"ISIS Onslaught Engulfs Assyrian Christians as Militants Destroy Ancient Art" NY Times

"The latest to face the militants’ wrath are the Assyrian Christians, of northeastern Syria, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, some speaking a modern version of Aramaic, the language of Jesus. 

Assyrian leaders have counted 287 people taken captive, including 30 children and several dozen women, along with civilian men and fighters from Christian militias, said Dawoud Dawoud, an Assyrian political activist who had just toured the area, in the vicinity of the Syrian city of Qamishli. Thirty villages had been emptied, he said."  NY Times

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"Its militants seized the museum — which had not yet opened to the public — when they took over Mosul in June and have repeatedly threatened to destroy its collection.

In the video, put out by the Islamic State’s media office for Nineveh Province — named for an ancient Assyrian city — a man explains, “The monuments that you can see behind me are but statues and idols of people from previous centuries, which they used to worship instead of God.”

A message flashing on the screen read: “Those statues and idols weren’t there at the time of the Prophet nor his companions. They have been excavated by Satanists.”"  NY Times

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 None of this is surprising.

- For these salafist jihadis Christians are an inferior type of ahl al-kitab  (people of the book).  IS are required by Quran and Hadith to abstain from calling them pagans but backslide continuously into calling them polytheists because of Christian trinitarian doctrine.   The practice of the early Muslim community under the Ummayad and Abbasid Caliphates was to charge Christians, Jews and other "people of the book" a capitation tax, (jizyat).  This established them as dhimmi ( a protected second class community under Muslim rule). IS considers that it is merely restoring that ancient process.  Christian unwillingness to submit to this regime invalidates their "protected" status for IS.  IMO they are likely  to kill these hostages.  BTW if OFAC does not declare some of these resistance groups to be kosher (a little humor) I will have nothing to do with them (the Christians as opposed to OFAC).  I have watched DoJ at work too often since 9/11 to risk anything like that.  OFAC  being what it is I do not expect them to do anything for these people.

- Wahhabi salafist extremists such as these are deeply wedded to their sharia concept of "shirk."  This involves the sin of giving importance to material objects; art, people, institutions that in their view should be accorded only to God.  From their point of view statues that may have been worshiped are the devil's work.  Remember that similar people with similar beliefs  destroyed those giant Buddhas in Afghanistan.  This vandalism in Mosul is typical for them.  pl 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/world/middleeast/more-assyrian-christians-captured-as-isis-attacks-villages-in-syria.html

Comments

[Aka]

sir,
So these idols don't have to be to be religious ones to be condemned ?

For example if they got their hands on "Mona Lisa", would they destroy it too?

[turcopolier]

AkA

Theoretically yes because of the shirk thing, but in this case the Mona Lisa is worth so much money that they might ransom it for a couple hundred million to fund the movement. pl

[Tyler]

Man oh man. Every day brings more horror with these people.

[Amir]

If the Al-Saud family three is literally held responsible for these kind of behavior, a kidnapping (though obviously the hostage should be treated with dignity) for a kidnapping, an extortion for an extortion, an exile for an exile; these people will learn their lesson and dry the funding. There are too many sanctamonious statements and no action, proving the lack of sympathy or empathy with the victims of DAESH, as the root cause.

[turcopolier]

Amir

IMO the Al-Saud are no longer in control of IS. pl

[b]

Check the timeline:

First there were reports about IS selling ancient art in London
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140626-isis-insurgents-syria-iraq-looting-antiquities-archaeology

Then a video shows IS in the museum trashing the (unsellable) big figures and monuments.

The video also shows some of the small clay tablets, used as early books, of which (ten-?)thousands are in the museums collection. In the video none of these valuable clay tablets gets touched, smashed or otherwise damaged.

The meme "IS sells art to buy weapons" has now been demolished by the video. BUT IS now has thousands of small art pieces that can easily go to the art market without generating any headlines.

These folks ain't dumb ...

[The Twisted Genius]

First thing I thought of when I heard of this IS destruction was the actions in Timbuktu where AQIM and MOWJA started to destroy Sufi shrines and the great Islamic libraries.

[elaine]

Anna Lindh Foundation reports over 300 Christians kidnapped, 15 killed & 1 woman beheaded

www.ansamed.info/en

[Abu Sinan]

Daesh might owe its roots to the Saudis, but they do not have any sort of control over them. Daesh I am sure gets some of their funding from Saudis today, but there is no establishment support for them. I think the Saudi establishment rightly realises that the movement they started has morphed into a Medusa that will eventually destroy the Saudi state if they can.

[ked]

I look forward to the almost-inevitable self-purification stage of the ISIS movement, when under internal disillusion & leadership stress, they turn upon themselves in a similar fashion.

[turcopolier]

ked

Yes. Revolutions do that. Who will be there their Robespierre? Or more importantly their Bonaparte? pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

As FB Ali mentioned in an earlier post, the aim is to destroy Muslim Culture (the way people live). That includes cultural heritage of Muslims.

The New Culture and the New Man would be something approximating a hermit in the desert; with all life reduced to very few basic elements.

This started in Saudi Arabia - they razed historical sites and building and monuments on the Arabian peninsula.

They first razed the structures of the Baqi'a cemetery, among them the shrine of Imam Hassan and nary a peep came out of the Muslim Ummah or the Iranian government.

Next they proceeded to raze the historical buildings such as the house of Khadija, the first Muslim women, and so on and so forth.

You used to be able to walk in the streets of Mecca and walk in the same alleys and streets as the Prophet and his companions did - no more.

And we all remember Taliban destroying the Buddha's in Bamiyan.

I heard that immediately after the Iranian Revolution, a group of men with bulldozers were on their way to raze the ancient monuments at Persepolis - and some mullah issued an edict against that.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Bonaparte was a man of genius and learning. Such a person does not exist among ISIS.

[Babak Makkinejad]

All:

The common and popular belief among both Shia and Sunni Muslims is that Christianity et. al are obsoleted by Islam.

Thus adherents of those religions are making a mistake by sticking to their beliefs.

ISIS, in my opinion, is only taking that common shared belief to the extreme, just like everything else that it does.

I too fear that the Assyrian men will be executed.

[turcopolier]

Babak

Bonaparte was a man of genius both militarily ans politically but with strange blind spots. He never did anything to develop the technology of war or military medicine for example. pl

[turcopolier]

Babak

"You used to be able to walk in the streets of Mecca and walk in the same alleys and streets as the Prophet and his companions did - no more." The Saudis did that, not the West. pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

Right; that is what I am saying.

[different clue]

b,

There can't be a buyer without a seller. Many sellers will buy in secret and hoard their aquisitions in secret. But still, if anyone discovered to have purchased any ISIS-sold art could be prosecuted under Material Support to Terrorism charges or the equivalent, might that deter some would-be buyers?

[different clue]

ked,

Since the IS is so valuable to the Baathists and the Naqshbandi Order army people and so forth who are giving it strategic (and tactical?) guidance, might those Baathists, Naqshbandists, the secret policeman and intelligence people and so forth work very hard to delay that kind of self-purification among the ISIS ranks and leaders until the Baathists etc. have gotten every last possible benefit from ISIS that they can possibly get?

[bth]

What about canning of food and improved surgical procedures for amputations?

[bth]

Col., I've been giving a lot of thought lately to ISIS activities and their need for cash. It seems to be a predictor of their actions - What is their easiest current source of cash?

In their early phases about a year ago they went straight for the banks in Mosul. Right for the cash.

Then they went for fungible hostages - Turkish diplomats, Turkish truckers, their truck cargo, and Hindu nurses. Then the women.

Then they went for the loot in the churches, Turkish trucks, the minority lands, farms, homes.

Then they went for the government grain silos, close oil and gas fields, smuggling routes into Turkey and the main gasoline refinery in Baiji.

Now they are likely selling small historical artifacts on the black market, seizing christian farmer hostages in anticipation of the upcoming harvest and taking road tolls where practicable between Iraq and Syria and between Kurdish areas and Baghdad.

If one asks where the easiest cash will come from now? It is likely a share of the oil fields in the contested Kirkuk area and the upcoming harvest.

I put the topic out there for criticism and consideration.

[Bobo]

I had a conversation today at my daily stop to pick up stores with the young Syrian Orthodox proprietor here in the USA only three years. His view on ISIS, while not for public ears, is that they want/need Cash first and a Caliphate second. He looks at the bunch of them as misfits and castoffs looking for their personal needs using Islam as a crutch in their personal purification. While he is biased as I the talk was interesting.

[turcopolier]

Bobo

"Syrian Orthodox proprietor here in the USA only three years." Never, never listen to an Arab Christian about Muslims. I am one of their protectors but they they justifiably hate the enemies of their blood.

[Chris E]

A recent BBC radio program uncovered fairly compelling evidence that a lot of Syrian and Iraqi art with origins in the areas occupied by ISIS were being sold on in London:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052j57v

[alba etie]

All,
What can be done to pressure Turkey to seal its borders ,and not allow anymore recruits going to the liver eaters ? My thought would be to directly tell Turkey if you all continue to allow your border to be used to support Daash in Syria & Iraq then Turkish membership in NATO would be put in question . I believe that much much more pressure can be put on Erdogan to stop his support of the liver eaters . We also need to have this very same pressure applied to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia .