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Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Islamic State destroying all books other than Islamic texts

Feb 1, 2015 8:45 am By Robert Spencer

Mideast Iraq Libraries In DangerThey are following in the illustrious footsteps of the caliph Umar, who is supposed to have said when ordering the ancient, fabled library of Alexandria to be burned: “If the books agree with the Qur’an, they are superfluous. If they disagree with it, they are heretical.”

“Iraqi libraries ransacked by Islamic State group in Mosul,” by Sinan Salaheddin and Sameer N. Yacoub, Associated Press, January 31, 2015:

BAGHDAD (AP) — When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people’s ideas.

Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children’s stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.

The rest?

“These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned,” a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation, said the Islamic State group official made his impromptu address as others stuffed books into empty flour bags.

Since the Islamic State group seized a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria, they have sought to purge society of everything that doesn’t conform to their violent interpretation of Islam. They already have destroyed many archaeological relics, deeming them pagan, and even Islamic sites considered idolatrous. Increasingly books are in the firing line.

Mosul, the biggest city in the Islamic State group’s self-declared caliphate, boasts a relatively educated, diverse population that seeks to preserve its heritage sites and libraries. In the chaos that followed the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, residents near the Central Library hid some of its centuries-old manuscripts in their own homes to prevent their theft or destruction by looters.

But this time, the Islamic State group has made the penalty for such actions death. Presumed destroyed are the Central Library’s collection of Iraqi newspapers dating to the early 20th century, maps and books from the Ottoman Empire and book collections contributed by around 100 of Mosul’s establishment families.

Days after the Central Library’s ransacking, militants broke into University of Mosul’s library. They made a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, destroying them in front of students.

A University of Mosul history professor, who spoke on condition he not be named because of his fear of the Islamic State group, said the extremists started wrecking the collections of other public libraries last month. He reported particularly heavy damage to the archives of a Sunni Muslim library, the library of the 265-year-old Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and the Mosul Museum Library with works dating back to 5000 BC.

Citing reports by the locals who live near these libraries, the professor added that the militants used to come during the night and carry the materials in refrigerated trucks with Syria-registered license plates. The fate of these old materials is still unknown, though the professor suggested some could be sold on the black market. In September, Iraqi and Syrian officials told the AP that the militants profited from the sale of ancient artifacts.

The professor said Islamic State group militants appeared determined to “change the face of this city … by erasing its iconic buildings and history.”

Since routing government forces and seizing Mosul last summer, the Islamic State group has destroyed dozens of historic sites, including the centuries-old Islamic mosque shrines of the prophets Seth, Jirjis and Jonah.

An Iraqi lawmaker, Hakim al-Zamili, said the Islamic State group “considers culture, civilization and science as their fierce enemies.”

Al-Zamili, who leads the parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, compared the Islamic State group to raiding medieval Mongols, who in 1258 ransacked Baghdad. Libraries’ ancient collections of works on history, medicine and astronomy were dumped into the Tigris River, purportedly turning the waters black from running ink.

“The only difference is that the Mongols threw the books in the Tigris River, while now Daesh is burning them,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. “Different method, but same mentality.”

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Islamic supremacism Tagged With: Central Library of Mosul


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Comments

  1. Angemon says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 9:11 am

    They are following in the illustrious footsteps of the caliph Umar, who is supposed to have said when ordering the ancient, fabled library of Alexandria to be burned: “If the books agree with the Qur’an, they are superfluous. If they disagree with it, they are heretical.”

    Before the usual suspects come in and whine that there’s no confirmation of that story: it may be apocryphal, but that didn’t stop it from being propagated, or accepted as proper practice, by muslims. Same for the biography of muhammad and the invention of islam.

    • Cunamarra says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 3:29 pm

      I have heard of nearly identical stories of Islam’s attitude toward the Buddhist and Hindu libraries in the East. When the “Golden Age” of islam is spoken of, Islam is often attributed for the accomplishment coming out of the “Islamic” world at that time. It is never acknowledged that these areas already had achieved a level of advancement unprecedented until the Renaissance. The achievements from the Islamic world were nearly entirely the product of conquered peoples or the Muslim acolytes of such peoples. The indigenous ideas were too often considered pre-Islamic ignorance and suppressed to the point of being eventually destroyed or lost. There is a reason that the Muslims had the whole of civilization when they conquered but then lost it by destroying it, and why the Europeans didn’t have civilization to begin with but when given a piece of it contributed exponentially to it.

      • FarmerMike says

        Feb 1, 2015 at 6:15 pm

        Well said, Cunamarra. Very well said. We all need such history lessons, perhaps especially right now. It’s not just a matter of bragging. It’s a matter of understanding how some cultures cope with the clash of civilizations better than others. It is perhaps worthwhile to ponder why these differences exist. I suspect that Greek logic & Hebrew/Christian ethics had a lot to do with the emergence of a superior European culture.

    • Semeru says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 9:52 pm

      So if the story of the Burning Alexandria may be apocryphal, what purpose has Spencer of using it

      A similar myth

      The Sassanid Empire’s capital Ctesiphon was conquered by Arab armies under the military command of Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas in 637, during the caliphate of Umar. Though the general population was not harmed, the palaces were burned, leading to destruction of archives recording centuries of Sassanid history.

      According to an account written two centuries later in Tarikh al-Tabari by the Persian author Al-Tabari, the Arab Commander Sa’ad ibn Abi Waqqas wrote to Caliph Umar ibn al-Khatta-b asking what should be done with the books at Ctesiphon. Umar wrote back: “If the books contradict the Qur’an, they are blasphemous. On the other hand, if they are in agreement, they are not needed, as for us Qur’an is sufficient.”Thus, the huge library was destroyed and the books, the product of the generations of Persian scientists and scholars were thrown into fire or the Euphrates

      Argononse said Before the usual suspects come in and whine that there’s no confirmation of that story: it may be apocryphal, but that didn’t stop it from being propagated, or accepted as proper practice, by muslims.

      What a load of dung flinging,

      Here is a pretty comprehensive list of book burning through the ages, Moslems where no worse than anybody else, In fact christians seemed to be more adapt at burning books than moslems

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents

      Interesting to see

      Beatles Burnings – Southern USA, 1966
      John Lennon, member of the popular music group The Beatles, sparked outrage from religious conservatives in the Southern ‘Bible Belt’ states when his quote ‘The Beatles are more popular than Jesus’ was taken out of context from an interview he had done in England five months previous to the Beatles’ 1966 US Tour (incidentally, their final tour as a group). Disc Jockeys, evangelists, and the Ku Klux Klan implored the local public to bring their Beatles records, books, magazines, posters and memorabilia to Beatles bonfire burning events.

      And

      Harry Potter books (in various American cities)
      There have been several incidents of Harry Potter books being burned, including those directed by churches at Alamogordo, New Mexico and Charleston, South Carolina in 2006.

      • Phil says

        Feb 2, 2015 at 1:58 am

        Semeru – who taught the Spaniards all about book burning? Perhaps you might consider the role of the Almoravids and the Asharites? Averroes (a.k.a. ibn Rushd) had some choice words to say about them. The West took up many of his ideas under the enthusiastic encouragement of Siger of Brabant and Thomas Aquinas – the Dar al-Islam burnt his writings along with much else.

        But you’ve got me thinking. Maybe I’m being unfair? There are so few (???) other incidents of Islamic book-burning – sarc off. Except for the burning of the Samanid Dynasty Royal Library – remember that event? Avicenna (Ibn Sina) tried to save something from the flames, but I’ve got to give the Ummah credit for one thing – they are thorough book trashers. Or the earlier orgy of libricide committed by the Mu’tazilites under the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun (not to mention the Minha, the Islamic Inquisition he launched)? Or the burning of Mu’tazilite texts after they fell from grace?

        If I were being nasty, I might also mention the razing of the great library of Nalanda in Bihar. A library that exceeded the Alexandrian Library in extent – utterly priceless and irreplaceable works all trashed by Mamluks under direct Qur’anically inspired orders from their commanding general, Bakhtiyar Khilji. But since I don’t want to be nasty, I won’t mention it.

        And I won’t even bother mentioning the destruction of the remnants of the Alexandrine Library collection in 685AD by the muslims either, because everyone knows about it (from Islamic texts, I might note). The way Muslims reverence their pre-Islamic past is so heart-warming isn’t it? Apart from little contretemps like the Ayyubids defacing one of the pyramids of Gizeh (and stopping at one because they lacked the power to destroy even the smallest pyramid). Or the destruction of the Zarathustri fire-temples in Iran. Or the defacement of the Sphinx by the Mamluks in 1378 under Mohammed Sa’in al-Dahr. And mentioning the Bamiyan Buddhas of recent memory would be a cheap shot, so I won’t say a thing about it and mention the Timurid sacks and library-trashings instead.

        If I were being really nasty, I’d mention the Rashidite Caliph Uthman and his burning of what have since that time been declared ‘non-canonical’ Qur’ans. But I fully understand the reluctance of the faithful to deal with the issue of the Uthmanic recension of the Qur’an, so I won’t address it.

        The value the Ummah gives books can be seen in the UN Arab Human Development Report 2002 – a product of Arab, *Muslim* researchers who noted that in the millennium since Caliph Ma’mun the dar al-Islam has translated only as many books as Spain translated annually during the 1990’s. All the annual HDR’s since then have shown, if anything, a worsening of the situation. Perhaps the Muslim Ummah should listen to some of its own, long-discarded philosophers like Imam Ali bin Ali Talib – I think his quotation “If Allah were to humiliate a human being, He would deny him knowledge” is rather apposite here….unfortunately, Talib’s definition of knowledge principally encompassed the ilm and fiqh, so even there the advice is of mixed value.

        • Semeru says

          Feb 2, 2015 at 7:19 am

          Excellent post except where you write

          And I won’t even bother mentioning the destruction of the remnants of the Alexandrine Library collection in 685AD by the muslims either, because everyone knows about it (from Islamic texts, I might note).

          Hrrrrm Hrrrrm, what islam texts would that be

          In the specific case of the conquest of Alexandria, beside Muslim historians, some Christians have also given detailed accounts of the fall of this city to the Arab conquerors.

          No source compiled before the Crusades; Islamic or Christian, Jewish or some other; mentions the book burning in Alexandria or Iran. It was for the first time at the end of the 6th/12th and the beginning of the 7th/13th centuries that ‘Abd al-Latif al- Baghdad, a Christian, refers to it in his book entitled al Ifadah wa al-Nibar fi al-umur al-mushahadah wa al-hawadih al-mu’ayanah fi ‘ard Misr (the subject of the book is the events and conditions observed personally by the author, and is in fact, a travel account).

        • Angemon says

          Feb 2, 2015 at 7:25 am

          The copy/paste expert strikes again!

          http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2010/09/11/bar-hebraeus-abd-al-latif-and-the-destruction-of-the-library-of-alexandria/

      • Angemon says

        Feb 2, 2015 at 7:22 am

        The dunce posted:

        “So if the story of the Burning Alexandria may be apocryphal, what purpose has Spencer of using it”

        Called it. Of course, the dunce didn’t read my post properly, otherwise he’d see that I answered his question even before he asked it.

        “What a load of dung flinging”

        And, of course, he doesn’t give any evidence for his assertion.

        The rest of his post is just an amalgamation of tu quoque that does nothing to disprove what I said about how the burning of the library was accepted by muslims.

        • Phil says

          Feb 2, 2015 at 8:53 pm

          Thanks for quoting Bar Hebraeus – I was going to discuss Abd al-Latif and the later Muslim historical commentaries, but that reference of yours covers it much better than I could. The salient point is the quite happy acceptance of the event by the Muslims. And let’s remember, Alexandria wasn’t the only major Egyptian library the conquerors trashed.

        • Semeru says

          Feb 3, 2015 at 6:08 pm

          And what other major Egyptian libraries did the moslems trash?

          Oh, just for the record, The Bar Hebraeus,s account seems to be copied almost word for word from Ibn al-Qifṭī p. 354-357

          http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2010/09/24/al-qifti-on-the-destruction-of-the-library-of-alexandria/

          Firstly, the main character of the story is Yahya al-Nahwi, the famous philosopher; who, according to recently uncovered evidence, had died about a hundred years, before the conquest of Alexandria, and his meeting with ‘Amr is a fiction

        • Angemon says

          Feb 3, 2015 at 6:47 pm

          I see the dunce is still trying to argue that Umar didn’t actually destroy the library of Alexandria, even though the first comment says:

          “Before the usual suspects come in and whine that there’s no confirmation of that story: it may be apocryphal, but that didn’t stop it from being propagated, or accepted as proper practice, by muslims. Same for the biography of muhammad and the invention of islam.”

          Once again, dunce:

          The idea that caliph Umar ordered the destruction of the library and said those words is confirmed by muslim sources. That means that it doesn’t matter whether the story as it is told today is apocryphal or an actual historic event. What matters is that muslims believe and approve it, and act accordingly.

          Seriously, do you need to have that drilled through your thick zebiba every time the subject is brought up?

        • Semeru says

          Feb 3, 2015 at 7:49 pm

          So agrononse claims “The idea that caliph Umar ordered the destruction of the library and said those words is confirmed by muslim sources.”

          So where are the moslem sources?

        • Angemon says

          Feb 4, 2015 at 4:03 am

          The dunce posted:

          “So agrononse claims “The idea that caliph Umar ordered the destruction of the library and said those words is confirmed by muslim sources.””

          What I said was:

          The idea that caliph Umar ordered the destruction of the library and said those words is confirmed by muslim sources. That means that it doesn’t matter whether the story as it is told today is apocryphal or an actual historic event. What matters is that muslims believe and approve it, and act accordingly.

          Seriously, do you need to have that drilled through your thick zebiba every time the subject is brought up?

  2. Renee says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 9:30 am

    Reading what is going on at other universities in the West: under pressure some books may be moved to the top shelves and others to bottom shelves to be ignored.

  3. mortimer says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 9:35 am

    The disaster of the Alexandria Library was compounded by the burning of all libraries in Egypt. Most cities and large towns had municipal Roman baths which often contained libraries. The conquering Arabs fed the papyrus into the fires that heated the water.

    Most of the works of antiquity were destroyed by Muslims intentionally. We know of these works by quotations and by their titles.

    The main point here is something said about the Nazis: If they burn books, soon they will burn people.

    • BC says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 10:33 am

      The parallels between the Nazis and Political Islam are so exact and keep appearing with such regularity that nobody except naive and deluded politicians can claim that it is not a fascist totalitarian movement or nothing to do with true Islam

      • Greyhound Fancier says

        Feb 1, 2015 at 12:48 pm

        Just check the Wall Street Journal weekend edition. The Review section has a lengthy article by the chief rabbi emeritus of the British Commonwealth, who argues that Muslim disdain but do not hate Jews, and that they learned Jew-hatred from Christians during the Crusades.

        I think it might be the other way around – Christians followed the example of the Muslims they encountered in the Crusades.

        • Tom Davis says

          Feb 1, 2015 at 2:25 pm

          You are correct Greyhound Fancier, and not just about the Crusades, but also the Islamic-Christian conflict in Spain (the Reconquesta) and the roots of the mafia in Sicily. It is an historical fact that the Christianity that existed prior to the rising of Islam was much more peaceful than the Christianity that later coexisted with Islam.

    • Semeru says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 9:29 pm

      The quote “Where they burn books, they will also, in the end, burn humans” was written by Heinrich Heine and was referring to

      In 1490 a number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books were burned at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition. In 1499 about 5000 Arabic manuscripts—all that could be found in the city—were consumed by flames in a public square in Granada, Spain, on the orders of Cardenal Ximénez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo and head of the Spanish Inquisition,[67][68] excepting only those on medicine, which are conserved in the library of El Escorial. Many of the poetic works were allegedly destroyed on account of their symbolized homoeroticism.

  4. mortimer says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 9:43 am

    Barbarians who are enemies of civilization. We must not import more of these barbarians into the West.

  5. shabeer_hassan says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:05 am

    3: 164. Indeed Allâh conferred a great favour on the believers when He sent among them a Messenger (Muhammad SAW) from among themselves, reciting unto them His Verses (the Qur’ân), and purifying them (from sins by their following him), and instructing them (in) the Book (the Qur’ân) and Al¬Hikmah [the wisdom and the Sunnah of the Prophet SAW (i.e. his legal ways, statements, acts of worship, etc.)], while before that they had been in manifest error.

    “And whoso brings the truth and believes therein such are the dutiful.” (Quran, 39:33)

    Every Muslim man’s and every Muslim woman’s prayer should be:

    “My Lord! Enrich me with knowledge..” (Quran, 20:114)

    The pursuit of knowledge and the use of reason, based on sense and observation is made obligatory on all believers.

    The following traditions of the Prophet supplement the foregoing teachings of the Qur’an in the following way:

    Seek knowledge “even though it be in China.”

    “The acquisition of knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim, whether male or female.”

    “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.”

    “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.”

    “God has revealed to me, ‘Whoever walks in the pursuit of knowledge I facilitate for him the way to heaven.’

    “The best form of worship is the pursuit of knowledge.”

    “Scholars should endeavor to spread knowledge and provide education to people who have been deprived of it. For, where knowledge is hidden it disappears.”

    Some one asked the Prophet : “Who is the biggest scholar?” He replied: “He who is constantly trying to learn from others, for a scholar is ever hungry for more knowledge.”

    “Seek knowledge and wisdom, or whatever the vessel from which it flows, you will never be the loser.”

    “Contemplating deeply for one hour (with sincerity) is better than 70 years of (mechanical) worship.”

    “To listen to the words of the learned and to instill unto others the lessons of science is better than religious exercises.”

    “Acquire knowledge: it enables its possessor to distinguish right from the wrong, it lights the way to heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when friendless – it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament among friends and an armor against enemies.”

    • Angemon says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 10:26 am

      shabeer_hassan posted:

      “Every Muslim man’s and every Muslim woman’s prayer should be:

      “My Lord! Enrich me with knowledge..” (Quran, 20:114)”

      See? More evidence that shabeer is not interested in having an open, rational discussion, but only in scanning for keywords and copy/pasting walls of text with little, if any, relation to the issue at hand.

      20:114 is advising muslims to study the quran with patience – not to rush into understanding it without sufficient knowledge. The full quote makes that very clear:

      “So high [above all] is Allah , the Sovereign, the Truth. And, [O Muhammad], do not hasten with [recitation of] the Qur’an before its revelation is completed to you, and say, “My Lord, increase me in knowledge.””

      But the taqqyia artist shabeer would have us believe it’s about knowledge in general.

      Like I said, taking out the trash.

    • Jay Boo says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 12:30 pm

      Muhammad SAW — was a caravan thief.

      Some respected scholars claim that the honorable prophet Muhammad was such a lecherous individual that he grew a third hand. The historic evidence of this fact has been lost to history ever since he was caught thieving.

      What is the Islamic penalty for theft?
      Muhammad SAW, SAW, SAW, SAW

      • Greyhound Fancier says

        Feb 1, 2015 at 12:53 pm

        How would Mo have time for scholarship (or have the wherewithal, being illiterate most of his life)? He was awfully busy with robbing caravans, starting wars, mass murdering, raping, and molesting poor little Aisha.

  6. PAthena says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:07 am

    The members of ISIS show what ignoramuses and how they are lovers of ignorance. Why don’t they read the books in the libraries they destroy? Are they afraid they might learn something?

    • ross says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 11:36 am

      Propaganda by omission. The same tactic out main stream media uses.

  7. Rezali Mehil says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:10 am

    I am not surprised with this …
    The sunni have a long “oral” tradition…they pass on information through word of mouth and stories …indeed the word sunnah means to “tell all (by the speaker) and I/we heard (by the listener(s))…so those who hear the sunnah are by definition …the sunni.

    Whilst at camp-fire at night – transporting their goods/booti the experienced speaker would extol famous stories of the brave …whilst the others would listen in awe.

    If these listeners then joined a different camel train …he would become the speaker for a time and pass on the story always adding in his own touch…and that is how this was done.

    You all know that the early sciences and maths (algebra) , medical implements, medical operations and astronomy knowledge, teflon were invented and distributed by early Muslims. Some of this information was written down …particularly by the shia in Iran …and distributed via libraries for others to learn.

    Caliph Umar…did away with all that …burn the books …get back to oral tradition …and this scientific knowledge was lost …as was the scientific knowledge transference over a few generations…the sunni were happy again…one book fits all was his motto..and anyway they hated maths as they could not get their head round it.

    Interesting though …on the one hand the IS want to burn libraries ..on the other hand they want to recruit doctors, engineers, Media savvy personnel to achieve their goals.

    I find that a bit of a paradox…but that is the sunni for you …this is why peoples I keep saying that when/if you convert ..go shia…and you can save your libraries.

    More Later …l

    Rezali

    • Salah says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 10:46 am

      @ Rezali Mehil

      “You all know that the early sciences and maths (algebra) , medical implements, medical operations and astronomy knowledge, teflon were invented and distributed by early Muslims.”

      Thanks, Rezali. You made my day; I can’t stop laughing!!!

      http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2013/06/islamic-astronomy.html

      http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2013/06/islamic-medicine.html

    • Angemon says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 10:56 am

      Rezali Mehil posted:

      “You all know that the early sciences and maths (algebra) , medical implements, medical operations and astronomy knowledge, teflon were invented and distributed by early Muslims. Some of this information was written down …particularly by the shia in Iran …and distributed via libraries for others to learn.”

      Nah, almost all those predate the invention of islam by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Teflon was discovered last century by an america non-muslim.

      See, this is why I’m fond of shia muslims – they’re absolutely hilarious! Thanks for the laught, Reza.

    • Buraq says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 1:42 pm

      @ that brainless bint, Rezali Mayhem

      So, if we return to the oral tradition we can begin telling the story of Islam with; “Once upon a time in a far away land there was a desert bandit called Mohammed. He had a predilection for little girls, owning slaves and murdering those who disagreed with him. And he invented teflon, too”

      You’re a five star clown!

    • Phil says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 8:33 pm

      It’s not just in the West that the book burnings happened. Ignore for the moment the book burnings carried out by the Almohads under Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in Andalusia (an we are supposed to view this as the ornament of the world????!) – it’s documented the muslims destroyed the great Buddhist library at Nalanda in Bihar under the Mamluk general Baktiyar Khilji.

      The spread of Islam correlates with a great reduction in the cultural base of all the conquered societies. The Persians managed to hold on to a lot of their culture and they over-contributed to the so-called Islamic Golden Age, but even they lost the ability to read Pahlavi texts. As for Syria and Egypt – it was an intellectual disaster. The Muslim rejection of the products of the Jahiliyah, the pre-Islamic ‘Age of Ignorance’ was well-nigh absolute. Despite the claims of the Muslim apologists, Christianity, both Latin and Eastern Orthodox, kept a cultural continuity with the past the Muslims wilfully rejected – remember as an example that the Coptic Liturgical language is a variant of Ancient Egyptian Demotic. The Muslims had little to do with our Renaissance. The Renaissance was inspired by scholars from Byzantium fleeing the Muslim invaders who reintroduced high quality translations of Classical works to the West. The Arabs only had access to the classical texts because of the work of Christian and Jewish translators – although you rarely see the Arabs acknowledge this anymore.

      As for the claim Muslims ‘invented’ Algebra – that’s rot. Algebra was developed by Diophantus of Alexandria in the 3rd Century BC (and despite his Hellenized name, he wasn’t a Greek – he was from Babylonia – but the Hellenistic Oikoumene was nothing if not inclusive) and independently by Brahmagupta in India. The great Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarezmi developed some algebraic methods, but his primary forte was in giving geometric proofs in solving quadratic equations. The algebra found in Al-Khwarezmi’s al-Jabar is more elementary than that written in Diophantus’ Arithmetica. Incidentally, sorry to burst the Islamophile’s bubble, but the Persian historian Al-Tabari gave al-Khwarezmi the epithet ‘al-Majusi’ which implies openly that al-Khwarezmi was a Zoroastrian(!) and not a Muslim.
      I’m delighted to hear Muslims invented polytetrafluoroethylene (a.k.a. Teflon)! Exactly how they developed it, given they didn’t have the ability to synthesize chlorofluorocarbons is something of a mystery, but I’m sure there’s a hadith lurking in Sahih Muslim or al-Bukhari that will explain things. After all, Muslims are so gifted in the Sciences – unfortunately they haven’t been able to show this wonderful ability for the last 800 years. From the world’s estimated 1.3 to 1.6 billion Muslims, only 2 Nobel prize winners in the sciences have arisen – and one of them was an Ahmadi and the other converted to Episcopalianism. The Ummah’s achievements in Mathematics has been equally abysmal – although I am delighted that a Persian woman recently won the Fields medal (not a very devout muslima though – married an unrepentant, unconverted Czech Kaffir and named their daughter Anahita – the Twelth Imam must be having kittens). Yet the Hindus, substantially outnumbered by the Muslims, have done so much better in the sciences and in maths….funny that?

  8. Greyhound Fancier says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:48 am

    Robert, sorry for the off subject comment here. If you’re checking this thread, please look at the Wall Street Journal weekend edition, Review section. The big article is on Anti-Semitism.

    The author is blaming Islamic anti-semitism on the influence of European Christians and their humiliation. He admits that Muslims disdained Jews, but claims that they didn’t hate them prior to contact with Christians during the Crusades.

    If you could look at the article and give your take…there was no mention of the Muslims killing the Jews hiding behind trees and rocks, no mention of the Jewish woman killed on Mohammad’s orders because she mocked him as a “prophet”, no mention of Islamic sources through the ages on dhimmitude.

    It looks like a typical media apologetic for Muslims. Shame on them!

    • Greyhound Fancier says

      Feb 1, 2015 at 10:59 am

      The author of the Wall Street Journal article is the emeritus chief rabbi of the United Congregations of the British Commonwealth. That would be somewhat like a retired Archbishop of Canterbury to Anglicans (this gentleman has similar views, too).

      What chance to the Jews have with their leaders producing material like this?

  9. Jose says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 11:35 am

    The frenzied burning of books is almost amusing. These poor souls.. most of whom cannot read, seem to believe that destroying pieces of paper destroys free thought in cultured people. We have seen this happen in Nazi Germany, Russia and all over The Mid east. Has it mattered one iota? Certainly great texts were lost before the printed word… but I suspect the assiduous work of the scribes paid off in the long run. Nowadays everything has multiple copies all around the world and The Cloud keeps more information, that is inaccessible to arsonists, in more [places than they have had hot dinners. We have only to witness the works of Pasternak, Arthur Miller and even Chairman Mao to know that words are never destroyed in the end and everyone, except the illiterate remain free.

  10. Jay Boo says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 12:40 pm

    Every tiny bit of truthful information threatens the credibility of Mohammad’s supposed revelations.

    The first Muslims burnt conflicting versions of the Koran to hide its most obvious of its embarrassing lies.
    Yet the Koran is still full of an endless stream of BS.

  11. blues4allah says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    This is but one of dozens of similarities with Germany’s National Socialist Party.That there are more than just similarities, but historical precedent to demonstrate this ‘unholy alliance’ from 1940 onward, THIS is one area where the politically correct “tiny minority of extremist” crowd can’t refute.

    It’s so wonderful to hate Nazis these days, since the Left has painted them as “Far Right” — but why isn’t it not wonderful to expose their historical doppelganger, Islam? That incongruity should be exploited further and more widely if we are ever to make any headway against the scourge itself.

  12. Richie says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 1:11 pm

    What happens if a Muslim burn the Bible?
    Nothing

    What happens if a Christian burns a Quran?
    Muslims engage in mass killings, and the Christian can face arrest

  13. Jay Boo says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 1:17 pm

    Why didn’t early Muslims burn all of their early books?
    The world now knows of many of weak-willed Muhammad’s most revealing secrets.
    Pedophilia and homosexuality and more.
    This truth about Muhammad is unstoppable.

    http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the-perverse-sexual-habits-of-the-prophet/

  14. Joe Shmo says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 2:20 pm

    Depressing as this, this will be ultimately why they will lose. Their beliefs make their culture vastly inferior.

  15. Mirren10 says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    ” … loaded around 2,000 books — including children’s stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. ”

    I have 1,600 books in *my* library, and I’m just one person ! This is the number available for a *city* ? Oh, of course, it’s a mohammedan city. I’m surprised they actually had that many.

  16. Cunamarra says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 3:35 pm

    The massive pyres of the Great Rebirth from Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” comes to mind. Is Islam capable of establishing anything but dystopias or more appropriately cacotopias?

  17. Cunamarra says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 3:45 pm

    This is what we are asking for when we invite this ideology into our society. If we don’t but a stop to it we will deserve it. The Europeans obviously want this for themselves. They want this to be the fate of their ancestors achievements, but how are the North Americans any really different. We indoctrinate our children in the public school system and the universities with the same mentality that invites Islam into our territories and stubbornly defends it. It is just not as far advanced in the Americas as it is in Europe. In the past the Muslim community wasn’t productive nor was it advanced technologically until they conquered the advanced civilizations of Egypt, the Levant and Mesopotamia. They then mobilized the advanced and productive civilization to wage ware on the next non-Muslim territory. What does the world think will happen when they gain control of Europe?

  18. CogitoErgoSum says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    I’m sure they are saving any and all copies of “Ms. Marvel,” the comic book Muslima superhero. Just think of what a female monotheistic polymorph could do for the morale of the fighters! Kamala Khan has to be every jihadi’s dream girl. Will the next issue detail her exploits in the Islamic State …….. fighting for truth, justice and the ….? Oh, wait. Never mind.

  19. profitsbeard says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 4:54 pm

    The pithier version is:

    “If the books agree with the Koran, we don’t need them, if they disagree with the Koran, we don’t want them- burn them all!”

    Once these loons get the proper technology electronic mind control will be mandatory for true Muslims.

    Think a non-Islamic thought, get a shock wave generated via the wifi Uber Mohommad channel.

  20. ApolloSpeaks says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    THE SOLUTION?

    Attach pages of the Koran to all non-Islamic books. Or would that desercrate the Koran and get people killed?

    http://www.apollospeaks.com

  21. Myxlplik says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    Well, seems to me that bombing them is more expensive than just allowing them to them die of their own Islamoretadation, because they’ll all be dead from Chollera, and other pestilences in under a decade anyhow.

  22. Arthur says

    Feb 1, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Something tells me that a nation that destroys its store of knowledge will be awfully easy to defeat in a war. No books–no knowledge–no technology.

    On the other hand, they are all probably counting on Wikipedia and Youtube to help them understand how to make a bomb and shoot a gun. Have we turned off the Islamic State’s internet connection?

    • Vatandas says

      Feb 2, 2015 at 10:21 am

      Or Western universities.

  23. outofturn says

    Feb 2, 2015 at 6:10 pm

    Remember was the Christians who dragged Hypatia, the librarian at Alexandria, through the streets intimately burning her

  24. huneryk says

    Feb 3, 2015 at 7:16 am

    Fahrenheit 451? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9n98SXNGl8

  25. Mo says

    Feb 4, 2015 at 11:48 am

    Is something wrong with the site? I’m not used to seeing no updates for a few days.

  26. Arjay says

    Feb 4, 2015 at 7:40 pm

    Muslims have also destroyed archaeological sites in Israel which show the land’s ancient Jewish heritage… they recently destroyed a historic Shinto Shrine in Japan… it just won’t stop.

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