Q&A: Why Sunni Extremists Are Destroying Ancient Religious Sites in Mosul

[rug]

The Islamic State is demolishing tombs, statues, mosques, and shrines of importance to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.



A boy bikes past the Prophet Jirjis mosque in Mosul, Iraq, on July 27, 2014. The Muslim shrine was destroyed by militants who overran the city in June. (Photograph by AP)
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By Eve Conant
for National Geographic
Published August 2, 2014

Mosul has long been known for its religious diversity. Iraq's second largest city has been home to Persians, Arabs, Turks, and Christians of all denominations since it was first believed to have been settled in 6000 B.C. The ruins of Ninevah, one of the greatest cities in antiquity and former seat of the Assyrian Empire, lie within its modern city limits.

But now the Islamic State (IS) has arrived.

The Sunni extremists of the IS, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have been working to erase evidence of that diverse history since they seized the ancient city on June 10. (Related: "Iraq: 1,200 Years of Turbulent History in Five Maps.&quot

By some estimates 60,000 Christians lived in Mosul a decade ago, a number that may have been halved over the past decade of turmoil but could now be close to zero following an order by the IS to convert, leave, or die. This month reportedly marks the first time in 1,600 years in Mosul that no Sunday Mass has been held. (Related: "Iraq Crisis: 'Ancient Hatreds Turning Into Modern Realities.'&quot

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140802-iraq-mosul-christian-muslim-islamic-state-syria-history/

[LuvNewcastle]

1. It's a terrible shame to see ignorant people

destroy beautiful architecture and historical places. What's so aggravating to me is that I can do nothing about it. If the good people there can't stop them, all of this will continue.

[Igel]

2. It'll continue. For a while, at least.

Some will be rebuilt. Lots of these "ancient" buildings aren't all that ancient. Between total rebuilds and repeated partial rebuilds over the centuries sometimes you ask, "What's the ancient part" and they point at a brick in the corner.

Consider the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow. It wasn't an ancient church, but it was a grand church. Large, prominent, expensive, luxurious. (Okay, depending on your view of Xianity, perhaps not very Xian. To each his own.)

It didn't last a century before it was destroyed. A partial motivation was, of course the sheer amount of gold used in the church's construction. Stalin had "useful" purposes for gold--building an army, putting up dams and steel mills. But mostly Uncle Joe wanted to build some humongous palace of "the soviets" (whatever that would have been) there, with a horrendously huge (and hugely horrendous) mega-statue of Lenin at the top. Sort of a boast: "You Xians think you can be wasteful and tastelessly extravagant in the veneration of your idols, just watch what Uncle Joe can do!" We can put Stalin and the Soviet commissars in the category of "ignorant people" with little argument these days. Except from others of their ilk.

They started working on their palace of Soviets and before they got very far WWII broke out. (A neutral term, as though it were like a thunderstorm or wildflower bloom.) They pulled up all the construction iron they'd put in for more military things. Wars take steel.

For many decades the pit was used as a giant swimming pool. Which *was* extravagant, considering that the summer temperature in Moscow is fairly low and summers are brief and it's winter 6 months out of the year. Rather like tearing down a city block or two in downtown NYC for a huge swimming pool open two months out of the year.

Post-USSR the church was rebuilt. Took 10 years. Not quite the same, the architects made some "improvements". But they studied photographs, descriptions, film, drawings to reproduce it fairly accurately:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moscow_July_2011-7a.jpg

[rug]

3. And it's not just the buildings.

This line to me is chilling.

This month reportedly marks the first time in 1,600 years in Mosul that no Sunday Mass has been held.

How many things - anything - have human beings done continuously for 1,600 years? It's like clipping a thread to the past. I have no doubt Mass and many other things will be restored, but this break in continuity with others of the distant past is unexpectedly disturbing.

[okasha]

4. Cultural displacement

can be more damaging than physical displacement.

[rug]

5. Yup. The Trail of Tears for starters.

[okasha]

6. The whole reservation system,

including the boarding schools and the suppression of NA religion. The government did everything it could to cut us off from our own history. Because our traditions are passed down orally, they almost succeeded. Sequoyah's syllabary mitigated the problem fot the Cherokee, but Blackfoot, for example, became a written language only in the late 20th. century.

[MisterP]

7. remember when people were calling for a "Muslim Reformation"? this IS it! (repost)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeldenstorm

those Bush-era AEI flacks, ex-Trots, and "liberal hawks" were of course just using "Reformation" as a dogwhistle for "modern and tolerant," which even a cursory contrast of the medieval vs. the early modern periods would show to be entirely laughable--they were just using myths about the Middle Ages to fabricate a new myth about modern geopolitics (i.e. that conflicts from Mauritania to Indonesia are only because the area hasn't "caught up"--that this is some 10th-century throwback surrounded by nice and open democracies)