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Jihad Watch

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

Islamic State bulldozed ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud

Mar 5, 2015 4:40 pm By Robert Spencer

Islamic State destroying artifactsThere are men, and there are destroyers. These Muslims, acting on principles of Islam, are the enemies of life and creativity; they love only death and destruction.

Besides removing supposed temptations to idolatry, Islamic jihadists want to ruin the artifacts of non-Muslim civilizations because doing so testifies to the truth of Islam, as the Qur’an suggests that ruins are a sign of Allah’s punishment of those who rejected his truth:

Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth. (Qur’an 3:137)

This is one of the foundations of the Islamic idea that pre-Islamic civilizations, and non-Islamic civilizations, are all jahiliyya — the society of unbelievers, which is worthless. Obviously this cuts against the idea of tourism of ancient sites and non-Muslim religious installations such as St. Catherine’s monastery. V. S. Naipaul encountered this attitude in his travels through Muslim countries. For many Muslims, he observed in Among the Believers, “The time before Islam is a time of blackness: that is part of Muslim theology. History has to serve theology.” Naipaul recounted that some Pakistani Muslims, far from valuing the nation’s renowned archaeological site at Mohenjo Daro, saw its ruins as a teaching opportunity for Islam, recommending that Qur’an 3:137 be posted there as a teaching tool.

To be men, not destroyers.

“IS ‘bulldozed’ ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud: Iraq govt,” AFP, March 5, 2015:

Baghdad (AFP) – The Islamic State group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq on Thursday, the government said, in the jihadists’ latest attack on the country’s historical heritage.

IS “assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page.

An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.

“Until now, we do not know to what extent it was destroyed,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC, lies on the Tigris around 30 kilometres (18 miles) southeast of Mosul, Iraq’s second city and the main hub of IS in the country.

The destruction at Nimrud, one of the jewels of the Assyrian era, came a week after the jihadist group released a video showing militants armed with sledgehammers and jackhammers smashing priceless ancient artefacts at the Mosul museum.

That attack sparked widespread consternation and alarm, with some archaeologists and heritage experts comparing it to the 2001 demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

In the jihadists’ extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines are a corruption of the purity of the early Muslim faith and amount to recognising other objects of worship than God….

Actually, there is no interpretation of Islam that doesn’t hold that. The only difference is that other groups haven’t had the will or the means to follow through with total destruction.Islamic State destroying artifacts

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Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Sharia Tagged With: Nimrud


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Comments

  1. Joseph says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    In the jihadists’ extreme interpretation of Islam, statues, idols and shrines are a corruption of the purity of the early Muslim faith and amount to recognizing other objects of worship than God….

    Kinda pisses me off when they use a capitol “G” when they refer to the Muslim god who is in fact Satan.

    Yes you heard me right, I said your Allah is none other than SATAN.

    • Peggy says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 5:06 pm

      It’s time we started destroying all they hold dear and yes Islam iteself. If we love God then we have to hate his opposite.

      • Joseph says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 5:29 pm

        Yes it is time that the Muslims need to learn to stop shopping at the “PISS THE WORLD OFF” store.

        There are no returns either

        • mortimer says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 11:07 pm

          It’s time we start to demolish Islam and turn all Islamic doctrines into intellectual rubble.

      • Billy S says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 6:08 pm

        Peggy, Muslims are saying exactly the same thing, with one small difference: “If we love Allah then we have to hate his opposite.” So much insanity over whose imaginary sky-friend is superior.

        • Peggy says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 7:31 pm

          There is a HUGE difference between us and Muslims. We don’t go around killing them because they are Muslim or destroying their history. The reason we have to start doing that is self preservation for if we don’t we will be destroyed.
          I can’t see how you could make such a statement.

        • Mirren10 says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 7:32 pm

          ” … Muslims are saying exactly the same thing, with one small difference: “If we love Allah then we have to hate his opposite.” So much insanity over whose imaginary sky-friend is superior.”

          Actually, there is a very **large** difference, and I say it as an agnostic.

          Any reading of the Bible, and then the koran, makes clear that the **character** of the Christian God, and the character of the islamic ‘allah’ are diametrically opposed.

          And that the commands of Jesus Christ are beneficent, whilst those of mohammed and his sidekick ‘allah’ are vicious, cruel, sick and evil.

          One needs to have no belief in either to see that the Christian God is fundamentally benignant, and the islamic ‘allah’ is fundamentally **malignant**.

          Have you nothing to say about the destruction of an ancient and beautiful city, which is part of the **world’s** heritage, by mental and spiritual pygmies, who think they are doing ‘allah’s’ commands ?

          And that is a relatively small thing compared to the horrors they wreak on **human beings**, in the name of their foul ‘allah’.

        • Mo says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 7:42 pm

          @ Billy S

          “Peggy, Muslims are saying exactly the same thing, with one small difference: “If we love Allah then we have to hate his opposite.” So much insanity over whose imaginary sky-friend is superior.”

          What “sky fairy” do you mean?

        • Champ says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 8:05 pm

          Billy S wrote:

          So much insanity over whose imaginary sky-friend is superior.

          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          Ok …

          Lets compare group A: muslims, to group B: Christians, then. And if you don’t believe in God, then certainly you believe in muslims and Christians, right? So which group levels threats and actually carries them out, eh? ..duh, as if the answer isn’t obvious: muslims.

          Your point about whose God is better is so pointless.

        • TH says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 8:51 pm

          Not only that, but Allah HATES the kafir.

        • The Doctor says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 9:24 am

          @Champ,

          The issue of whose “imaginary sky friend” is superiour is very important to the folks who have an “imaginary sky friend”. because that superiourity (or even veracity) _in_their_minds_ is the foundation for their world view.

          Islam is interesting in that it requires significant effort to dull the normal innate human sense of right and wrong. It uses fear and violence to beat children into submission and then the myth of superiourity of Muslims over non-Muslims to keep them in line with Islam’s demands.

          Christianity has its element of fear as well – fear of eternal punishment, but it is not standard Christian doctrine to consider yourself better than everyone else – you are only saved by grace, and specifically NOT by your own merit, thus while Muslims consider themselves to be the best of all men, Christians view themselves metaphorically as “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread”.

          Because their belief in a deity is fundamental to their world view and indeed their understanding of reality, it is a belief that will be vigorously defended. In the case of Muslims, since Islam exults violence and destruction as signs of divine retribution, they will happily engage in such measures in order to “prove” the “truth” of what they believe.

          Thus, if someone were to destroy the big black rock in Mecca, for example, it would _severely_ damage the faith of a large number of Muslims. It’s much easier to weaken a pagan belief system that has so much invested in a thing. This is why it was common to destroy the idols of conquered nations because that destruction was seen as weakness of the deity involved. This also is why Christianity is harder to defeat, because there is no “idol” to topple. Christianity is an idea. There is no central object of worship. (Yes, Muslims essentially worship the black stone in their ritual hajj, and its destruction would topple Islam.) You can destroy crosses, but they are only symbols.

        • Mo says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 9:51 am

          @ The Doctor

          “The issue of whose “imaginary sky friend” is superiour is very important to the folks who have an “imaginary sky friend”. because that superiourity (or even veracity) _in_their_minds_ is the foundation for their world view.”

          Your points are valid ones. But we can’t give credence to the language employed by anti-theist mockers who don’t know anything about whatever religion(s) they’re mocking and therefore claim all religions are more or less the same.

          The Judeo-Christian tradition teaches nothing about an “imaginary sky friend / daddy / fairy”. That’s just a strawman attack, meant to insult.

          The differences between religions are important ones, especially when it comes to the issue of Islam/jihad. Let’s not give these types of anti-theists the idea that their representation of the Christian faith is correct. It is not.

          It’s not just semantics. These things do matter!

        • Western Canadian says

          Mar 7, 2015 at 12:36 am

          It is almost amusing to have someone who is even more ignorant and loutish than the average imam, try to offer up his own less than pitiable load of drivel, mocking belief systems that he is completely and deliberately ignorant of, imagining that doing so shows him to be the intellectual and ethical superior of those who knows nothing about…..

          Take your bigoted drivel and shove it.

    • John Stefan Obeda says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 6:19 pm

      Joseph, I don’t even like to capitalize the “s” in satan.

      • Joseph says

        Mar 6, 2015 at 7:14 pm

        I hear you and I am on the same page

  2. Transmaster says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:01 pm

    God Damn ISIS, God Damn ISIS, God Damn ISIS,God Damn ISIS.,God Damn ISIS!

    • Joseph says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 5:20 pm

      Transmaster, I hope you do know that by using GOD’S name you are in fact cursing them(ISIS) and asking for GOD’S help in destroying them. If however the curse is empty you are using GOD’S name in vain.

      I get the feeling you are asking for GOD’S help. However, there are better ways to ask GOD.

      • Undaunted says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 6:51 pm

        Taking God’s name “in vain” has to do with shaming the Family ~ the celestial body of Christ, if you will ~ by way of bad behavior… like getting drunk and crashing your Dad’s Buick into the Police Station. It’s not about mere words as you and so many other suggest.

        • Kepha says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 7:32 pm

          A major burden of taking the Lord’s name in vain has to do with false prophecy–“The LORD told me…” sort of stuff. Prophesying to have the Lord’s people worship other gods, or predciting things in God’s name which don’t come to pass are all things for which people got stoned in ancient Israel. It was also why Quakers (who claimed direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit without recourse to the Scriptures) got flogged out of town at the cart’s tail in 17th century Massachusetts and hanged if they dared return.

          The Qur’an’s ascribing things like the story of Jesus talking from the cradle (from the Protevangelium of James, which was never canonical) to the “real” Gospel, denying the crucifixion, and failure to note that Jesus’ body-and-soul ascension to glory followed his actual tasting of death and resurrection to redeem his people are all reasons why serious Christians see Muhammad of Mecca as a false prophet; that is, one who took the Lord’s name in vain.

        • Undaunted says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 9:28 am

          “Take” does not mean to speak. An adopted child TAKES the name of his or her new parent. That is the proper meaning.

          http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5375&t=KJV

      • Transmaster says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 7:03 pm

        I am not taking God name in vain I mean what I say. May the Thunder of God, in what ever form, smite these heathen barbarians of Satan.

      • Champ says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 10:56 pm

        Question: “What does it mean to take the Lord’s name in vain?”

        Answer: http://www.gotquestions.org/Lords-name-vain.html

      • voegelinian says

        Mar 6, 2015 at 2:28 pm

        Jessasmarandjosef! Please, don’t ruin a perfectly sound curse with your sectarian quibbles. All Westerners have the right to invoke God to damn ISIS. GOD DAMN ISIS, indeed!

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 9, 2015 at 2:24 pm

        I say **Goddamn them!**, as well. I hope we can agree, whether this is taken as a plea to God or a simple oath of moral outrage.

  3. Billy S says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    Joseph: Your God is the same thing as their Allah AND Satan — all imaginary. All this insanity over whose magical sky-friend is the best. Makes me sad.

    • Susan says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 7:04 pm

      You are a muslim because what you say is insane. Allah/Satan is a destroyer of all that is good in the world please explain why islam and only islam is doing this evil. The God i believe in is love not hate. hugh difference.

    • Peggy says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 7:32 pm

      Even if both are imaginary one is dangerous to mankind and inspires evil.
      So NO, not the same thing.

    • Mo says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 7:43 pm

      @ Billy S

      “Joseph: Your God is the same thing as their Allah AND Satan — all imaginary. All this insanity over whose magical sky-friend is the best. Makes me sad.

      Seeing Christophobic trolls like you makes me sad.

      • Joseph says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 10:56 pm

        Mirren10
        THANK YOU

        • Mirren10 says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 9:31 am

          You’re very welcome, Joseph.

        • Joseph says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 3:02 pm

          @Mo and others out there; THANK YOU ALL.

          I still say that using GOD as a swear is vain. Here is why.
          To seek the Lord to smite ones enemies is a plea for help. Why do we do this? because we can’t do it ourselves.
          Now if this plea for help is “empty” or without cause it is using the name of God as a filler in your statement of anger and you degrade the Holy Name.
          God is Holy and pure, to bring his name into statements just for effect is (I think) wrong. Kinda like using a butter knife as a screwdriver, it damages the tool.

          @ Transmaster–I had a feeling you meant what you said, said what you meant….one 100 percent

        • Joseph says

          Mar 6, 2015 at 3:08 pm

          I meant 100% not 1/100% But I guess you all knew that.

      • Champ says

        Mar 6, 2015 at 1:46 am

        “Christophobic”

        LOL!! …good one, Mo! 😀

    • Avenger says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 9:05 pm

      Billy, if Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists weren’t on earth before the arrival of islam you would either be murdered by muslims or on your knees facing Mecca 5 times a day spitting out hate blather. Feel very lucky that these religions are weathering this criminal cult and allowing you to be such an ass.
      Imagine people of NO faith coming up against this expansionist cult, they wouldn’t stand a chance to fend it off or spring back from destruction like the four I mentioned who did. The Swedes, who are mostly atheists, can’t come close to grappling the takeover of Islam in their nation. Won’t be to many non believers there in the near future, don’t you agree Billy?
      I’m a nonbeliever myself but I feel fortunate to live and work with Christians and will come to their defence at the drop of a hat.

      • Bukkdem Jizheads says

        Mar 6, 2015 at 12:17 pm

        Peggy, history CAN be erased and Muslims have been doing it for 1300 years. All of N. Africa was Christian. Muslims burn Bibles and turn churches into barns even today. They burned the Library of Alexandria because it contained non-Islamic documents.

        They tore their way through the Congo seeking ivory, slaves and young women. Before they moved on, all was burned, including crops, and they took special pains to seek and kill every soul who had ever lived in each village they ransacked, so there would be no memory. It took less than 5 years for the jungle to swallow up what remained and those areas were so tangled with briars and vines no one could venture or live there for a century.

        It’s a very effective means of warfare. The irony of all is the white man carries this liberal damnation of slavery and imperialism, whereby they condemn the past with today’s climate of opinion. The truth is very few African Americans can trace their roots to areas of Muslim conquest. Mention this next time you talk to a whiny liberal.

        White imperialists saved these people from certain death. They taught them to trade between tribes instead of murdering any stranger they came upon, as had been the case. The British fought and suffered terribly to hold back the Ottomans in Africa.

    • eib says

      Mar 7, 2015 at 9:35 am

      Only a Muslim claims that the Judeo Christian God is the Muslim Allah. You have submitted.

  4. Peggy says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    This is a crime against humanity itself. Destruction of such important things and history is unforgivable. I cry for the Assyrians and for all mankind as a result of this.
    How crazy are the people? Do they really think they can erase history by destroying monuments and buildings? History lives with us. We know the truth and they can never erase it from our books.

    • lothos says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 12:22 am

      as much as their actions and depridation against people are savage and barbaric, they are fleeting and localised…this wanton destruction of history itself will leave everyone forever poorer…

  5. pdxnag says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    So, calling Islam a religion is like slapping the label religion on the word vandalism.

  6. Avenger says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:13 pm

    Can a people be any dumber then muslims? Their intellect is elementary at best and we allow them to be teachers, police, US President?!
    Maybe we’re the stupid ones.

    • Transmaster says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 6:03 pm

      Avenger; The depths of stupidity of the Mighty Warriors of ISIS is ROFLMFAO, passed out on the floor funny. The Peshmerga post videos they find on the smart phoned they find on the bodies of the these holy warriors on Youtube, Oh God are they funny. There is one that shows one of these idiots shooting a Russian 120mm M1943 Mortar at no one in particular. Lots of Allah Akbar’s going on that is until the loader no doubt in the ecstasy of Allah Akbaring loads one of the rounds upside down blowing everyone in the area to pieces, literally, body parts flying everywhere. Or the genius of the Q’uran who shoots an RPG on a closed room out through a window, not only does he roast himself alive from the back blast, but this Muslim marksmen hits the window frame with the rocket thus blowing himself and every one close by into Allah meat cutlets. These videos go on, and on, I am howling.

  7. Transmaster says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:15 pm

    We are fortunate that the site, thanks to 180 years of archeological work has been thoroughly excavated, and it’s important treasures are safely in the British Museum.

    • Peggy says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 5:42 pm

      How safe is anything in Britan these days?

      • Wellington says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 6:46 pm

        A very apt query, Peggy.

      • abad says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 8:34 pm

        Yeah especially with Muslims having the upper hand in the UK something they NEVER should have been allowed.

      • pumbar says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 10:44 pm

        Here we go again. That familiar feeling of ennui…

    • JMB says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 5:43 pm

      Transmaster; If what you say is correct that at least is some good news. But, will we see an outcry from UNESCO, the cultural elite or other armchair Marxists over this outrageous vandalism, there should be but somehow I don’t think it will happen

    • cs says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 4:30 am

      If I am not wrong a lot of the writings of Sargon were found in this excavation, they found his library almost intact there. There are many tablets still to be translated. I think the full gilgamesh came from this excavation.

  8. Jaladhi says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:24 pm

    Islam is destroyer of humanity and human civilization, so Muslims do what they know best to do – destroy, destroy, destroy..!! They have been destroying civilizations all over the world for last 1400 years and they will do it until some body with backbone comes out and destroys them!! Examples of what they have destroyed: Persian civilization – the preset day Iranians don’t even know what it was. Afghanistan was all Buddhist and they have destroyed all of that civilization and recently destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas, Malaysia and Indonesia were also Hindu and Buddhists – ask the citizens of these two countries what they know or remember of their culture before they became Muslims. One can find more examples of such destruction where ever Muslims and Islam gone!!

    So ISIS is doing what Quran teaches them to do – destroy, destroy, destroy..!!

    • Peggy says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 5:48 pm

      Greeks and Serbs were under Ottoman rule for centuries but managed to preserve their religion and culture, thank God. Even though they preserved this Cancer was brought in and can never be eradicated. That’s why we have Bosnians and Albanians being Muslim. Bosnians are Serbs of that land converted to Islam during centuries of occupation and to a lesser extent converted Croatians.
      A small number of Albanians are Christian.
      What do we expect to happen to Britain, France, Belgium etc. These countries are well and truly close to the point of no return.

      • TH says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 8:56 pm

        They want to convert St. Peter’s Basilica into a mosque. They were not far from doing it in 1683. What will happen to the great Gothic Cathedrals in Franca and England? I suppose they will blow up the Louvre if they are eventually able to take Paris. Civil war in all those countries seem now to be inevitable, thanks to the pesent politicians and media.

        • Peggy says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 9:52 pm

          Our descendants will curse us for allowing this because they will have to spill their blood for freedom. How dare we leave such a legacy?

  9. Jay Boo says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 5:34 pm

    Islam itself has no solid foundation to stand upon.
    Of course Muslims are jealous of others.
    What other choice do Muslims have but bitter resentment?

    Muslims must live with the subconscious knowledge of Muhammad’s inadequacy.

    • mortimer says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 6:54 pm

      Most of the mullahs must know this and shudder with revulsion. They avoid reading the passages that reveal Mohammed’s defects. The mullahs are living a horrible lie every day.

    • Jaladhi says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 8:00 pm

      Muslims believe Mo/allah is a perfect man so how could they be conscious of Mo’s inadequacies – they are not that smart or they would have condemned him to dustbin of history a long time back!!

  10. Richie says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    How long before Egyptian Muslims start destroying ancient egyptian artifacts and sites? A 3.500 year old tomb was just dscovered- i suspect muslims will soon fill it with explosives

    When Muslims aren’t destroying things, they are killing people.

    What positive traits can be found in islam?

    • mortimer says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 6:13 pm

      The Muslim Brotherhood was discussing destroying the pyramids before al Sisi kicked them out.

      • Richie says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 6:49 pm

        Too bad they don’t destroy the phallic pagan rock in Mecca

        • Peggy says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 7:34 pm

          We’ll have to do that.

    • abad says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 8:36 pm

      None. That is why Islam is known as the “Religion Without a Conscience.”

    • Charli Main says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 1:07 am

      @ Richie
      You are closer to the truth than you may realise.
      Back in the day I was a training officer teaching Muslim Arab students the rudiments of Petroleum Technology in a Middle Eastern country.
      During a class break I was reading a book about Ancient Egypt. Some of my students told me that what I was doing was ” haram” and that when they took Egypt over every mummy and artefact in the Cairo museum would be burnt in the streets.
      Remember, these students were supposed to be their country´s brightest and best. The future leaders and managers of their oil industry.

      • Carolyne says

        Mar 6, 2015 at 8:43 pm

        I remember reading that, during the Morsi revolution, the barbarians entered the Cairo Museum and beheaded mummies. This revolution, btw was aided and abetted and made possible by Obama and Hillary Clinton.

        Here they are destroying famous ancient works of art But….But….haven’t we been told of all the wondrous works of art attributed to Islam? Haven’t we been told that Muslims have contributed so much to the fabric of the US? Doesn’t that mean they have contributed to the fabric of Iraq?

        This only proves that Islam is a destroyer of culture, humanity, art, science and any other vestige of civilization.

    • gravenimage says

      Mar 8, 2015 at 10:56 pm

      My mother-in-law is a docent at a well-respected collection of Egyptian artifacts here in the US, and she was peripherally involved with repatriating the recently rediscovered mummy of Ramses I to Egypt.

      Even though this was pre-“Arab Spring”, I told her I thought this was a lovely gesture but *a really bad idea*, and that it was a lot safer remaining here. I’m afraid subsequent events have just further confirmed my fears.

  11. Lesley says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    My heart hurts first for the people that Islamists have subjugated, tortured, and brutally killed.

    My heart aches second for the priceless artifacts and these monsters have destroyed. They are hell-bent on erasing all that is beautiful and refined from humanity’s past, present, and future.

    It is THEY who should (and will, when the West finally gets over this politically correct nonsense) be purged from the Earth.

    Good riddance >:-(

  12. Bezelel says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    Progress is infinite either positive or negative. islam with the help of modern equipment can continue to spiral into the pit at an accelerated pace. the question is how much of humanity can they drag down with them.

    • Wellington says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 6:52 pm

      All of it, Bezelel, if we let the bastards because Islam has no end to annihilation of the human spirit.

      Should Islam prevail across the earth, which Muslims aplenty very much want, it would mean, per Winston Churchill, a “fatalistic apathy” existent everywhere on this planet.

      • Bezelel says

        Mar 5, 2015 at 9:10 pm

        Wellington, Fatalistic apathy fueled by legalized pot, and reliance on the Gov from cradle to grave, brainwashing with the liberal agenda from kindergarten to college consistently teaching what to think instead of how to think and a state run media to reinforce the message while filtering any contrary information. Happy Idiots until it’s too late.

        • Wellington says

          Mar 5, 2015 at 9:57 pm

          You saw me, Bezelel, and raised me. My compliments.

    • cs says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 12:51 pm

      And they are using massively children suicide attack, Boko Haram, Taliban and ISIS will follow suit.

  13. Angemon says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 6:36 pm

    There goes the only reason not to bomb them back to the stone age…

    • Transmaster says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 7:20 pm

      The comeuppance is coming, unfortunately thanks to people like Obama it will be bloody, if Iran is allowed to have nuclear weapons the butcher’s bill will be huge, and Iran as a political entity will be wiped off the face of the earth. It will not be stone age it will be utter extinction.

  14. somehistory says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 7:05 pm

    The God of the ancient Hebrews, Jehovah, has a shortened form of His name…Jah.
    The word “Hallelujah”…incorporates His Name and means “praise Jah.” (Psalm 148:1).

    Noticing that the word they say means “worthless” has this Name for our loving Creator is really sickening.

    And to Billy S., what you said above about the True God being the same as the false one of islam…which is satan, and whose worshippers would gladly kill you, is what is really sad.

  15. Badbob says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Are they headed to Meca to crush the black stone….It is definitely an idol,

    • The Doctor says

      Mar 6, 2015 at 9:34 am

      Actually, yes. http://en.apa.az/xeber_isis__we_will_ruin_the_kaaba_after_captu_213369.html

  16. sidney penny says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    “An Iraqi antiquities official confirmed the news, saying the destruction began after noon prayers on Thursday and that trucks that may have been used to haul away artefacts had also been spotted at the site.”

    “destruction began after noon prayers”

    Yes the best time is after you say your prayers.

    Also the best time to say “Death to America” (yes just your prayers)

  17. jewdog says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    It’s taken over three millenia of devolution to produce the Islamic State. In another 3000 years we may see dinosaurs in Iraq, which may be an improvement. Darwin was right, only he had the trend backwards.

    • Bezelel says

      Mar 5, 2015 at 9:19 pm

      I would love to see Godzilla stomping mussie asses, I mean butts, I don’t want to see the donkeys hurt,. muslims already abuse them.

  18. Jill says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Dear Lord in Heaven, when will all this end? The beheadings, the rape and mutilation of women and children, the moves to create a Muslim world which will rid it of non-Muslims…where will all this end? And now the destruction and bulldozing of priceless historical artefacts/relics…this is desecration at its worst. Evil, evil, evil.

  19. Max Publius says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 11:24 pm

    Nothing new here, only better tools. It’s why the Sphinx has no nose, and innumerable statues in the Mid East were defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders. The Bamiyan Buddhas were defaced way before the Taliban dynamited them completely a few years ago.

  20. Charles says

    Mar 5, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    I think it was Daniel Greenfield who wrote “islam is to religion what an arsonist is to construction.”

  21. cs says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 2:49 am

    Hopefully there are still some more Sumerian tablets to be excavated underneath.
    But it such a crime, such a loss.

  22. GKP says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 5:43 am

    Islam is against the human civilization , for Muslim their religion is pleasure where they rape , murder , steal and can do many anti social activity and can will get heaven with 72 virgins. They are moving in a organised way . They are changing history in their way.The problem is that with non Muslim people is the they are trapped in Taquiya ( according to Qur’an the lie which Muslim says to spread Islam is Taquiya).
    If Islam will win the rest civilization will be ruined.

  23. nuvaslacker says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 6:52 am

    I often wonder whether the iconoclasm and anti-history of the Khmer Rouge with their Year Zero was not inspired by the similar Islamic brainwashing; the cultural vacuum, filled only by the Koran and Hadiths, leaves nothing to fall back on if the Moslem starts to question Islam.

    I was very struck by the historical naivety and disinterest shown by culturally Bengali students when lecturing in Computer Science in East London, UK. As a group tutor, responsible for pastoral care, I was surprised at the ignorance of the Pakistan civil war, the founding of Bangladesh as a secular state, and the role of Islamic groups in the massacre of intellectuals, even though many of them spent holidays amongst their extended family in Bangladesh, and many of their mothers spoke no English.

    Floreat Israel!

  24. rob says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 8:41 am

    Muslims always cry victim , say there not the same as isis. yet these very Muslims in total out number isis 10-1 yet they cry victim and do didly squat about all the killing of Christians and infidels

    Makes them all the same . doing nothing and knowing about a crime is a crime . All you so called moderate Muslims could stop this killing if you wanted to but you don’t want too.

    Allah is evil , the Koran is a book promoting the killing of infidels and committing genocide by killing all the men and children keeping only young girls and women as concubines . go read it . find out just how evil the Koran is .

  25. Gustav says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 10:18 am

    Dear Friends,

    We need to do something. Changes begin with small steps.
    I’ve been looking at whitehouse.gov in order to see whether is a petition to safeguard the iraqi (and world) archaeological heritage sites, and there is none.

    We could send a petition to “force” us government to do something.

    It’s bizarre that a petition to declare “Chapel Hill shooting of 3 innocent Muslim- American students a Terrorist Attack” has 27,000 signatures and the petition “Act now to save the persecuted Christians of the Middle East” has only 2,031 signatures!

    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/declare-chapel-hill-shooting-3-innocent-muslim-american-students-terrorist-attack/HGfXFYH3
    https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/act-now-save-persecuted-christians-middle-east/g1v5yYmR

    The muslim lobby in white house is stronger than the american’s people good will .

    We cannot be silenced by our enemies!

    If you’re able to contribute, please, talk to your friends and relatives about the urgency to support our historic heritage and the christians’ lives in need.

    Thank you very much.

  26. Prinz Eugen says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 11:12 am

    Some Assyriologists were really upset and attacked Bush 43 when Iraqis plundered ancient artifacts in Iraqi museum.

    Now that sultan Barry’s allies (affiliated with the murderous moslem brotherhood) are destroying and plundering ancient artifacts in Mosel and Nimrud, where is the outcry against sultan Barry Sotero?

    When Goering absconded with artwork during WW II, I never recall the media trying to blame FDR
    and Chjurchill for those thefts.

    Bush guilty, Barry pure as the pedophile Mo (“Respect ” the bum!).

  27. Sam says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    Where are all liberals who want to live in PEACE reserving nature, humanity, arts and historical sites? Where is the outrage? Only in Islamophopic site JW.

  28. voegelinian says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 3:03 pm

    Spencer’s editorial remarks include: “… they love only death and destruction.”

    If that was not merely a rhetorical frosting, it tends to minimize the danger. Mohammedans are dangerous to the world not merely because, like some rampaging nihilistic barbarians, they love only death and destruction — but also because their ideology cultivates a fanatical eschatology, an obsession with a reality beyond this life, looking to the next life, their Jennah (“Paradise”). To gloss over the significance of this in the hearts & minds of our enemy is to sorely underestimate the nature and degree of their motivation.

  29. Richie says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    Im for bulldozing islamic sites, starting with that vile Mosque squatting on the Temple Mount

  30. frosty says

    Mar 6, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    Gleeful destruction by thugs. I’ll say one thing, IS makes its followers feel important, never underestimate how powerful it is, to feel *you* are the agent of some god’s work. Nimrud’s destruction is a loss to the world, to our knowledge, but how particualrly heartbreaking it must be to those charged with preserving and protecting these artifacts, which they managed through the wars and violence and stupidity. Gone forever now.

  31. gravenimage says

    Mar 7, 2015 at 12:32 am

    As a historian and a civilized human being, I an *horrified* by this. I am not, however, surprised.

    This is in the same Islamic spirit as the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, the shrine graves of Timbuktu, the museum of the Maldives, and the Egyptian Library.

    Some long-time readers here my remember British archeologist Dominic, a staunch Anti-Jihadist who posted here for many years before his death several years ago in a tragic auto accident. He is still missed.

    Poster Dumbledore’s Army reposted one of his grimly salient comments here a couple of years ago. I post it in its entirety:

    They are obsessively, stupidly, wilfully, viciously destroying their pre-Islamic past in Pakistan, also.

    Here is what a jihadwatch poster from four years ago, Dominic Tabrar-Synge, archaeologist, late of the UK, told us about it.

    Read it; and weep, as he did. You will find it in this thread from early 2007.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/02/pakistan-asks-eu-to-look-inwards-to-stop-radicalization.html

    necessitasnonhabetlegem | February 11, 2007 12:51 AM

    ‘The government of Pakistan actually controls very little of that country – most areas outside the capital are efectively self-governing and respond only to military pressure from the centre.

    ‘Very little civilian authority remains, especially in the more remote areas, and sharia law predominates even in the larger towns.

    ‘Pakistan is most certainly not safe for Western civilised people to visit.

    ‘Furthermore, there is a widespread culture of bribery for everything from owning a vehicle to taking a taxi to shopping for necessities.

    ‘ In effect, law and order, as the average civilised Western person would understand those terms, has long since ceased to have any meaning; indeed, such meanings probably ceased to be relevant shortly after 1947.

    ‘A couple of years ago I was privileged to be allowed to join a study team looking into the rock carvings (petroglyphs) and inscriptions along the Karakorum Highway – part of the old ‘Silk Road’ network – which are, or, rather, were, some of the most historically important artifacts in Pakistan.

    ‘I had read, naturally, the opinions of Professors Jettmar and Hauptmann (Heidelberg University) and also Professor A.H. Dani (Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan) a most civilised moslem of the ‘old school’ so to speak)

    ‘and I looked forward to a very civilised and enjoyable two months pottering about amongst some very interesting carvings.

    ‘Well, I was never more mistaken in my life!

    ‘The rock carvings are mainly, but not exclusively, in the area around the village of Chilas in the Diamir District

    ‘and it cost the whole team almost two thousand pounds (three thousand US dollars) in bribes, and three weeks of time in Islamabad, to have our travel documents made good for the journey to Chilas.

    ‘It cost us an additional one thousand five hundred pounds for the ‘arrangement’ of a military escort – an escort, incidentally, which was never provided;

    ‘we were, instead, escorted, if that could be construed to be the correct word, by a group of what I can only describe as barbarian, gun-toting ruffians who had to be paid off in US dollars on a daily basis.

    ‘When we finally got to Chilas – a nightmare journey which took three days –

    ‘we had the added financial burden of having to pay a ‘tax’ to each and every mosk in the area in order to be allowed to stay there

    ‘(this eventually came to over one-and-a-half thousand pounds)

    ‘and various moslem clerics routinely searched our baggage for what they called ‘illegal works’ and ‘the devil’s machines’ and which we came to realise meant Christian writings

    ‘and anything that looked like having a purpose more than that of a simple camera.

    ‘We had been told that there were some 45 sites on a stretch of the Indus of about 80 miles in length, and on both banks,

    ‘with about 40,000 petroglyphs and 10,000 inscriptions in more than 15 writing systems

    ‘and that the carvings were scraped, or chiseled in some cases, into the larger stones scattered about on the river banks and the lower flood banks of the river valley.

    ‘Certainly there are at least that number of sites

    ‘**but at almost every site we visited systematic destruction of the carvings had obviously taken place.** {my emphasis – dda}

    ‘At one site, a mere ten miles from Chilas,

    **we witnessed for ourselves a group of locals, obviously under the directions of several clerics, systematically destroying the stones with large hammers, steel rods and sundry other tools.** {my emphasis – dda}

    ‘When we attempted to remonstrate with these people we were physically attacked

    ‘and our interpreter – a young man from Islamabad – told us that our attackers were telling us that they were deliberately destroying the works of the ungodly that the British put there so that they could come back and claim the place as their own again!

    ‘No amount of reasoning and explanation seemed to get through to these people.

    ‘Some three days later we did manage to convince one imam that these rocks were much older than the British colonial era

    ‘and he turned to us and said, according to our translator, that

    ‘if they (the rock inscriptions) were indeed as old as we claimed

    ‘then they didn’t matter and should be destroyed anyway

    ‘for they obviously came from the mythical (his word) era before the coming of the prophet and so had no validity.

    ‘He added that because we were interested in them then they all had to be destroyed to save his people from the evil ways which we infidels brought with us.

    ‘All of this, you understand, from a man who was counted amongst the folk of that area to be educated and knowledgeable!

    ‘I’m not ashamed to admit that on the aeroplane home to London I wept – yes, really, I cried. Why?

    ‘Because these damned barbarian moslems don’t just want to rewrite the past, they want to destroy it also – they want to remove any evidence that anything is any different from that which they claim.

    ‘They are doing it everywhere and all the time – robbing all of us of our past, cutting us off from our various identities, systematically destroying our sense of us.

    ‘**Even here, in civilised old Britain, I have encountered moslem youths who disrupt archaeological conferences, attempt to destroy archaeological sites, attack archaeologists and pervert knowledge in a desparate attempt to deny that the past ever contained anything other that islam** {my emphasis – dda}.

    ‘And what do we do? Well, we give in as far as I can see. Some days it just all seems so hopeless.

    ‘Dominic.”

    (He was not always so bleakly despairing).
    …………….

    I’m crying over this, as well. The city of Nimrud is part of the common heritage of mankind.

    Damn barbarians.

    • Bezelel says

      Mar 7, 2015 at 10:55 am

      Whatever so called reasons behind the destruction, it is destruction. What are they destroying? They are destroying evidence of intelligent life. obola says we have to respect them.

    • voegelinian says

      Mar 7, 2015 at 5:57 pm

      “‘**but at almost every site we visited systematic destruction of the carvings had obviously taken place.** {my emphasis – dda}”

      As I noted on my blog over two years ago, various destruction of archeological sites also happens on a regular basis in various parts of Turkey:

      I read a news story about:a couple of ancient statues of life-sized lions dating back to the Hittite Empire (approximately the 2nd millennium B.C.) which had been recently discovered in Turkey. Aside from other interesting details to the story, what caught my Hesperado eye was this part:

      The story of the discovery of the massive lions began in 2001…

      The Karakiz lion was found dynamited in two, likely in the mistaken belief that it contained hidden treasure.

      [“likely” means you don’t know, you’re just guessing this must be the motive — I mean in a country full of Muslims, there couldn’t possibly be another motive for destroying the artifacts of another culture, right…?]

      “There’s this belief that monuments like this contain treasure,” said Summers, explaining that the dynamiting of monuments is a problem in Turkey. “It makes the Turkish newspapers every month or so.”

      The second lion, found to the northeast of the village, had also been split in two. As a result of this destruction both lion sculptures, which originally were paired with another, now mainly have one lion intact. The danger of new looting loomed over the researchers while they went about their work.

      In the summer of 2008 evidence of “fresh treasure hunting” was found at the ancient quarry along with damage to a drum-shaped rock that, in antiquity, was in the process of being carved.

      Note, as I noted above in brackets, that the news story assumes that all this damage of archeological sites and digs must have a motive of mere thievery, and of course never mentions or apparently considers the Islamic motive. For more:

      http://hesperado.blogspot.com/2012/07/dy-no-mite.html

      • gravenimage says

        Mar 8, 2015 at 7:34 pm

        Voegelinian wrote:

        “‘**but at almost every site we visited systematic destruction of the carvings had obviously taken place.** {my emphasis – dda}”

        As I noted on my blog over two years ago, various destruction of archeological sites also happens on a regular basis in various parts of Turkey:
        ……………………………..

        Thanks for that, Voeg. I had missed this story from Turkey. But as you well note, the most likely motive for the destruction of the lion sculptures there was *not* ‘treasure hunting’.

        Clearly, most of this destruction has nothing to do with treasure hunting—the destruction of the Egyptian Library, burning of the library in Mosul, destruction of the contents of the Maldives Museum, destruction of figurative art at the Kabul Museum, bulldozing of grave shrines in Mali, the infamous destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas—all of this clearly had *nothing* to do with treasure hunting.

        I will be the first to acknowledge the destructiveness of treasure hunting—loss of context and provenance (especially if, as is often the case, treasure hunters lie to the buyers about it as a form of “cya”), possible damage to artifacts, sale to those who will not know how to care for the pieces and will likely hide them from the archeologists and scholars who would best study them, as well as hide them from public view.

        All that being said, treasure hunting is positively innocent in both intent and impact compared to the deliberate, willful destruction of ravening Mohammedans.

        The best we can hope for in Nimrud is that the destruction itself was ineptly carried out, and that at least some of the site was just bulldozed under, and not destroyed outright.

        We’ve also seen Muslim destruction of “Jahillya” in the past several years in Indonesia, in Iraq, in Israel, in the “Palestinian” territories, in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, in Libya, and in sub-Sarahan Africa.

        And there has been similar destruction in the Balkans.

        And now, we are starting to see destruction in Europe proper, especially attacks on churches and graveyards. If things are allowed to continue, this will only spread.

  32. abad says

    Mar 7, 2015 at 6:14 pm

    Islam, the Religion of Destruction, strikes again.

  33. Heather says

    Mar 11, 2015 at 5:04 am

    Only people? who hate would destroy. The real God gave man a creative brain and an appreciation of wondrous things. both natural and man-made.
    The small ‘g’ god of these barbarians is not the true God but the jealous,counterfeit god i.e. Satan the devil.
    And the proof is in their ‘hearts’ by the way they behave and hatred of all things on earth, sea and above.

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