3766518:Topic:183722
2016-10-29T17:30:04.598Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div id="print_content"><h1>Muslim Imperialism Reaches the United Nations</h1>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <span><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Denis+MacEoin">Denis MacEoin</a> </span>October 29, 2016 at 5:00 am</b></p>
<p class="nocontent"><b><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism…</a></b></p>
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<div id="print_content"><h1>Muslim Imperialism Reaches the United Nations</h1>
<div class="byline"><p class="sans-serif"><b>by <span><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/author/Denis+MacEoin">Denis MacEoin</a> </span>October 29, 2016 at 5:00 am</b></p>
<p class="nocontent"><b><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism">https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism</a></b></p>
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<li><p>UNESCO has joined forces with Islamic State. The fundamentalists now have a new weapon: resolutions passed by servile international bodies.</p>
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<li><p>An earlier delay and the opposition of UNESCO's chief, Irina Bokova, had raised hopes that this act of jihadist, barbaric, unjust, and, frankly, arrogant supremacism might be voted down. It was not. Now a new lie was given the sanction of the world's largest and most unaccountable body whose reason for being is to preserve significant sites, not to bowdlerize them.</p>
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<li><p>Lies by UNESCO to rewrite history, erasing all traces of Judaism and Christianity to favour a jihadist Islamic fancy, were already under way in 2015. UNESCO fraudulently renamed two ancient Biblical Jewish sites, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs, as Islamic sites. Historically, Islam did not even <i>exist</i> until the seventh century.</p>
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<li><p>This is the history of Islam, how it takes over -- with both hard jihad (violence) and soft jihad (usurping history, migration [<i>hijrah</i>], political and cultural infiltration), and intimidation (soft jihad with the threat of hard jihad underneath it). What is even more saddening is that often, as with this vote, it is done with the West's cooperation and voluntary submission.</p>
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<li><p>Before the United Nations, with its authoritarian, anti-democratic voting blocs, finishes eradicating Western, Judeo-Christian civilization, as it is clearly trying to do, it is high time for Western democracies to run, not walk, away, before further harm comes to them too, as it surely promises to do.</p>
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<div class="itemprop_articlebody"><p>UNESCO last August planned to vote on the historical status of Jerusalem's Temple Mount and its associated Western Wall. Back then, this author stated that <a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8548/temple-mount-unesco" target="_blank">UNESCO's plan</a> was to deny any Jewish link to this most central of all Jewish holy sites, to trash a history going back thousands of years, and to claim the Mount and the Wall as Islamic sites.</p>
<p>Islam believes that it is eternal and had therefore <i>preceded</i> the other two great monotheisms, Judaism and Christianity, even though it was only to become visible to the world through Mohammad in the seventh century AD, but entitled to elbow out the two older religions.</p>
<p>Lies by UNESCO to rewrite history, erasing all traces of Judaism and Christianity to favour a jihadist Islamic fancy, were already under way in 2015. UNESCO <a href="http://www.charismanews.com/world/52755-united-nations-just-gave-rachel-s-tomb-and-patriach-caves-to-islam" target="_blank">fraudulently renamed</a> two ancient Biblical Jewish sites, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs -- abracadabra -- Islamic sites.</p>
<p>Historically, Islam did not even <i>exist</i> until the seventh century.</p>
<p>This is the history of Islam, how it takes over -- with both hard jihad (violence) and soft jihad (usurping history, migration [<i>hijrah</i>], political and cultural infiltration), and intimidation (soft jihad with the threat of hard jihad underneath it). What is even more saddening is that often, as with this vote, it is done with the West's cooperation and voluntary submission.</p>
<p>The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is now, according to this deeply compromised body, supposedly the "Ibrahimi Mosque," and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem is supposedly the "Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque," even though it <a href="http://jcpa.org/article/rachels-tomb-a-jewish-holy-place-was-never-a-mosque/" target="_blank">never could have been a mosque</a>. As the saying goes, "calling a cat a pig does not make it one."</p>
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<table border="0" cellspacing="0" align="center">
<tbody><tr><td><img src="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/2003.jpg" width="600" height="321" border="0"/><p>UNESCO's latest resolution to deny any Jewish link to Jerusalem's Temple Mount, the most central of all Jewish holy sites, is not the first time the body has tried to rewrite and falsify a history going back thousands of years. UNESCO had previously declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron (left) as the "Ibrahimi Mosque," and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem (right) as the "Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque." (Images source: Wikimedia Commons)</p>
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<p></p>
<p>Now a new lie has been given the sanction of the world's largest and most unaccountable body, whose reason for being is to preserve significant sites, not to bowdlerize them.</p>
<p>On October 13, the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/UNESCO-adopts-resolution-ignoring-Jewish-ties-to-Temple-Mount-451346" target="_blank">news</a> was broadcast that UNESCO had passed a majority vote endorsing this rape of archaeological and Biblical history. On the following Tuesday, the resolution <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-israel-un-20161018-snap-story.html" target="_blank">was endorsed</a> by the body's executive board. If your majority, however, consists of members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (the OIC, a bloc consisting of 56 Islamic states plus "Palestine", and possibly the largest bloc at the UN), a fraudulent result such as this should probably not come as a surprise.</p>
<p>An earlier delay and the opposition of UNESCO's chief, Irina Bokova, had raised hopes that this act of jihadist, barbaric, unjust, and, frankly, arrogant supremacism might be voted down. It was not. Following the vote, Bokova <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/ww.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/statement_by_the_director_general_of_unesco_on_the_old_city-1#.WAd9ndyZJ7N" target="_blank">issued a powerful statement</a> condemning it, saying, among other things:</p>
<blockquote><p>"The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city. To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list.</p>
<p>"Nowhere more than in Jerusalem do Jewish, Christian and Muslim heritage and traditions share space and interweave to the point that they support each other. These cultural and spiritual traditions build on texts and references, known by all, that are an intrinsic part of the identities and history of peoples."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now the Christian and Jewish worlds will have to deal with the resolution's ramifications, the first of which is that all democracies would be wise immediately to abandon the United Nations, or at the very least to stop funding it, before further harm comes to them too, as it surely promises to do.</p>
<p>The resolution was first proposed to UNESCO by seven Muslim states (Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan on behalf of the Palestinian Authority -- all OIC groupies -- in October 2015. Any reputable body empowered to protect ancient religious sites would have rejected it out of hand and given those responsible a dusty answer.</p>
<p>UNESCO's parent body, the United Nations, has over many years increasingly shown itself as untransparent, unaccountable and thoroughly disreputable -- from its $100 billion, never-prosecuted, <a href="http://www.cfr.org/international-organizations-and-alliances/impact-un-oil--food-scandal/p10675" target="_blank">oil-for-food embezzlement scandal</a> exposed in 2004, to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/world/2016/02/27/peacekeepers/" target="_blank">"Peacekeepers" who demand sex</a> from children in exchange for food; to its incessant, fabricated <a href="http://www.unwatch.org/un-to-adopt-20-resolutions-against-israel-3-on-rest-of-the-world/" target="_blank">persecution</a> of one member state, Israel, while giving unlimited passes to the most ostentatious violators of human rights in other nations.</p>
<p>Before the UN, with its authoritarian, anti-democratic voting blocs, finishes eradicating Western, Judeo-Christian civilization, as it is clearly trying to do, it is high time for Western democracies to run, not walk, away.</p>
<p>Of UNESCO's 195 member states, 35 are fully Islamic nations, another 21 are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and four are OIC observer states. That makes 60 who represent a bloc favourable to Muslim-inspired resolutions, yet UNESCO's Board consists of only 58 members. That board approved Resolution 19 with 33 votes in favour, six against and 17 abstentions. Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent altogether. Only six countries voted against the resolution -- the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia. Revealingly, France, Spain, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia were among those who supported it. It is not hard to identify the source of the majority vote.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/UNESCO-adopts-resolution-ignoring-Jewish-ties-to-Temple-Mount-451346" target="_blank">dismissed the move</a> as another "absurd" UN resolution:</p>
<blockquote><p>"UNESCO ignores the unique Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, the site of two temples for 1,000 years, and the place to which Jews prayed for thousands of years... The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and proving that there is no low to which it will not reach."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jewish patience in the Holy Land is being tested to the limit.</p>
<p>UNESCO's vote is just the latest example of Muslim supremacism as expressed in the demolition, re-definition, or outright expropriation of the places of worship, shrines, and other buildings linked to other faiths -- invariably faiths that have long preceded Islam itself, including Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as Judaism and Christianity. The process began in the year 630, two years before the prophet Muhammad's death, when his forces conquered his hometown of Mecca. During a brief stay there, before returning to Medina, he ordered all of the 360 idols in the <i>Ka'aba</i>, and all those in private homes, to be destroyed. The <i>Ka'aba</i> itself, long a centre of pagan worship, was transformed overnight into the most important building of the Islamic faith, the <i>Qibla</i> or the spot towards which Muslims still turn in prayer five times a day. It sits at the heart of the <i>Masjid al-Haram</i>, the most important mosque in the Muslim world.<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" target="_blank">[1]</a></p>
<p>Early Muslims did more than expropriate the building for their own purposes. They created a legend to justify their possession of the site.<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" target="_blank">[2]</a></p>
<p>But the Qur'an and subsequent Muslim tradition are not content to re-establish history, bringing Abraham out of the Land of Canaan as far down as the Arabian Peninsula. They transform Abraham himself. According to the Qur'an (3:67): "Abraham was neither a Jew (<i>yahudian</i>) nor a Christian (<i>nasranian</i>), but was rather a pure worshipper of God (<i>hanifan</i>), a Muslim...."</p>
<p>This forms part of a broader enterprise. In Islamic doctrine, all true, monotheist religion has, from the beginning, been only Islam. Thus, Adam was the first Muslim and the first prophet. Abraham was a Muslim and a prophet. Moses was a Muslim and a prophet. Noah was a Muslim and a prophet. Jesus was a Muslim and a prophet. In the beginning, everyone was a Muslim and all land belonged to Islam. In the Qur'an, we read:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Say, 'We believe in God, and in that which was sent down to us, and in that which was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in what Moses and Jesus were given, and in what the prophets were given form their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we submit."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That last phrase reads <i>nahnu lahu muslimun</i>. It can be read generically, meaning "those who submit themselves to God"; or specifically to mean "We are Muslims."</p>
<p>The belief that all true religions involve submission to God and that, in this sense, all true religion may be defined as "Islam" (literally "submission"), may be taken as a unifying, comprehensive declaration of a universal truth, without prejudice to anyone except "idolaters" such as Hindus and Buddhists.</p>
<p>But this generalization was soon forgotten when Muslims found themselves in competition with the followers of other faiths: Jews in Medina, Christians throughout the Byzantine empire, or Zoroastrians in Iran. Muhammad had originally preached his religion as one in harmony with the views of the "People of the Book," the Jews and Christians who had been sent their own scriptures by God. But not long after his taking control of Medina, he turned on the city's three important Jewish tribes, expelling two, then attacking the third, the Banu Qurayza, beheading all the men and teenage males and taking the women and children as slaves. From here on, the Qur'an is rife with condemnations of the Jews as a people and of Christians as corrupters of scripture: "O believers, do not take Jews and Christians as your friends" (Qur'an 5:51)</p>
<p>Once Muslim armies went out to conquer Persia, Turkey, Greece, the Levant, all of North Africa, the Balkans, Hungary, Poland and then conquered Portugal, Andalusia in Southern Spain and other Christian territories, all sense of an identity with the People of the Book as, in a sense, fellow Muslims, went out the window, to be replaced by a sense of them as <i><a href="http://www.dhimmitude.org/d_history_dhimmitude.html" target="_blank">dhimmi</a></i> or subjected people, the preservation of whose lives and property were contingent on the payment of a protection tax (the <i>jizya</i>) and on agreeing to live as humiliated denizens under special laws of subjugation in lands ruled by Islamic caliphates.</p>
<p>One consequence of this unequal relationship were countless rules, including special, marked clothing that predated the compulsory yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear during Hitler's Third Reich, and that churches and synagogues could not be founded, repaired, rebuilt or given prominence in competition with mosques; and there could be no audible summons to Jewish or Christian prayers.</p>
<p>More than that, the occupation and transformation of lands of earlier religions -- Persia, Turkey, Greece, all of North Africa and much of Eastern Europe -- proceeded apace during unstoppable Islamic conquests. In Jerusalem, two structures were erected on the Temple Mount (giving rise to the claim for UNESCO's recognition): the Al-Aqsa Mosque (<i>Masjid al-Aqsa</i>, "the Farthest Mosque", although no one has a clue where that might have been; very possibly in Arabia) and the <i>Qubbat al-Sakhra</i>, or Dome of the Rock, constructed on the alleged site of Abraham's aborted sacrifice, no longer of Isaac but now Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arabs. Both were built within the first century of Islam.</p>
<p>There is no need here to list all the churches converted to mosques during succeeding centuries. Most notable are the Hagia Sophia churches of the Christian Byzantine empire in Constantinople, Eregli, Nicaea, and Trebizond, refashioned as mosques after the Ottoman conquest of 1453.<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" target="_blank">[3]</a></p>
<p>Today, the Islamic State has <a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4973/destruction-middle-east-antiquities" target="_blank">destroyed or converted</a> churches, shrines, and other monuments (including Muslim sites) in Iraq and Syria.</p>
<p>Similar devastation took place under the various Islamic states in India, with something like 2000 Hindu temples destroyed to make way for mosques and other Muslim structures, while a similar fate befell others.</p>
<p>This extraordinary level of fanaticism is not unique to Islam (one only has to think of Oliver Cromwell and his puritans in England), but it has been far more extensive and has continued for many more centuries.</p>
<p>It is a totalitarian puritanism. Today's resolution against the Jewish faith must be put in this context.</p>
<p>Today, the Mecca and Medina of the first and second centuries of the Islamic faith have been all but wrecked, not by the Islamic State or any other radical entity, but by the Wahhabi Saudi government. In the past two decades, major historical sites in Mecca and Medina, all related to the lifetime of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad and shortly after, have been destroyed or disfigured to the point where neither city is recognizable save for the <i>Ka'ba</i> and the Grand Mosque in Mecca, and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina. And the two major mosques are themselves much expanded modern constructions.<a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" target="_blank">[4]</a></p>
<p>UNESCO has put Jewish sites with Muslim names into Muslim hands, in the heart of Israel's capital, to try slowly to destroy the Jewish state. UNESCO is not fooling anyone.</p>
<p>It may not be long before Christian holy places and churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth will also be handed over on a plate to placate the forces of Islam, fearful of what they may do not just in the Middle East, but in Europe, North America and Europe, happy to have someone finally try to eliminate those supposedly pesky Jews. All Judeo-Christian countries would be wise to pull out of the UN, or at least cease funding it -- before it is too late for them, too.</p>
<blockquote><p><i>Denis MacEoin is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute. He has just completed work on a large study of Western concerns about Islam.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<hr width="33%" size="1" align="left"/><p><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" target="_blank">[1]</a> See William Montgomery Watt, <i>Muhammad at Medina</i>, Oxford University Press, 1956, p. 69. And see Yousef Meri, <i>Ka'aba</i>, Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide, Oxford University Press, 2011</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" target="_blank">[2]</a> There is more than one version of this tale, but <a href="http://www.questionsonislam.com/article/prophet-adam-peace-be-upon-him" target="_blank">it is broadly this</a>: the Ka'aba was first built by the Prophet Adam with the help of angels, then destroyed in Noah's flood, and finally rebuilt by the Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael. The Qur'an itself advances the story about Abraham's role:</p>
<blockquote><p>"And [remember] when We made the House [that is, the Ka'aba] a place of visitation [a pilgrimage site] for mankind, and a sanctuary, 'Take the place of Abraham as a place of prayer.' And we made a covenant with Abraham and Ishmael, 'Purify My House for those who circumambulate, those who live there in retreat, and those who bow and prostrate." .... And [remember] when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, 'Our Lord, accept it from us. Truly, You are the Hearing and the Knowing.'" [Qur'an 2: 125, 127]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" target="_blank">[3]</a> The former Portuguese cathedral of Tangier, now the city's Great Mosque; the Christian basilica of St. John the Baptist, captured in 634 and turned into the Great Umayyad Mosque, one of the oldest, and considered the fourth holiest site in Islam; the small Catholic Basilica of Saint Vincent of Lérins, after the Umayyad conquest demolished to make way for the Great Mosque of Córdoba (restored as a cathedral after the Renconquista in 1236). Under the Ottomans, churches in Cyprus and Hungary were replaced as mosques; and as French colonies became independent in the 20<sup>th</sup> century, many churches were converted into mosques, including the St. Philip Cathedral in Algiers, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs in Constantine (Algeria), the Tripoli Cathedral and the Benghazi Cathedral in Libya.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9173/unesco-muslim-imperialism#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" target="_blank">[4]</a> The vast Jannat al-Baqi cemetery, which holds so many remains of Muhammad's family, close companions and the earliest Muslim saints, has been levelled, and all domes and mausoleums turned to dust. That act followed earlier levellings by Wahhabis in 1906 and the ultra-Wahhabi <i>Ikhwan</i> in 1925. Those included the graves of the martyrs of the Battle of Uhud and that of Hamza, the prophet's uncle and most beloved supporter. So too the Mosque of Fatima (Muhammad's daughter), the Mosque of the Manaratayn (the twin minarets), and the cupola that marked the burial place of the prophet's incisor tooth. Medina as well, the home of Muhammad's Ethiopian wife, Maryam, where his son Ibrahim was born, has been paved over. In Mecca, the house of his first wife, Khadija, the first person to whom he divulged his mission, has been turned into public toilets. In 1998, the grave of the prophet's mother, Amina bint Wahb, was bulldozed in Abwa, after which gasoline was poured on it and set alight.</p>
</div>
</div>
The Islamic Destruction of Mosul Monastery (Iraq, 2014)
tag:4freedoms.com,2016-04-07:3766518:Topic:177463
2016-04-07T00:28:17.703Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="story-body__h1">Iraq's oldest Christian monastery destroyed by Islamic State</h1>
<div class="story-body__mini-info-list-and-share"><ul class="mini-info-list">
<li class="mini-info-list__item"><div class="date date--v2">20 January 2016</div>
</li>
<li style="list-style: none;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container"><img alt="Satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe, taken on 31 March 2011 and 28 September 2014 showing the site of St Elijah's Monastery, or Deir Mar Elia, on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq" class="js-image-replace" height="549" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/8912/production/_87809053_elijah.jpg" width="976"></img> <span class="off-screen">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright">DigitalGlobe via AP</span></span><span class="off-screen">Image…</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h1 class="story-body__h1">Iraq's oldest Christian monastery destroyed by Islamic State</h1>
<div class="story-body__mini-info-list-and-share"><ul class="mini-info-list">
<li class="mini-info-list__item"><div class="date date--v2">20 January 2016</div>
</li>
<li style="list-style: none;"><span class="image-and-copyright-container"><img class="js-image-replace" alt="Satellite images provided by DigitalGlobe, taken on 31 March 2011 and 28 September 2014 showing the site of St Elijah's Monastery, or Deir Mar Elia, on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq" src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/8912/production/_87809053_elijah.jpg" width="976" height="549"/><span class="off-screen">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright">DigitalGlobe via AP</span></span><span class="off-screen">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text">Satellite images showing the site of St Elijah's Monastery in March 2011 and September 2014</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="story-body__inner"><div class="pullout-inner"><h2 class="heading">Islamic State</h2>
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<br/>
<p class="story-body__introduction">Satellite images confirm that the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been destroyed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).</p>
<p>St Elijah's stood on a hill near the northern city of Mosul for 1,400 years.</p>
<p>But analysts said the images, <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5093ba551d1b45b08fe8a26363b88f54/only-ap-oldest-christian-monastery-iraq-razed" class="story-body__link-external">obtained by the Associated Press</a>, suggested it had been demolished in late 2014, soon after IS seized the city.</p>
<p>A Catholic priest from Mosul warned that its Christian history was "being barbarically levelled".</p>
<p>"We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land," said Father Paul Thabit Habib, who now lives in Kurdish-administered Irbil.</p>
<span class="image-and-copyright-container"><img src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/82AA/production/_87805433_87805432.jpg" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" alt="Photo provided to AP by US Army Col Juanita Chang shows St Elijah's Monastery on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq (1 October 2006)" width="976" height="650"/><span class="off-screen">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright">AP</span></span><span class="off-screen">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text">St Elijah's Monastery, or Deir Mar Elia, was believed to have been built in the late 6th Century</span><br/>
<p>IS has targeted Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, seizing their property and forcing them to convert to Islam, pay a special tax or flee.</p>
<p>The group has also demolished a number of monasteries and churches, as well as renowned pre-Islamic sites including Nimrud, Hatra and Nineveh in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria.</p>
<h2 class="story-body__crosshead">'Important place'</h2>
<p>St Elijah's Monastery, or Deir Mar Elia, was <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-iraq-a-monastery-rediscovered-12457610/?no-ist=" class="story-body__link-external">believed to have been constructed by Assyrian monks in the late 6th Century</a>. It was later claimed by a Chaldean Catholic order.</p>
<p>In 1743, its monks were given an ultimatum by Persian forces to convert to Islam. They refused and as many as 150 were massacred.</p>
<hr class="story-body__line"/><h2 class="story-body__crosshead">Analysis - Ahmed Maher, Iraq correspondent, BBC News</h2>
<p>Had it not been for these satellite images, we would probably not have learnt about the monastery's destruction. This is because journalists and archaeologists cannot go to IS-controlled areas for security reasons. But more importantly, IS did not release any video on its propaganda outlets showing the demolition of this particular ancient site.</p>
<p>The jihadists have released footage showing themselves destroying shrines, churches and antiquities with sledgehammers and dynamite. More than 100 churches and monasteries have been razed to the ground in Mosul and the predominantly Christian villages surrounding it, like Bashiqa and Qaraqosh, since they took control of the area in 2014.</p>
<p>The militants believe that Islam is the only religion that must be adopted by the followers of other faiths. And that is why they have targeted minorities and destroyed their places of worship. Those who have remained in these areas have been forced to choose between conversion and execution.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34112593" class="story-body__link">Why IS destroys ancient sites</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-34294287" class="story-body__link">Palmyra: Blowing ruins to rubble</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-32857404" class="story-body__link">Understanding sadness at loss of sites</a></p>
<hr class="story-body__line"/><p>Fr Thabit told AP that the monastery "became a spiritual place for Christians to visit and to have religious ceremonies, and to ask forgiveness from the saint who founded this monastery".</p>
<p>"The monastery attracted all the people from Mosul - Christians and Muslims. All the poets, historians and travellers wrote about this monastery," he added. "It became a very important place for the history of the Church in Iraq."</p>
<p>In the 1970s, the monastery became a base for the Iraqi Republican Guard, and in 2003 one of its walls was damaged by the impact of a T-72 tank turret that was hit by a missile during the US-led invasion of Iraq.</p>
<span class="image-and-copyright-container"><img src="http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/D732/production/_87809055_aa464d97-eb54-4f53-a875-f28a7a28f5c7.jpg" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" alt="Sanctuary of St Elijah's Monastery near Mosul, Iraq (7 November 2008)" width="976" height="549"/><span class="off-screen">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright">AP</span></span><span class="off-screen">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text">Local Christians visited the monastery to celebrate the feast of St Elijah</span><br/> <span class="image-and-copyright-container"><img src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/14F5A/production/_87805858_87805856.jpg" class="responsive-image__img js-image-replace" alt="Photo released by US Department of Defence shows a soldier walking towards St Elijah’s Monastery near Mosul, Iraq (21 January 2009)" width="976" height="549"/><span class="off-screen">Image copyright</span><span class="story-image-copyright">AP</span></span><span class="off-screen">Image caption</span><span class="media-caption__text">The US Army used the monastery as a base after the 2003 invasion of Iraq</span><br/>
<p>The US Army used the monastery as a base itself, before a chaplain recognised its importance and a commander ordered it to be cleared.</p>
<p>Stephen Wood of Allsource Analysis told AP that the satellite images published on Wednesday suggested the monastery was destroyed between August and September 2014, two to three months after IS captured Mosul and ordered Christians who had not already fled to leave.</p>
<p>The images showed "that the stone walls have been literally pulverized", Mr Wood said. "Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of grey-white dust. They destroyed it completely."</p>
<p>A security source in Nineveh province separately confirmed to the BBC on Wednesday that IS militants had blown up the monastery, completely destroying it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35360415">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35360415</a></p>
</div>
The Islamic Destruction of Palmyra (Syria, 2015)
tag:4freedoms.com,2016-04-07:3766518:Topic:177360
2016-04-07T00:21:10.835Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="article__heading">Missing monuments: Before & After pics of Palmyra show what ISIS has destroyed</h1>
<div class="article__date">Published time: 2 Apr, 2016 20:39Edited time: 3 Apr, 2016 12:23</div>
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<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img alt="What remains of the historic Temple of Bel, dating back to 32AD. © Joseph Eid" class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffcedfc36188fe4d8b4581.jpg"></img></div>
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<h1 class="article__heading">Missing monuments: Before & After pics of Palmyra show what ISIS has destroyed</h1>
<div class="article__date">Published time: 2 Apr, 2016 20:39Edited time: 3 Apr, 2016 12:23</div>
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<div class="article__summary summary">Joseph Eid, a photographer for AFP news agency, traveled to the Syrian city of Palmyra, recently recaptured from Islamic State, carrying with him photos that he took two years ago. When he tried to recreate the images, the results displayed how much damage the Islamists have wrought.</div>
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<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffcd80c4618822218b4568.jpg" alt="A picture of the Arc du Triomphe (Triumph's Arch) contrasted with what remains of the historic monument after it was destroyed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in October 2015 in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">A picture of the Arc du Triomphe (Triumph's Arch) contrasted with what remains of the historic monument after it was destroyed by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in October 2015 in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>The Arc du Triomphe was completed in the 3rd century, to celebrate the Roman victory over Parthia, a kingdom in modern-day Iran, which staunchly opposed the Roman onslaught for nearly three centuries.</p>
<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffcda6c36188ef4d8b4571.jpg" alt="Another view showing the full extent of the damage at Arc du Triomphe (Triumph's Arch), which was destroyed by Isis in October 2015. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">Another view showing the full extent of the damage at Arc du Triomphe (Triumph's Arch), which was destroyed by Isis in October 2015. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>The arch was destroyed by Islamic State in October last year, though plans have been announced to rebuild it with its original stones, using 3D models of the monument.</p>
<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffcdd1c461889f418b4589.jpg" alt="A picture showing the Temple of Bel before it was destroyed by Isis in September 2015 in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The structure dated back to 32AD. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">A picture showing the Temple of Bel before it was destroyed by Isis in September 2015 in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The structure dated back to 32AD. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>Opened at the turn of the last millennium, the Temple of Bel was dedicated to the Mesopotamian deity, and was considered one of the most intact monuments at the entire UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra.</p>
<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffcdf9c36188ef4d8b4574.jpg" alt="Security officials stand around the ruins of the Temple of Bel. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">Security officials stand around the ruins of the Temple of Bel. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>As Palmyra changed hands, it served as a Byzantine church, and later a mosque, before being preserved as a historical monument, prior to being blown up by Islamic State, which took control of the city in May last year.</p>
<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffce43c36188e84d8b4577.jpg" alt="The Temple of Baal Shamin seen through two Corinthian columns at Palmyra, Syria. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">The Temple of Baal Shamin seen through two Corinthian columns at Palmyra, Syria. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>Built in a Greco-Roman style, the Temple of Baalshamin served a sky deity, which existed alongside Bel. It was also well preserved, and it is thought that Islamic State sought to destroy the best-known landmarks of the city one by one, capturing international headlines with each blast.</p>
<div class="article__cover"><div class="media"><img class="media__item" src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.04/original/56ffce53c36188267e8b4567.jpg" alt="A picture taken in the Palymra museum showing defaced sculptures. © Joseph Eid"/><div class="media__footer media__footer_bottom"><div class="media__title media__title_footer">A picture taken in the Palymra museum showing defaced sculptures. © Joseph Eid / AFP</div>
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<p>While the destruction of the temples may have been largely symbolic, the empty mounts for historical sculptures are testament to Islamic State's looting.</p>
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The Looting of Syrian Artefacts by ISIS and Turkey
tag:4freedoms.com,2016-03-31:3766518:Topic:177411
2016-03-31T10:53:48.707Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<h1 class="article__heading">ISIS ‘Department of Artifacts’ document exposes antique loot trade via Turkey (RT EXCLUSIVE)</h1>
<div class="article__date">Published time: 31 Mar, 2016 05:03Edited time: 31 Mar, 2016 07:23</div>
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<h1 class="article__heading">ISIS ‘Department of Artifacts’ document exposes antique loot trade via Turkey (RT EXCLUSIVE)</h1>
<div class="article__date">Published time: 31 Mar, 2016 05:03Edited time: 31 Mar, 2016 07:23</div>
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<div class="article__summary summary">A new trove of documents, obtained by an RT Documentary crew who recently uncovered details of illicit ISIS oil business with Turkey, sheds light on jihadists’ lucrative trade of looted antiquities along their well-established oil and weapons transit routes.</div>
<div class="article__text text"><div class="article__tags-trends"><div class="tags-trends"><span class="tags-trends__heading">Trends</span><a class="tags-trends__link" rel="trend" href="https://www.rt.com/trends/islamic-state/">Islamic State</a>, <a class="tags-trends__link" rel="trend" href="https://www.rt.com/trends/syria-turkey-conflict-border/">Syria-Turkey</a></div>
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<p>There is no official accounting that would illustrate the true scale of looting being undertaken in Syria, a land once rich with cultural treasures. However, there is no doubt that since radical Islamists established a foothold in the region under raging civil war, pieces of the world’s global heritage have ended up in the hands of terrorists.</p>
<p><strong><a href="http://on.rt.com/78ll" target="_blank">READ MORE: ‘Pearl of the desert’: RT visits liberated ancient ruins of Palmyra (DRONE FOOTAGE)</a></strong></p>
<p>Along with oil smuggling, a lucrative trade in antiquities has become ISIS’s source of income to support its devastating operations, many of which leveled unique historic sites such as Palmyra. Artifacts, some worth thousands of dollars apiece, have been <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/world/europe/iraq-syria-antiquities-islamic-state.html?_r=0">turning up</a> in antique markets from eastern Europe to the US.</p>
<div class="arcticle__read-more read-more"><div class="read-more__title">Read more</div>
<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/336967-isis-files-oil-turkey-exclusive/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.03/thumbnail/56f341c2c361888c228b45a1.jpg" class="align-left"/></a></div>
<p>Following the exposure of the details of the ISIS oil business, RT has exclusively obtained additional evidence that sheds light on the jihadists’ black market of plundered treasures and its transit routes via Turkey. </p>
<p>According to a document that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) turned over to an RT Documentary crew, the so-called Ministry of Natural Resources established by ISIS to hold grip of the oil operations has a separate <em>“Department of Artifacts.”</em></p>
<p><em>“One of the new documents is a note that has the same letterhead of ISIS’s Ministry of Natural Resources as the oil bills of sale, which we discussed last time,”</em> a reporter, whose name and face have been obscured for security reasons, explained. The letterhead, similar to those found on oil invoices that Kurdish soldiers seized from what used to be the homes of IS fighters, is visible in the upper-right corner of the newly obtained document.</p>
<p>The note, apparently addressed to checkpoint sentries, asks <em>“brothers at the border”</em> to allow a Turkish antiquity seller into Syria for the purposes of mutual profit. It reads:</p>
<p><em>“To the brother responsible for the border, Please assist the passage of brother Hussein Hania Sarira through your post along with the man from Turkey – the artifacts trader, for the purpose of working with us in the department of artifacts in the Ministry of Natural Resources. May Allah bless you, Loving brother Abu Uafa At-Tunisi.”</em></p>
<p>While filming in the town of Shaddadi, located in the Syrian province Hasakah, RT reporters came across archaeological pieces, fragments of various ceramic pots. Abandoned in a tunnel, which ISIS fighters fled through, they were discovered by the Kurdish YPG troops after they liberated Shaddadi from jihadists in the summer of 2015.</p>
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<p>No one knows where those objects originally came from, but Kurdish fighters also found an old map in French, which could date as far back as colonial times. It indicates the excavation grounds. </p>
<p>Besides providing revealing insight into ISIS money-making, the note supports the previous suppositions that ISIS is selling artifacts via the same trade route, which, according to what RT’s crew was told, it used to bring across weapons and supplies, right under Ankara’s nose.</p>
<p>The fact of Turkey’s lax control and inaction has been recalled by a young fighter in an operational video that RT also obtained from the YPG. He was filmed after being captured by Kurdish troops at the border town of Tel Abyad, which was formerly a trade corridor between Turkey and ISIS.</p>
<p><em>“They sent me to serve in Tel Abyad on the Turkish border. Sometimes we even crossed the Turkish border and served there. We saw the Turkish army passing by, but there was never any kind of conflict between us,”</em> militant Abu Ayub al-Ansari said.</p>
<h2>‘Kurdish advance cut ISIS communication lines with Turkish security services’</h2>
<p>The captured terrorist admitted that losing Tel Abyad had dealt a severe blow to Islamic State activities and its trade routes, as well as direct commutation lines with representatives of Turkish security services.</p>
<p><em>“When the Kurdish militia took over Tel Abyad, the connection was lost and foreign fighters could not get in,”</em> the Islamist fighter testified. <em>“The communication with the Turkish security services was broken, we could only communicate via civilians or spies.”</em></p>
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<p>The terror group was also hit financially, suffering a serious blow to one of its major businesses – the oil smuggling.</p>
<p><em>“The goods that came from Turkey have also disappeared because the Kurdish YPG fighters have blocked the road through Tel Abyad. Also, the tankers can't drive through the area. That has put the organization in a complicated financial situation,”</em> the apprehended militant told the YPG fighters.</p>
<h2>‘We, Daesh, financially depend on oil’</h2>
<p>The jihadi files showed that IS has kept very professional records of their oil business, including the name of the driver, the vehicle type driven, and the weight of the truck, both full and empty, as well as the agreed upon price and invoice number.</p>
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<p>As local residents who had been forced to work in the IS oil industry told RT earlier, <em>“the extracted oil was delivered to an oil refinery, where it was converted into gasoline, gas and other petroleum products. Then the refined product was sold.”</em></p>
<p><em>“Then intermediaries from Raqqa and Allepo arrived to pick up the oil and often mentioned Turkey,”</em>they said.</p>
<p>The operational video of the Kurdish-captured Islamic State militant revealed more details of oil-related work inside ISIS, including the salaries terrorists were paid.</p>
<p><em>“We, Daesh, know that we financially depend on oil. Earlier it was said we only sold to civilian buyers, but there's no way they could buy so much. Our wages are from $50 to $100, depending on whether you are married or not. I am married and have a baby, so I was paid $135. When the oil supply across Tel Abyad was cut-off, the problems started,”</em> he said.</p>
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<p>Since RT made its revelations last week, a stream of questions poured on Turkey with experts and high-profile politicians demanding from Ankara explanations to the <em>“very convincing”</em> report that exposed its alleged links to terrorists.</p>
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Moroccan Loubna Abidar beaten for insulting Islam; fascist left delighted
tag:4freedoms.com,2015-11-13:3766518:Topic:172377
2015-11-13T21:49:58.624Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<div class="storyHead"><h1>Star of Morocco's sex workers film flees to France after 'brutal' assault</h1>
<h2>Loubna Abidar, who plays a sex worker in Much Loved - lauded in France but banned in Morocco - flees to France after after violent assault</h2>
<div class="artIntro"><div id="storyEmbSlide"><div class="slideshow ssIntro"><div class="nextPrevLayer"><div class="ssImg"><img alt="Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar on stage after being awarded with the Valois Best Actress trophy for the movie " height="387" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03496/Moroccan_actress_L_3496105b.jpg" width="620"></img><div class="artImageExtras"><div class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar…</span></div>
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<div class="storyHead"><h1>Star of Morocco's sex workers film flees to France after 'brutal' assault</h1>
<h2>Loubna Abidar, who plays a sex worker in Much Loved - lauded in France but banned in Morocco - flees to France after after violent assault</h2>
<div class="artIntro"><div id="storyEmbSlide"><div class="slideshow ssIntro"><div class="nextPrevLayer"><div class="ssImg"><img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03496/Moroccan_actress_L_3496105b.jpg" alt="Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar on stage after being awarded with the Valois Best Actress trophy for the movie " height="387" width="620"/><div class="artImageExtras"><div class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar on stage after being awarded with the Valois Best Actress trophy for the movie "Much Loved" during the 8th Francophone Angouleme Film Festival.</span> <span class="credit">Photo: AFP/Getty</span></div>
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<div class="byline"><div><div class="bylineImg"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/henry-samuel/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01768/Samuel_60_1768753j.jpg?width=60" width="60" class="align-left"/></a></div>
<p class="bylineBody">By <a rel="author" title="Henry Samuel" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/henry-samuel/">Henry Samuel</a>, Paris <span style="font-size: 13px;">5:56PM GMT 09 Nov 2015</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 13px;">The star of a film on sex work in</span> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/morocco/" style="font-size: 13px;">Morocco</a> <span style="font-size: 13px;">has fled the country for</span> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11984478/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/" style="font-size: 13px;">France</a> <span style="font-size: 13px;">after being savagely beaten in Casablanca, where she said she was denied hospital or police assistance.</span></p>
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<div class="secondPar"><p>Loubna Abidar, who portrays a Marrakech sex worker in Much Loved, a film by Nabil Ayouch, a renowned French-Moroccan director, caused a stir in Morocco after a series of previews were released on YouTube.</p>
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<div class="thirdPar"><p>The film, a tale of four female sex workers including scenes with rich Saudis, French tourists and corrupt police officers, was lauded at this year’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/cannes-festival/">Cannes Film Festival</a> in May. But Morocco banned it barely a week later on the grounds it was a “grave insult to moral values and Moroccan women".</p>
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<div class="fourthPar"><p><span class="ssImg"><img alt="Loubna Abidar posed photos on Facebook of her injuries" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03496/loubna_abidar_inju_3496101b.jpg" height="387" width="620"/><span class="artImageExtras"><span class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">Loubna Abidar posed photos on Facebook of her injuries</span><span class="credit"> Photo: Loubna Abidar</span></span></span></span></p>
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<div class="fifthPar"><p>Ms Abidar remained out of her native country for a while afterwards, waiting for the media controversy to die down, and had been living “hidden and veiled” in Casablanca, according to French media.</p>
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<div class="body"><p>In a video filmed by herself, a bruised and bleeding Ms Abidar describes her ordeal by unknown, knife-wielding assailants.</p>
<p>“I was the victim of an attack in Casablanca. No police station or hospital would take me in,” she said in a video posted on her Facebook page last Friday. “I went to Casablanca’s main police station in the middle of the night and was received with laughter. The police officer said: “Finally Abidar, you got beaten!.”</p>
<p>However, Casablanca police department on Friday said that her allegations were “false”.</p>
<p>“(The police) has no position against Abidar or anybody else, all citizens are equal and any citizen has the right to lodge a complaint, and the duty of the police is to listen to him,” a police source was cited as telling Alyaoum 24 website.</p>
<p>The actress took aim at those behind violent criticism and death threats by saying: “All this because I made a film that you haven’t even watched. You only saw what they wanted you to see. Judge me on the real film."</p>
<p><span class="ssImg"><img alt="Loubna Abidar in Much Loved" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03496/Much-Loved_3496103b.jpg" height="335" width="620"/><span class="artImageExtras"><span class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">Loubna Abidar in Much Loved</span><span class="credit"> Photo: PYRAMIDE FILMS</span></span></span></span></p>
<p>Immediately after the attack on Thursday, she reiterated a previous statement on her intention to seek political asylum in France because authorities had failed to take her fears over threats by social conservatives seriously.</p>
<p>She then retracted her statement, saying that she was confused after the beating. Posting multiple photos of her head wrapped in a bandage and several bruises and lesions on her back, she wrote: “I am better, thank the Lord.”</p>
<p>However, on Sunday she posted another selfie wearing dark glasses and the caption: "Left Morocco, in France."</p>
<p>Le Figaro on Monday said she had "sought refuge" in France “for security reasons”. “She cut her mobile phone and took the first plane to France,” it wrote.</p>
<p>Ms Abidar, a mother of a six-year old girl, recently said that she was determined to continue making “committed films” and to become a “spokeswoman <a target="_blank" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11871457/300-topless-women-are-fighting-oppressive-religion-heres-why.html">in defence of the Arab, Moroccan, Syrian, or Lebanese female condition</a>”.</p>
<p>In June, she told Le Figaro: “I’m not scared to die for a film, but I hope that things will calm down and that Moroccan society will evolve.”</p>
<p>While the film was banned in Morocco, it is credited with prompting authorities to publish their first ever official statistics on the sex industry.</p>
<p><span class="ssImg"><img alt="The poster for Much Loved" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03496/Much-Loved-Affiche_3496102c.jpg" height="595" width="460"/><span class="artImageExtras"><span class="ingCaptionCredit"><span class="caption">The poster for Much Loved</span><span class="credit"> Photo: PYRAMIDE FILMS</span></span></span></span></p>
<p>Local health ministries in Agadir, Fez, Rabat and Tangier in May reported that there were 19,333 sex workers in those cities in 2011. Critics said the number was likely much higher in a nation where prostitution is said to be a significant, if little-discussed, informal sector of the tourism industry.</p>
<p>While receiving support from some women’s rights advocates, others have criticised the film’s tone, saying it must respect the sensibilities of the country’s Sunni Muslim majority.</p>
<p>The Moroccan Association of Human Rights, Amdh, declined to comment, saying it was looking into the incident.</p>
<p>But Ibtissame Lachgar of the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties, an advocacy group that focuses on women’s and gay rights backed Ms Abidar.</p>
<p>“There are taboos we need to break,” she told the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/star-of-controversial-morocco-sex-worker-film-severely-beaten-a6725746.html">Independent</a>. “We can’t stop fighting.” </p>
<p><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11984478/Star-of-Moroccos-sex-workers-film-flees-to-France-after-brutal-assault.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11984478/Star-of-Moroccos-sex-workers-film-flees-to-France-after-brutal-assault.html</a></p>
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Italy: sneak attempt to start a mosque under the guise of 'art installation'
tag:4freedoms.com,2015-05-24:3766518:Topic:166961
2015-05-24T10:38:44.338Z
shiva
http://4freedoms.com/profile/shiva
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495061?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495061?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="500"></img></a> In responce a Comment by Philip Smeeton 14 hours ago</p>
<p>Artist protesting that there is not a mosque in Venice. The world really has gone mad. …</p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495061?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="500" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495061?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="500" class="align-center"/></a>In responce a Comment by Philip Smeeton 14 hours ago</p>
<p>Artist protesting that there is not a mosque in Venice. The world really has gone mad. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/arts/design/police-shut-down-mosque-installation-at-venice-biennale.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/arts/design/police-shut-down-mosque-installation-at-venice-biennale.html?_r=0</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The police in Venice closed an art installation in the form of a functioning mosque on Friday morning, after city officials declared the art project a security hazard and said that the artist who created it, Christoph Büchel, had not obtained proper permits and had violated laws by allowing too many people inside the mosque to worship.</p>
<p>The provocative project, made inside a long unused Catholic church, serves as Iceland’s national pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale and was intended in part to highlight the absence of a mosque in the historic center of Venice, a city whose art and architecture were deeply influenced by Islamic trade and culture. The issues the installation raised also went to the heart of the debate raging across Europe about Muslim worship and culture as immigration from Islamic countries rises.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now the question is. Is it an Art Istallation or is it a very sneaky attempt to establish a mosque by by-passing all the formalities such as planning permission etc etc</p>
<p>So here is more info, from the horse,s mouth so to speak, several screen shots from the <span> </span><strong>Islamic Cultural Centre Venice website</strong><strong> </strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494889?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="500" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494889?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="500" class="align-center"/></a></strong></p>
<p>Now this does not seem like an inaugration of a work of art.</p>
<p>Now exploring the site we find this</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494847?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494847?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.mosque.is/where.html">http://www.mosque.is/where.html</a></p>
<p><strong>And the address</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494913?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494913?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
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<p><strong> A google search give us this</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494897?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494897?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></strong></p>
<p> <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/dir///@45.4407923,12.3298633,16z">https://www.google.com/maps/dir///@45.4407923,12.3298633,16z</a></p>
<p><strong> Looks like this site is also preparing an invasion of Iceland</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494712?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="400" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494712?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="400" class="align-center"/></a></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>Nowhere on the site does it mention anything about it being an art installation,</p>
<p>Looks like <span>Christoph Büchel and the arty farty folk are </span>totally clueless and have been taken for a ride by the muslims</p>
The Islamic Destruction of Ctesiphon (Persia, 637)
tag:4freedoms.com,2015-05-21:3766518:Topic:167052
2015-05-21T20:02:04.658Z
shiva
http://4freedoms.com/profile/shiva
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This is how Ctesiphon Gate looked before Arab Muslim Invasion</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494765?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494765?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450"></img></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>And then…</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>This is how Ctesiphon Gate looked before Arab Muslim Invasion</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494765?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494765?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>And then</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495018?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110495018?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Fall of Ctesiphon 637 AD</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">This is how Ctesiphon looks after the Arab Muslim Invasion Occupation</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494925?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494925?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p>Ctesiphon was the imperial capital of the Parthian Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was one of the great cities of late ancient Mesopotamia. Its most conspicuous structure today is the great archway of Ctesiphon.</p>
<p>It was situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris across from where the Greek city of Seleucia stood and northeast of ancient Babylon. Today, the remains of the city lie in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq, approximately 35 km (22 mi) south of the city of Baghdad.</p>
<p>Ctesiphon was the largest city in the world from 570 AD, until its fall in 637 AD, during the Muslim conquests</p>
<p>Ctesiphon fell to the Muslims during the Islamic conquest of Persia in 637 under the military command of Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas during the caliphate of Umar. When the Arabs entered the city, the throne hall in Taq Kasra was briefly used as a mosque.</p>
<p><span>Ruins of Ctesiphon, The Ancient Capital of Sassanid Persian Empire, near Baghdad still exists. Before 638 AD, Ctesiphon used to be the wealthiest, most prestigious and the most glorious city in the world. Ctesiphon, to the envy of Rome, Egypt and Arabia, was the center of Culture in the civilized world.</span></p>
<p> Arab Savages murdered all the men, raped all the women, kidnapped young girls and sent them to Arabia as concubines (female slaves), and enslaved the young boys.</p>
<blockquote><p> In 637 CE with occupation of Iranian capital, Ctesiphon, the Baharestan carpet was taken by the Arabs, cut into small fragments and divided among the victorious soldiers as booty.</p>
<p>The Baharestan carpet (Persian فرش بهارستان, meaning the spring carpet) was commissioned by Sasanian Shahanshah Khosrow Anūšakrūwān), which was made for the main audience hall of the Sasanian dynastic imperial Palace at Ctesiphon, in the province of Khvârvarân (now in Iraq).</p>
<p>It was 450 feet (140 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) wide. Woven of silk, gold, silver, and rare stones, the carpet depicted a splendid garden akin to Paradise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="style88"><strong>Arab Muslims Destroyed Ctesiphon Library and Burned All Persian Books</strong></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>The book burnings started</strong>, they practically burned all the books in the glorious<strong> world famous Persian Library of Ctesiphon</strong>. The Persian documented history, science, literature, poetry, music and scripture of centuries and millenniums were burned to ashes by Arabo-Muslims. <strong>The only book needed in Islam is Quran, so they burned everything else!</strong> The book burnings continued for days and weeks!</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font>By 651 Ctesiphon was leveled and what had left was a pile of burning ashes. <strong>The largest city in the world was destroyed and wiped out of the map</strong></p>
<p> Caliph Al-Mansur took much of the required material for the construction of Baghdad from the ruins of Ctesiphon. He also attempted to demolish the palace and reuse its bricks for his own palace, but he desisted only when the undertaking proved too vast.</p>
Responses to Fascist Censorship: Michel Houellebecq play pulled from Croatia festival
tag:4freedoms.com,2015-05-16:3766518:Topic:167007
2015-05-16T23:29:49.312Z
Alan Lake
http://4freedoms.com/profile/AlanLake
<p><span style="font-size: 2em;">Michel Houellebecq play pulled from festival; security concerns cited</span></p>
<div class="trb_article_articleHeader_head"><div class="trb_article_leadart"><div class="trb_embed_media"><img alt="French author Michel Houellebecq" class="trb_embed_imageContainer_img" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-555639a6/turbine/la-michelhouellebecq-wre0028415806-20150428/500/500x281" title="French author Michel Houellebecq"></img><div class="trb_embed_related"><div class="trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption"><p>A summer festival in Croatia has dropped a play by controversial French author Michel Houellebecq, shown in Barcelona, Spain, last month.</p>
(Andreu Dalmau / EPA) …</div>
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<p><span style="font-size: 2em;">Michel Houellebecq play pulled from festival; security concerns cited</span></p>
<div class="trb_article_articleHeader_head"><div class="trb_article_leadart"><div class="trb_embed_media"><img alt="French author Michel Houellebecq" class="trb_embed_imageContainer_img" title="French author Michel Houellebecq" src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-555639a6/turbine/la-michelhouellebecq-wre0028415806-20150428/500/500x281"/><div class="trb_embed_related"><div class="trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption"><p>A summer festival in Croatia has dropped a play by controversial French author Michel Houellebecq, shown in Barcelona, Spain, last month.</p>
(Andreu Dalmau / EPA) <span class="trb_bylines_name_primary"><span class="trb_bylines_name_author"><span class="trb_bylines_name_author_by">By </span><a class="trb_bylines_name_author_a" href="http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-david-ng-staff.html">DAVID NG</a></span></span></div>
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<div class="trb_sharelines"><div class="trb_sharelines_list"><a class="trb_shareline"></a><span class="trb_sharelines_text">Michel Houellebecq play is pulled from Dubrovnik festival in Croatia over security concerns</span></div>
<div class="trb_sharelines_list"><a class="trb_shareline"></a><span class="trb_sharelines_text">'The Elementary Particles,' based on Houellebecq novel, is canceled at summer festival over security worries</span></div>
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<div><div class="trb_article_page"><p>A play from the controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq has been yanked from a prominent summer festival in Croatia, with officials citing security concerns arising from Houellebecq's writings about Islam.<a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-michel-houellebecq-elementary-particles-20150514-story.html#" class="trb_panelmod_title">l</a></p>
<p>"The Elementary Particles," a new stage work adapted from Houellebecq's own 1998 novel, was set to play at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in July. In announcing the season earlier this year, festival organizers said that the play would serve as the opening production of its roster of new theatrical productions.</p>
<div class="trb_embed_media"><div class="trb_embed_related"><span class="trb_embed_related_title"><a class="trb_embed_media_link" href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-ca-mcnulty-99-seat-theater-notebook-20150423-column.html"><span style="color: #000000;">But the current lineup published on the festival's official website contains no mention of the Houellebecq piece.</span></a></span></div>
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<p>A spokeswoman for the festival confirmed by email that the play was canceled following a "risk analysis" carried out by the Croatian Security and Intelligence Agency. She said that, based on that analysis, the Croatian Ministry of Interior determined that the play would represent a security risk.</p>
<p>The festival "had no other option," said Karla Labas, the spokeswoman.</p>
<p>Houellebecq has generated controversy with his writings about Islam, especially with his recent novel "Submission," which was published earlier this year and imagines a Muslim-dominated France. Shortly after its publication, the office of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper in Paris was attacked by armed terrorists, and 12 people died.</p>
<p>But Houellebecq's "The Elementary Particles" doesn't contain the author's incendiary views on Islam. The novel's plot follows the sexual lives of two half-brothers, Michel and Bruno, the former of whom is a biologist who is researching a potentially new race of human beings.</p>
<p>"We knew that the novel isn't about Islam in any way, but it's the question of whether those who required the assessment knew that," said Labas.</p>
<p>Croatia has a relatively small but prominent Muslim population, the country having once been part of the Ottoman Empire. Neighboring Bosnia has a much larger Muslim population, estimated at around 40% of the general population.</p>
<p>"The Elementary Particles" has previously been performed at the Festival d'Avignon in France in 2013 and the following year in Paris.</p>
<p>The 66th annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival is scheduled to commence July 10, and will feature a mix of classical music, dance and theatrical offerings.</p>
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Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin,
tag:4freedoms.com,2015-05-10:3766518:Topic:166552
2015-05-10T19:45:00.177Z
shiva
http://4freedoms.com/profile/shiva
<p>Some times I come across images that leave a lot of unanswered questions, here is one such image<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494756?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494756?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550"></img></a> The question is, what will the fate of this young boy?</p>
<p>The artist Vereshchagin, Vasily Vasilyevich also painted the following which I found while looking for answers.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Some times I come across images that leave a lot of unanswered questions, here is one such image<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494756?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494756?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a>The question is, what will the fate of this young boy?</p>
<p>The artist Vereshchagin, Vasily Vasilyevich also painted the following which I found while looking for answers.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494593?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494593?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494650?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494650?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span class="font-size-3">Here are some more rather disturbing images</span></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494685?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494685?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494683?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494683?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>And who says decapitation has nothing to do with islam</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494687?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494687?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/18713881?profile=original">View Full Size</a></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">During 1867–1868 and 1868–1870, Vereshchagin traveled in Central Asia (Turkestan). During his journey the artist was an eyewitness to military actions between Russian troops and the Bokhara Khanate. His impressions of what he saw were set down in the series of paintings entitled The Barbarians. The subject of the series was transparent – the destruction of a Russian detachment by warriors of the Bokhara Emir. The painting depicts the main square in Samarkand, Registan (which literally means “the place covered with sand”) in front of the Madrassah (medress, religious school) Shir Dor. The remarkable feature of the Shir Dor Madrassah (1619–1635/1636, Abdul Jabbar, architect) is the heraldic symbol of a tiger tearing to pieces a doe against a background of the solar disk - twice repeated on the tympanum of the portal. Shir Dor literally means “tiger bearing.” In the centre of the painting we see pikes with the impaled heads of Russian soldiers. However, they are almost indistinguishable against the background of the blinding sun, the bright ornamentation, and the colourful clothing of the gapers.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong>And finally</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-4"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494677?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="550" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/110494677?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="550" class="align-center"/></a></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-3">Under the influence of the military action in Turkestan, which shocked eyewitnesses by its cruelty, Vereshchagin did a series of paintings entitled The Barbarians. The key place in the series in terms of its intellectual freight was the painting The Apotheosis of War. The viewer beholds a dead wasteland baked by the sun with stunted trees. In the distance there is a plundered city. In the centre, a pyramid of human skulls.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-3">Such were the “monuments” which the 14th-15th century conqueror Tamerlane (Timur) left after himself. Originally the artist intended to name the painting The Triumph of Tamerlane, however he preferred to give it a larger scale significance and wrote on the frame The Apotheosis of War, adding “This is dedicated to all great conquerors, past, present and future.”</span></p>