• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

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

Islamic State blows up ancient Arch of Triumph in Palmyra

Oct 5, 2015 1:06 pm By Robert Spencer

Besides removing supposed temptations to idolatry, Islamic jihadists want to destroy the artifacts of non-Muslim civilizations because doing so testifies to the truth of Islam, as the Qur’an suggests that the destroyed remnants of ancient non-Muslim civilizations 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. 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.

Arch of Triumph Palmyra

“Islamic State ‘blows up Palmyra arch,'” BBC, October 5, 2015:

Islamic State militants in northern Syria have blown up another monument in the ancient city of Palmyra, officials and local sources say.

The Arch of Triumph was “pulverised” by the militants who control the city, a Palmyra activist told AFP news agency.

It is thought to have been built about 2,000 years ago.

IS fighters have already destroyed two ancient temples at the site, described by Unesco as one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

“The Arch of Triumph was pulverised. IS has destroyed it,” Mohammad Hassan al-Homsi, an activist from Palmyra told AFP on Monday.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the conflict, said sources on the ground had confirmed the destruction.

Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karim also confirmed the news, and told Reuters news agency that if IS remains in control of Palmyra, “the city is doomed”….

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Islamic supremacism Tagged With: Arch of Triumph, Palmyra


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Jay Boo says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 1:28 pm

    “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.”

    Muhammad’s black stone idol at the Kaaba. and satanic verses inspiration may be on the chopping block

  2. Jaladhi says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm

    Hey” nice” guys these ISIS terrorists. (sarc) They even put barbarians to shame !! They want to go to the times of neanderthals!!(no insult to neanderthals)

    • Budvarakbar says

      Oct 6, 2015 at 1:51 pm

      No — these insecure little twits would blow up any caves that have any cave wall carvings or paintings in them

  3. nathan says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 1:48 pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kwd-8lJUhI

    Oh dear!

  4. Angemon says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdul Karim also confirmed the news, and told Reuters news agency that if IS remains in control of Palmyra, “the city is doomed”….

    Meaning it goes the way of every non-muslim civilization unfortunate enough to be infected by islam.

  5. Walter Sieruk says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    That is all the thugs who compose ISIS know how to do. Which is destroy. They destroy destroy ancient historic sites, they destroy art, they destroy buildings,they destroy literature. The callous characters of ISIS go such such heinous and villainous and murderous extremes that they even destroy people. The ISIS fiends are so wicked, destructive, deadly and dangerous that they are similar, in character, to the hideous villains describe in the Bible in Romans 3:15-17. Which reads “Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are their ways, and the way of peace they have not known.” [K.J.V.]

    • Jaladhi says

      Oct 5, 2015 at 3:11 pm

      This is Islam and Muslims – you are letting them off easy by calling them thugs – they are not just neighborhood thugs, their actions are entirely motivated by Islam! Islam and its followers destroy humanity!!

      • Budvarakbar says

        Oct 6, 2015 at 1:53 pm

        Just following the commandments and sacraments laid out in their ‘scriptures’ — better start catching on!

  6. Doug says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 3:37 pm

    I’ll bet they are having wet dreams over blowing up the Arc de Triomphe in Paris!

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Oct 5, 2015 at 8:42 pm

      And the Louvre. And the Uffizi. And the Sistine Chapel.

      And the Rijksmuseum with all its lovely Rembrandts.

      the sharia, if followed to the letter, *forbids* ALL statuary and all visual representation of living beings whether human, animal or mythological.

      Wherever there is or has been art of that sort within Islamised societies it has been produced not *because* of Islam but *in spite of* Islam.

      • Mazo says

        Oct 6, 2015 at 1:41 pm

        Vegemite muncher, Persian style miniature portraits of humans were produced in both Shia and Sunni Persianate empires like the Moghuls, Safavids, and Ottoman states.

        • Budvarakbar says

          Oct 6, 2015 at 1:55 pm

          So what?

      • mahghan says

        Oct 6, 2015 at 6:15 pm

        Just so surprised that the Pyramids of Egypt have not been obliterated–especially that Sphinx. But am not holding my breath.

  7. DRHazard says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    As the article says it is an axiom of Muslim thinking that everything any civilization created before Islam’s existence came from the minds of ignorant people and that destroying the traces left from those civilizations demonstrates the superiority of Islam. This is something Muslims are compelled to do for several reasons (that Muhammad knew but never said):

    1. They look at the rest of the world and it’s history and feel inferior deep down under all their bullshit. It’s thousands of years since the civilizations of Rome and Greece ended but their accomplishments still surpass anything the Muslim world has achieved.

    2. It’s way easier to blow something up to prove a point than it is to build something to prove a better point. ISIS and Muslims in general lack the skill, experience, and organizational abilities to make anything of meaningful value but they can wreak havoc using weaponry and explosives designed and manufactured by Crusaders, Zionists, polytheists and atheists.

    3. ISIS knows it will piss people off which, like rebellious juveniles, makes them feel better. They are well on their way to becoming the biggest group of assholes the world has ever seen (along with their fans).

    4. They needed more and bigger rocks since they play such a large part in their justice system.

    5. Most importantly they do it because an illiterate, murderous, criminal sociopath who died 1400 years ago was overheard saying something about it, After hundreds of years of being retold his comments were finally compiled and used to form the model (Shariah) for all the numerous failed and oppressive Muslim societies that followed.

    • Brian says

      Oct 5, 2015 at 7:51 pm

      The Largest Group of Assholes? I suppose they’re bigger than the Congress of the United States; they might be bigger than the unelected movers & shakers of the two socialist parties here. Where ISIS excells is in Tribal Savagery.

  8. gravenimage says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Islamic State blows up ancient Arch of Triumph in Palmyra
    …………………………

    I wrote about this arch when I was at university–about the reach and influence of Greek and Roman culture and architecture.

    The main reason that these pious Jihad thugs want to blow up these great treasures–along with their contempt and crazed hatred of “Jahillya”–is that *Infidels* value history and art.

    Given time–and not much of that–they will destroy all the priceless artifacts of Palmyra.

    God, I hate Islam.

  9. abad says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    ISL are demons. All of them.

  10. Enragedsince1999 says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    EVERYWHERE US intervenes, a horrible catastrophe befalls Christians:

    1983: the US expels Israel from Lebanon right after Israel had stopped jihad on the Lebanese Christians. IMMEDIATELLY, the jihadis “thank” the US by blowing up the US embassy and killing 241 us marines with a single truck bomb. Reagan orders the surviving marines to just run away. The jihad on Christians resumes with vengeance. Entire Christian communities razed.
    1999: US bombs Serbia and gives Kosovo to Albanian terrorists who massacre Serb civilians and destroy 150 magnificent Serb Christian churches and monasteries, 100 of them on UNESCO Cultural Heritage List.
    2003: US “liberates” Iraq. Pre-Islamic cultural treasures and Christian churches of Iraq looted and destroyed. The Christian population of Iraq becomes fair game for the Muslims to kidnap, rape and murder. Before the “liberation”, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Now, there are fewer than 150,000.
    Now: The US-backed jihadis are destroying the Christian community and the pre-Islamic cultural treasures of Syria.

    • Budvarakbar says

      Oct 6, 2015 at 2:01 pm

      See any connection here between the Bushies (VP in 1983), the treasonous Klintoons, and the big BO?

      The whole DC establishment needs to be hosed out!

      • Enragedsince1999 says

        Oct 12, 2015 at 6:37 pm

        My sentiment exactly.

  11. mortimer says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    Western politicians who refuse to learn the JIHAD DOCTRINE and the doctrine of ISLAMIC SUPREMACISM, TAQIYYA and DHIMMITUDE will be out to lunch whenever Muslims try to manipulate them. The ‘religion of peace’ eyewash is not believed by any Muslims…it’s pure disinformation.

  12. Dave J says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 11:08 pm

    Mindless destruction is their specialty.

    Visit the Caliphate and see the wonders we have blown up, it’s a dusty desert without art, music, humor or love. Enjoy the purity of our nihilism. Remember to praise us and all our achievements. It is compulsory.

  13. sidney penny says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 11:45 pm

    Nothing new,this has been going on for ages.

    http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples1/

    HINDU TEMPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM
    Volume 1 A Preliminary Survey

    http://voiceofdharma.org/books/htemples2/

    HINDU TEMPLES WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM
    Volume II The Islamic Evidence
    (Second Enlarged Edition)

  14. sidney penny says

    Oct 5, 2015 at 11:51 pm

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/08/islamic-state-jihadis-behead-82-year-old-archaeologist-in-palmyra

    “DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Islamic State (IS) militants beheaded an antiquities scholar in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra and hung his body on a column in a main square of the historic site, Syria’s antiquities chief said on Tuesday.”

    “Had Khaled Asaad drawn any cartoons?”

  15. Infidela says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 12:27 am

    When Islamic state goes, we’ll rebuild it.

  16. Baucent says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 2:25 am

    Palmyra is suffering a death of a thousand cuts. Islamic State are giving the world a drip fed destruction to keep itself on the front pages. Actually the best hope for Palmyra is for the world to lose interest in the place. Only then is there a chance they may save their explosives for some more strategic target.

  17. horrifiedbacongirl says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 8:54 am

    How dare these disgusting mad men ruin these amazing buildings, these priceless relics. Things that were standing well before their births and should have been standing well after their deaths. Its outrageous.

  18. Jay Boo says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 9:26 am

    Everything is a threat to Islam.

    From mockery of Muhammad’s behavior to the helpless captive black stone in Mecca, or little girls with clitorises, women who look men in the eye and have opinions, old buildings, other religions and Muslims who fail to pray or assist Allah punishing disobedient sex-slaves. And let’s not forget about APOSTATES.

    Maybe Allah is not so great. as Muslims claim.

  19. Mazo says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 1:38 pm

    Nice logic by JihadWatch.

    Take a verse and an account by Naipaul which says ruins should be preserved as an exhibit to show how pre-Islamic civilizations failed, as an example so Muslims can see the ruins.

    Claims that the verse justifies blowing up and pulverizing the ruins so that there is nothing left to see, with no ruins at all and there are no destroyed remnants for Muslims to look at for the ways of life which have passed before Islam.

    Oh, so when Jesus said turn the other cheek, according to JihadWatch logic, he meant to say “slap your opponent on the cheek if he hits you”.

    • boakai ngombu says

      Oct 6, 2015 at 6:34 pm

      you missed something, Mazo …. the Allah god of islam (unknowable; the best of all deceivers) has need to give evidence that it is greatest. for the slave who emulates Muhammad (lately contrived; full of lusts) there must be no doubt that the Allah god of islam is greatest. the position is to be upheld … eyes front … no wondering allowed

      when Jesus advised to turn the other cheek, He was asserting greatness; His power – when fully used – will be to bring vengeance to the unfaithful who doubt the God of Abraham, who justifies the faithful.. His power is greatest in that He can bring to condemnation the unfaithful, yet bring to fulfillment and life all the faithful for all of time.

      beware, when Jesus returns, all will know Him to be the Victor [all those slaves of the Allah god of islam – who remain slaves – will know they are condemned and that the Allah god of islam is also condemned]

  20. Budvarakbar says

    Oct 6, 2015 at 2:14 pm

    Someone needs to go back outside and scrape their shoes off!

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • OLD GUY on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • OLD GUY on UK: Woman converts to Islam, distributes Islamic State jihad terror videos
  • OLD GUY on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.