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AFP - Getty Images
A still from a video shows Islamist militants destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday. The hardline Islamists who seized control of Timbuktu along with the rest of northern Mali three months ago, consider the shrines to be idolatrous.
World cultural body UNESCO was set to create a special fund to protect Mali's heritage on Tuesday after al-Qaida-linked Islamists attacked historic and religious landmarks in the city of Timbuktu for a third day, breaking down the door to a 15th century mosque that -- according to legend -- had to remain shut until the end of the world.
A UNESCO committee also called for a mission to go to Mali to work with local and national leaders to stop what it called "wanton destruction."
"In legend, it is said that the main gate of Sidi Yahya mosque will not be opened until the last day (of the world)," Alpha Abdoulahi, the town imam, told Reuters by telephone.
Yet Islamists intent on erasing traces of what some regard as un-Islamic idolatry smashed down the door to the mosque early on Monday, saying they wanted to "destroy the mystery" of the ancient entrance, he said.
"They offered me 50,000 CFA ($100) for repairs but I refused to take the money, saying that what they did is irreparable," Abdoulahi added.
In a statement emailed to msnbc.com Tuesday, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee called for a series of measures to help save Mali's ancient sites and condemned the "repugnant" destruction of Timbuktu's mausoleums.
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has appealed for a halt to the attacks.
AFP - Getty Images
A still from a video shows an Islamist militant celebrating and shouting after destroying an ancient shrine in Timbuktu on Sunday.
"There are mausoleums, there are mosques, there are manuscripts which represent enormous value for humanity and it is totally unacceptable what is happening there," Bokova said on Monday.
The U.N. body seeks to protect places around the world it classifies as world heritage sites, arguing they are of special cultural significance and should be preserved for posterity.
Government powerless
Mali's government in the capital Bamako about 630 miles south has condemned the destruction, but is powerless to halt them after its army was routed by rebels in April. It is still struggling to bolster a return to civilian rule after a March 22 coup that emboldened the rebel uprising further north.
Witnesses: Islamists destroy ancient sites in Timbuktu
The attacks have been widely condemned inside Mali as well.
"The 333 saints would be turning in their graves," the country's Les Echos newspaper wrote on Monday, referring to 333 revered Sufi imams, sheiks and scholars buried in Timbuktu.
In the first installment of Rock Center's Hidden Planet series, Richard Engel travels to Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert, to discover the city of Timbuktu.
"Today there are old women, old people in Timbuktu who say that maybe it is the end of the world," entrepreneur and former Timbuktu resident Male Dioum told Reuters.
Islamists of the Ansar Dine group say the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu are idolatrous. They have so far destroyed at least eight of 16 listed mausoleums in the city, together with a number of tombs.
Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg MNLA rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
Romaric Ollo Hien / AFP - Getty Images, file
Islamists rebels approach Timbuktu in rebel-held northern Mali in April. "Members of AQIM, supported by (the armed Islamist group) Ansar Dine, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi (Mahmoud Ben) Amar. They set fire to the tomb," an official told AFP in on May 5 on condition of anonymity. "They promised to destroy other tombs, Timbuktu is in shock. Now they want to take and control other tombs and manuscripts," the official said.
The size of the area under their control is bigger than France, heightening fears that Mali will become a jihadist haven.
The MNLA rebels criticized the Islamists' destruction of holy sites, underlining a growing rift between the two groups that had formed an uneasy alliance to take over the north of the country.
"The perpetrators of these heinous acts, their sponsors, and those who support them must be made accountable," MNLA spokesman Hama Ag Mahmoud told Reuters in an interview in Nouakchott.
Desert tourism
Sufi shrines have been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year. The attacks also recall the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.
According to Time magazine, those who adhere to a more orthodox brand of Islam tend to harbor a particular animosity to Sufism, who have a more mystical interpretation of the divine and a faith that is often rooted in pre-Islamic traditions and a reverence for saints and dead wise men.
Located on an old Saharan trading route that saw salt from the Arab north exchanged for gold and slaves from black Africa to the south, Timbuktu blossomed in the 16th century as an Islamic seat of learning, home to priests, scribes and jurists.
In recent years, Mali had sought to create a desert tourism industry around Timbuktu. But even before April's rebellion many tourists were being discouraged by a spate of kidnappings of Westerners in the region claimed by al-Qaida-linked groups.
F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Of course he is celebrating. What else would he do??? Create, nurture, study or preserve for the good of mankind??? Nah...this is a whole lot more fun!!!
(i still can't find the sarcasm button on here.)
My sarcasm button seems to be missing too. I sure hope the stories told in movies come true where they are hunted by evil spirits or they unleashed some bio-hazard on their a$$es. The follow up story would have me pissing my pants in laughter! I say we suit up in a Jeepers Creepers outfit and stalk the piss out of the tards.
Just to go and show you how Islam treats other religions, and they wonder why they are hated so much? Then again, religious destruction has been going on since history has been recorded. Still don't make it right though! They sure scream and protest their religious places being destroyed. Well, I guess what goes around, comes around!
"The Islamist militant celebrating..." Clearly this is a photoshopped pic...no one over there has such nice teeth!
Mike, this is what they do to their own religion. Sufism is just a different branch of Islam. So I don't even want to know how these ignorant fools look upon other religions (or atheism). Well, I guess we already know. This is very sad.
@ boplenty:
That's what I thought. At first I thought he was one of the Osmonds.
Well, MSNBC, what is your spin here? I can't believe you actually reported it. So why did they do this? DO they hate America?
"i know your in there, cause i can smell your brains"
Sufi is a branch of Islam. Sunni, Shia, Sufi... Sunni craps on Shia, Shia craps on Sunni, and both crap on Sufi. Sufi is the more mystical branch, with saints and the like. Fundamentalists hate that sort of thing.
It's truly disgusting, no matter who does it, to destroy cultural and historic sites such as this. It makes me sick to my stomach whenever I think about those ancient giant buddhas in Afghanistan that they destroyed in the name of Islam. It makes me sick to think of how the Spanish destroyed so many of the Aztec and Inca records and temples in the name of Christianity. It just makes me sick how religion is used by fundamentalists to justify wiping out entire cultures.
Haha, I actually noticed that too. Those are some nice zoobies there.
So they opened the end of the world gate. meanwhile back here people are eating peoples faces off. o.O
brains brains OMG the zombies are here ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Not only are his teeth sparkly white, but the hand on his arm has had a manicure and a coat of nail polish!
The grand stupidity of these so-called Islamists boggles the mind. All of these ruins they are destroying are, in fact, Muslim ones. They were created when the kingdom became Muslim after the Emperor of Mali, in the 13th Century, went to Egypt and converted (he also did the Haj on that same trip). The country became one that embraced the Sufi tradition of Sunni Islam. For those out there who know nothing of Islam, there are two main branches - Sunni and Sh'ia. When Mohammed passed away, who should lead the fledgling religion was in dispute: Some felt it should be the eldest male in the family, in this case his Father-in-Law; others dissented and said it should pass to his male heir, his Son in Law Ali (Sh'ia means Party of Ali), husband to Mohammed's daughter Fatima. Thus began the great split. As time went on each of these two groups either splintered or had Sects grow up within them. The Sufi followed the Sunni teachings of Uwais al-Qarni, Hasan Basri, the Great poet, Rumi and others, and are commonly called "the Whirling Dervishes" in the West because they often spin and dance to reach an altered state of conscientiousness thus achieving an ecstatic mental state, not unlike how Pentecostals do when they fall into speaking tongues. Naturally this is an over-simplification, but I am not typing out a whole lesson on Islam.
So, in short, these not-really Muslims, but who claim to be Muslims, are destroying their own religious and cultural heritage because they dislike the Tuareg peoples (Muslim, for the most part, native nomadic tribesmen. Very sad, as the world has lost some amazing archaeological sites and thus made poorer for it, all because of religious intolerance of people that are part of the same over-all religion; an Abrahamic religion who's beginnings are shared by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
A foolish question. Here is the obvious answer. They are full of hate, these radicals, and the question is based on a false assumption. This was not a shrine to America. I would be willing to bet that Americans, unless they are Muslim, don't even know what this place is.
It does, however, remind me of the behavior of a certain American group. This group would destroy programs that help Americans, and a great many of them, because it doesn't fit with their own self-centered beliefs. They will try to gouge out their own economic eyes to prove the point that their hatred for others is pure. I find these people incomprehensible. Glenn Beck put it well, this week. He said that their attacks against us would come without us seeing them coming, because we don't understand him and his faction. He's right about the second part. His mistake is the same as Al Qaeda's mistake: they think they are more clever then anyone else, and so they can sneak around without anyone noticing them. Then we drop a missile on them. Hate-blind fools, the lot.
All these religious fanatics itching to see the end of the world... America is full of them too...
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds...
Oh the things that are done in God's name. I had never heard of Islam before 9/11. Everything I have seen and read since is in complete juxtaposition of the God I have known all my life.
Our government allows Muslims to legally enter America.
I hope it's not too late before our leaders come to their senses.
I just want to know what brand of toothpaste does that brainless fool use?
Y'all might ask Native Americans how we view the ongoing destruction of our ancient sacred places and structures in the name of "progress". It cuts us to the marrow of our souls and y'all mock us for "crying over bones and dirt". Yet here many of y'all are decrying and heartily condemning this bit of ignorant stupidity perpetrated by a faction of fanatical idiots...and then use your own bias to condemn the rest of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims. Most Muslims don't do stuff like this, aren't uneducated, violent, or terrorists, and actually value the knowledge and cultural achievements of the world's many nations and civilizations.
And nuke the Middle East? Kill millions of innocent men, women, and children? So much for being the more civilized people, Jake. Pro-life, too, are you?
And while bemoaning people behaving badly and using their religious zealotry to turn back the clock, you might think about how Christian zealots in this country are trying to roll back the clock on equal rights for women and minorities by interfering with voting rights, undermining or repealing laws protecting victims of domestic violence and rape, dumbing down education at an increasing rate by whitewashing history and science texts and banning certain literary works (like some by Mark Twain and Charles Dickens), and trying to ban all forms of birth control...even between married couples. Next thing you know we'll be back to having Calvin's Blue Laws forced upon all of us, Christian or not. With non-Christians finding their religious beliefs being oppressed or outlawed.
So which is worse...a bunch of idiots using religion as justification for destroying old shrines or a bunch of idiots using religion to destroy what has been the greatest democratic nation and free society on earth? And which one can YOU do anything about?
I wonder how most Muslims would feel if another sect of Islam blew up the Ka'ba in Mecca because they considered it 'idolatrous', since it's full of idols.
The 'Black stone' that is the reason for the structure is most likely a meteorite, and is a religious idol.
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~rfrey/220kaba.htm
Allison -
That is one of the most narrow minded, stupid comments I have ever read.
Comparing our great nation having a great Christian heritage to the Muslim hell holes of the world is stupid.
What's it like living under a rock?
Yeah, screw the 1st Amendment. /s/

Oh wow, the irony is overwhelming coming from the same guy as 1.18.
For all those self-righteous idiots who think that fundamenalist Islamic actions can be compared to Christianity, please just shut your traps.
I don't know why you need to find an excuse to defend these animals. They are exactly what they seem to be - hardline radicals who, wherever they are in power, oversee destruction, extreme religious and gender discrimination, violence, terrorism, backward progress, etc. Honestly, there isn't one Muslim-majority country in the world (and there are lots of them) that one could be proud of, in any way whatsoever.
Christians don't cause 1/100 of the problems in our world that Muslims do. I don't care if 500 years ago there was an Inquisition in Spain or Americans were fighting Native Americans. I care about today. And the truth is obvious in today's world.
Obviously these actions don't represent all Islamists. But there's something about that religion that seems to breed radicalism. Unless the centralist Islamists speak up for their religion, Islam will take over and return their part of the world to the Middle Ages.
I have to agree with Allison Shaw. We are pointing out the speck in our neighbor's eye without noticing the plank in our own. We have a lot to do and correct here in our own country, with regards to our own population and it's mentality.
Shuklack-
Our constitution was created to be amended for a reason. Take off your blinders, we're not living in the 1700's.
The editor and the individual(s) responsible for posting that fake pic should be fired, for putting out such false documentation.
By your actions, you shall be known.
Wouldn't it make sense for our government to quarantee freedom of religion as long as that religion didn't advocate the destruction of the government guaranteeing the freedom?
Where is our common sense?
Such dangerous silliness!! No matter how much some people may "believe in" and "treasure" this "end of the world" shrine, the entire concept of it is just plain silly. Then come the Islamists who feel compelled to destroy the shrine, a goal which is just as silly.
Now that the shrine has been destroyed (or at least greatly damaged), what have the believers lost, and what have the destroyers gained?
If people want to believe fervently in religious concepts, why on earth do they choose such worthless and nonsensical crap as the bases of their beliefs? Why do people waste their intelligence on stupidity?
There is no excuse for fundamentalism. But those of you painting all Muslims with the same brush and calling for genocide by 'nuking the entire middle east off the map' make it imperitive to put the reality of religious fundamentalism into its proper context - and to point out that such extremism can and has and will be shared by all major religions.
You call us self-righteous, yet here you are acting as if Christian fundamentalism is any better. It's not. It's just as dangerous - but LUCKILY Christianity finds itself tempered by societies based on SECULAR Enlightenment philosophy which is centered on RELIGIOUS FREEDOM and equality. LUCKILY Christianity finds itself (for the most part) in fat and happy Western societies. But look at it in Africa, look what it has done there... it's no better, it's just fortunate for the time being. If the economic situation changes for the worst in the West, you best bet your arse that Christian fundamentalism will explode into something just as bad as Islamic fundamentalism...... you can already see instances of it in 3rd world nations TODAY, witch burnings, genocides, etc.
You can see the rhetoric right here in the US in bad economic times - people start blaming the 'lack of faith' and the gays and 'secularism' for the hard times. Fundamentalism picks up steam as people want to scapegoat something that they feel they can control. That's just the first step. Thank your lucky stars that our society is based on secular principles and is still quite economically strong... without those two things, we'd be as doomed to sectarian violence as these Islamic nations. Go ahead, read up about the downfall of the Islamic world - from the height of civilization to the backwater it is today.... the formula is there.
So you're ok with getting rid of Religious Freedom in this country?

Not all Muslims follow that idealogy. Islamic nations were some of the earliest to embrace secular attitudes and tolerance toward other religions (until they were gripped by fundamentalists due to the downfall of the Silk Road)
Religious Freedom is tempered by other laws. Laws against violence, against conspiracy and plotting. It's entirely unecessary (and plain ol' wrong) to ban an entire religion.
These morons don't understand their religion anymore than extremist christians in America. These morons are just anarchists using religion as an excuse to destroy, pillage, rape, steal, etc. "My imam told me to do it *duh*"
Thanks Barrack! Thanks Hilary! You told us you destroyed Al Qaeda and they were powerless. At least we won't have to worry about you idiots after the Nov election. Yay!!
Well Bobster, I mean they HAVE resorted to destroying other Muslim holy sites in Mali.... a far cry from a show of power, in a wider perspective.
Mr. Islamist militant\Al-Qaida linked fighter, that’s a really nice photo…somewhere there’s a Predator Drone with that very same photo in it’s database loaded with Hell Fire missiles and some drone pilot back in Iowa or Nevada is gonna pull the trigger… Mr. Islamist militant\Al-Qaida linked fighter meet Mr. Predator Drone… Mr. Predator Drone…
I was expecting him to turn to the camera and say "FABULOUS!", just like in the Orbitz Gum commercials.
Whatever. Africans have wonderful teeth.
theCavalier........................dude you really should start laying off the punch at those political rallies your attending.
I waiting for Indiana Jones to pop out there with a few skulls and a bag of stones.
jussayin-
Allison -
Very near to my house is a state park, founded to protect the lands that were home to the Native Americans who lived there for centuries. I also know of an Indian burial mound about 25 miles to the south of my home that has a park built around it, and a fence around the actual mound, to protect and preserve that portion of history.
While I agree in our developing past, we did everything possible to erase Native American heritage, that is not the case any more. Things have changed. Tax dollars are being spent in big ways to preserve what our ancestors tried to wipe out. Anything done today to further remove "things" or "lands" or anything of "historical significance" must have the permission of the Native people and several government departments. We have a screwed-up past, but fortunately, it is in the past.
Story:Al-Quida destroys ancient shrine
Liberals: Well Christians want to take away my birth control... unless I'm willing to pay for it myself
Story: Muslim father kills daughter for being too worldly
Liberals: But the Crusades and Charlemagne; that was practically yesterday
Story: Afgans riot, 20 dead, because Koran fell on ground
Liberals: Yeah but remember that Christian abortion clinic bomber a decade ago
Story: 6,000 Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11
Liberals: What about that swedish dude; he looks Christian
Story: Saudi girls forced back into burning building to their deaths for forgetting their head-scarves
Liberals: I know how they feel, Christians give me judgmental looks when they see my green mohawk
Story: Man & woman stoned to death for alleged infidelity
Liberals: that's practically the same thing as being against gay marriage
Story: Islamics wish to implement Sharia Law in the US
Liberals: See, this is why Christianity sucks
I know many of you have your own personal reasons for attempting to draw a correlation between modern Christianity and Islam as it pertains to their extreme elements. Whether you like it or not there is no comparison. If you believe they are equivalents with respect to violence and suprression then you have become blinded by your own hatred. There are good and peaceful Muslims but to try to pretend that their religion's issues are not uniquely barbaric, pervasive and that they are no different than modern day Christianity is either emotional, foolish, ignorant or all three. When your own prejudices get in the way of commonsense it becomes necessary for those uninhibited by such deficiencies to try slap some reason into you. If you don't want to be a Christian then don't be; nobody is going to make you. However, if you're going to be a practicing Christian, I would suggest you avoid settling in the following countries:
Iran
Egypt (good luck Coptics)
Syria
Lebanon
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
Yemen
Qatar
Kuwait
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Libya
Sudan
Oman
United Arab Emirates
Etc...
Unless of course you would like to die
Shuklack, 1.23 hilarious!
Anyway, Mike-##### shows that reading is fundamental and he needs to learn how to. He can write. He just can't read.
Thing is, there are stupid angry people in the world. Al-Quaeda is looking for a loser near you to bomb you. This world needs to be modernized...only problem being by modernizing it, you happen to threaten some tyrant who was having a good time while it was primitive. Keep the TVs on, and the internet connection free of interference, and you'll destroy these idiots brains with thoughts that are outside their own psychotic minds. In fact, if you listen to them, it is one of the things they hate and that hurts them the most.
Lol, I thought he looked like one of the cavemen from the Geico ads. Your right tho, his teeth are dazzling. Kinda scary actually.
It is sad to have historic places destroyed, but that is ever the human way. Just as it is to try and destroy those that don't believe what you believe.
Maybe now that the door is open, so to speak, they shall all reap their just rewards. :)
Shuklak:
Again, stop giving history lessons. I don't care if 1000 years ago, Muslims were pioneering secular societies. I care about today, and today the only thing they are pioneering is terrorism.
Your argument that Christian fundametalists are just as dangerous as Muslim ones; just that Christians find themselves in secular countries is ridiculous and makes no sense.
Europe is being flooded with Islamists. Take the Netherlands, for example. Probably the most tempered, peaceful, liberal, and left country in the world. Islamists are taking over that country (I have been there quite a few times, so I know). Islamists pour acid on women in the streets, they live in lawless slums where Sharia law rules, and the overall picture of their society (in such cities as the Hague) doesn't look much different than the Taliban's Afghanistan.
How do you explain that? This is happening all over Europe btw. It blows your argument to pieces.
Your argument doesn't make logical sense either. You can't blame society for Islamists problems, when Islamists make up the society (think about that). Sharia law runs many of the most Fundamentalist countries. Sharia law is their society. The fact that most Muslim countries are discriminatory and lack basic freedoms and rights is because they are run by Islamic leaders. Not the other way around (i.e. the leaders are tyrants which breeds fundamentalist Islamists).
Look at Egypt? They voted in the Muslim Brotherhood in a free election. So how can you blame their society for what is going to take place in Egypt over the next decade?
Religious insanity. Now they get to replace all they've destroyed with their Mosque.
Timeline of the Islamic Crusades
The Truth about Islamic Imperialism
http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/crusades_timeline.htm
The Islam fundamentalists are on the march trough-out the world; our leaders , can not understand what they are or what their goal is, they want to bring democracy to these religious barbarians, they do not believe in democracy, they do not want democracy, they hate democracy; they are spreading all over the world, we are bringing them into our country by the tens of thousands, we are being brain-washed into believing they will adapt to our culture; they have never adapted to Any ones culture in 1400 years, why is it so hard for our political leaders to learn about history(sorry, it is now called civics in school).
Fundamentalists Christians would do the same or worse if it weren't for our laws and democracy. Don't fool yourselves.
RELIGION, ignorance is your father and fantasy your mother! Destruction, death, and sorrow are your legacies!
'The Truth about,' is always code word for 'I am purely a liar.'
Take it from someone who studied the crusades in an actually qualified educational institution, the above post is a load of BS meant for jingoistic fools who don't actually do any critical thinking.
Thanks for the funny article, though. By the way, there is not a monster in your closet, no matter how many times you tell me that it is 'The Truth' there is one.
Monkeys with guns... What a pathetic group of people these militants are.
I don't understand why the slime with the white teeth has a watch. These pricks are stuck in the 18th century.
Religious fanatics, no matter what organized religion or cult they come from are the reason for wars, and a great deal of violence in the world we all live in. They commit murder in the name of the almighty " GOD" they believe in on a daily basis. Their extreme interpretation of some religious book is all the reason they need to go out and commit crimes against humanity. We have seen it in this country with the murder of doctors performing abortions or bombing of abortion clinics. I do not see religion as a positive force, only one that creates division, hate and violence is the end result.
Really? Dang, I've never murdered anyone, blown anything up or marched down a street even. I guess I need to get busy. After all I wouldn't want your perception of us to be blown.........get it?......."blown up"...Oh nevermind.
Dick bunch of numbers...if you read his post, he was talking about religious fanatics.
This is really a shame, but by the same token we destroyed the old Yankee Stadium so I don't think we have much room to talk...
Excellent point Travis. Chicago tore down Louis Sullivan's classic Stock Exchange Building.
Travis from Soviet Occupied New England:
May I ask what part of New Englang you are for... because I am here and never heard of it.
bb...that's a very narrow minded view of the religious. What you say is correct, but much good has been done in the world by followers of various religions. But it is human nature to fight and kill those different from us. The atheist communist under Stalin killed some 15-20 million people.
Red Sox Nation ALL THE WAY!
He didn't do it in the name of atheism though. That's an important distinction. The state-imposed anti-organized religion policies of Stalinism were in the name of power, and organized religions are rivals to the state's absolute superiority.
Check you history books. The destruction to which you refer were perpetrated by protestants. The leaders and zealots of the Catholic church are not sinless. But be accurate.
-------
hs321And to the Catholic church's discredit, when they came to the America's, they destroyed a lot of ancient history in the name of their religion. Ironic isn't it that the ancestor's of the people whose work was destroyed now follow that religion.
Such a nice peace loving group over there. Let's send more of our money over there so we can finance more mayhem and destruction. Obama, get us out of Afghanistan NOW!!
'Christians' in the USA and the west will destroy you financially without having to kill you.
That's their moral standing.
People blow up doctors who perform abortions....are you kidding me??? I have never believed in an eye for an eye....but don't loose any sleep over the doctor who has performed abortions....come on now.
You see, it's not a basic problem of Islam that folks like sam## would have you believe. Read the article. They are doing this to Muslim stuff, sacred Islamic things. Muslims are horrified by these sh##heads! They are much like our own tea partiers would be if they had half a chance.
In fact, I am pretty sure the reactionaries in this country have so intently created such a problem with these people because they are EXACTLY ALIKE. Look what they did to Stone Mountain in Georgia. Or Black Mesa. It is no coincidence American reactionaries had a large hand in making the Taliban and other extremist groups the institutions they have become.
I wish you could tell that to Sam Adams or some of the other freedom fighters of that time. I'm pretty sure they would have tarred and feathered you for being a Tory sympathizer (& probably rightly so)...
I wish the freedom fighters had stuck to being allied groups of landless whites and native folks burning and looting pig landowners. But they probably would have been slaughtered by the Brits. Who knows, though, it was a big place and maybe would have proto-Ghandi independence thing by 1804 or so. Who knows really? Could have put the kibosh on British empire much sooner. Instead we sould out to the rich once again and became their buttbuddies for the the Big Loot. I do love this country, the real actual place, much, much more than you.
Carl-404329 wrote:
I think my eyes are still rolling and its been like 5 minutes since I first read this. I honestly cannot fathom the amount of hubris it takes to speak on behalf of the nations founders especially when what you have written is so clearly anathema to the clear sentiments expressed by Thomas Paine.
Muslim people are no different than anyone else; some of them are good, some of them are bad. Being a muslim no more makes you inferior to your fellow man than being an accountant does.
I dunno Jaybird, I think they are more like an unarmed OWS sect than tea party, at least the tea party cleaned the parks when they were done protesting. But seriously, imagine, somehow, those type of people comming to power here, I think a whole lot of us on here would be missing our heads.
Gosh. Yes, the possibility is terrifying, BS. Did my sarcasm survive the leap over the seemingly bottomless chasm of irony, there?
Shuklack.....ALL religions are based on ignorance and hate, plain and simple. My made up story is better than your made up story, so you have to die, that is their basic principle.
Jaylike Birds: genius.
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
These "islamicists" are nothing more than ignorant fanatics. Back before the 2nd gulf war, the entire international community appealed to a similar group of Iraqi al quiada toadies to stop trying to destroy an ancient hindu religious site. They just destroyed it, despite anyone's attempts to halt it.
This is the basis of anti-islamic fervor; that followers can become brainwashed & follow whatever any psychotic mullah or imam says, regardless of how violent or destructive. And, that they will attempt to force everyone to convert to Islam, either through force of arms or by trying to wipe away any presence of other religions, as this story details...
They didn't seem to be mindlessly following the orders of the imam whose mosque they were defiling in Timbuktu, when he requested they please not destroy it.
Applies to many religions and a certain political party. Your description is a good one and should serve as a warning to and about any group trending in that direction. Will we learn from it? Someday. Not now though.
@Too Late for Them- It was Taliban in Afganistan, not Iraq, that blew up the Buda statues in 2001. But I get you point. What people like these do not understand is that these cultural treasures do not belong to them alon, they belong to humanaty as a whole. This is the equivalent to England destroing the Stonhenge or French burning the Mona Lisa. These people should fall on their knees and beg future generations to forgive them for what they have done.
LMarcT:
Please leave the domestic politics out of this.
What is going on in Mali does not have Jack Scat to do with the two loser parties over here. What is going on there is an all-out assult on a culture, very much like what the 3rd Reich did in the 1930's up until 1945.
Timbuktu, I read several articles about the old city. At one time in histroy it was at the cross roads of trade coming and going. It became, according to a number of articles, a city that transcribed many old world documents into different languages to spread news and srpitures for all to use in the betterment of mankind. As one article stated that they were still teaching their young to do these very same things by hand today, the oldest ways taught from generation to generation.
Now comes the Muslims and their religious beliefs. A Peace Loving People that do no harm to others and promote peace at every turn in life?? So I wonder what happened to that religion and those people. Maybe to much sun? I'm sure the people of Timbuktu didn't want to see all of the killing, the destruction of their buildings, theirproud history and their religious beliefs.
Yet another Muslim mess created by the Peaceful Loving Religious Believers that they are. A well placed bomb in Mecca shouldset them back a little, just to show them how it feels. Just like they have been doing to everyone that gets in their way. I actually believe they kill for the sake of killing. Sorry that's just my take.
ISLAM is a religion of VIOLENCE!!!! Make no mistake about it. All this violence coming to your neighborhood sooner then later. Time to squash all these people and I mean all is now!!!
What a bunch of Douche Bags!! I keep forgetting this is a peaceful and tolerant religion.
Does the hate filled Westboro Baptist Church represent all Christians? No, it does not. I don't at all excuse what these fanatical Muslim idiots are doing, but would remind people that Christians did the same thing at one time. They destroyed images and sacred texts in Pagan temples in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt. They destroyed the ancient library at Alexandria. Christians destroyed sacred groves and temples in the British Isles. Early Christians banned religions and executed people who resisted. During the Reformation, Protestants destroyed Catholic altars, statues, paintings, sacred objects, and monasteries and convents, because these things were "offensive to God". Sound familiar? In the 19th century, Christians weren't destroying temples, but they did try to impose their faith on others, because it and it alone was the "right" one.
There are a few Christian nut cases who would STILL destroy in the name of their God, but for our laws. Most Christians today would NOT act like this, but it's taken them centuries to get to this point. Again, I make no excuse for Islamic extremists behavior. It should be condemned and routed out, but I will say that when we look at it, we in the west see OUR past, and it ain't pretty. In other words, the distance between superior "us" and barbaric "them" is only separated a few centuries. In historical terms, we're closer than we think.
People forget that the Popes spent about 1500 years breeding our various pagan ancestral groups in Europe into slave hash. Meat puppets for the church and state.
Whole system is much more refined now, though.
Remember that all religions are the same in that each one of them know "The Truth!" Therein lies the basic problem. From a more distant view, that "Truth" is just and only a point of view, nothing more. A Philosophy for Life for each person. That is where that vast majority of religions have lost their way, their message, their legitimacy. If you need gods, well, go back to the olden days and see what they were like and the "Truth" will come to you. Lessons learned!
Referee I call crap on your assertion. Truth is based on fact not a persons view.
That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality: "tell me the truth".
But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?
Nikolaus20 = Good post!
Citizen911... Is that based on your view?
Niko, our past is PAST. We are not repeating it right now, as the extremist Muslims are.
Religion,oh what would we do without.you know the sad about it,every war in the known man kind can be blamed on it ,either directly or indirectly.it alway the extreme religion that does it.God created man. and then war.wonder how many weapons came threw U.S.funds
I would love to blame religion for this kind of insanity, because then we would know how to end it, but the Soviets kind of effed that one up. Turns out any group of a$$ho!es can be a$$ho!es if given a chance.
Religion is the opiate of theeople.
No. It is not. Marx was wrong on that one. People just like to be swindled. It's what they do all the time, getting swindled. Religion is just a means to do so by people who understand this, to lead the people who need a prescribed world whether it be religious or not. Religion is getting obsolete, so now democracy is the new religion. And people believe that one too. For now at least.
These people are crazy, these are the same people who hate christians and jews.
It is muslim on muslim violence. Again, gay, atheist and christian soldiers need to defend muslims against other muslims.
Take notice that these murdering sobs always have their faces covered when carrying weapons.
It is a desert,... duh!!!!
cavemen have to use their clubs for something
uhg wan break ugh
lets send them back to their caves
and apperantly its ok with the muslims
none of them are lifting a finger to stop this nonsence
the real sad thing is the muslim religion is a forced religion
iether like it or die sadsadsad
Is no one reading the article? They are destroying Muslim things, and Muslims are horrified by what they are doing. These extremists are like reactionaries everywhere-- crazy, and dangerous if they get a chance. All you people pis sed off at these people (and who isn't?) can blame "business interests" in the Middle East, our oil companies included, who have built up the extremists into the institutional cancer they now are. If anything, most Muslims are a bit too passive.
They may be horrified but are they condemning it? Where is the Islamic outrage? Why aren't they walking down en masse in the middle of the streets with their shoes in their hand screaming Alan Ackbar and burning effigies of the savages that did this atrocity?
Yeah, they are horrified all right; horrified that if they did publicly denounced this action they would be kidnapped and have their head cut off...No one wants to die a martyr unless it is against an infidel...
JT-910754
You must be one of those sand ni8ger lovers . . .
Hey, look, here's one of those savages in our own backyard with a lap top!
You are not the Momo from the Michael Ende book, then, I imagine. Hm, mercy no.
OMG, too funny....lap top, backyard, cant stop laughing, thanks
Islamic extremists are waging wars of aggression on many fronts all around the globe. Their goal is world domination and to end all religions other than their perverted version of Islam. The good people and the decent nations of the world need to defeat radical Islam if we want to preserve civilization. If we sit back they will kill us all.
That is exactly, perfectly what ALL extremists think of each other.
Christian extremists are waging wars of aggression on many fronts all around the globe. Their goal is world domination and to end all economic systems other than their perverted version of capitalism. The good people and the decent nations of the world need to defeat radical neo-conservatism if we want to preserve civilization. If we sit back they will kill us all.
_______— extremists are waging wars of aggression on many fronts all around the globe. Their goal is world domination and to end all _________— other than their perverted version of _________. The good people and the decent nations of the world need to defeat _________— if we want to preserve _________. If we sit back they will kill us all.
When will good people stop falling for this BS?
Fianchetto and Jaylike... Exactly... There are many stone throwers in the world, and they come in many religious sizes. If you put on the blinders you can justify your actions to whatever end. The realization of what we have done in our past helps us move forward. Otherwise, we are indeed doomed to repeat the past. There are many in the US that are behaving just as barbaric as the Islamic extremists around the world... and these offenders do not wear Islam on their shoulders.
Hate is hate. It stems from lack of education and blindly following mantras of others without opening your eyes. So... open your eyes. If you truly follow the doctrine of any religion (Budhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc.) you will not hate. These religions teach love and respect to god and your neighbor. Unfortunately, the original teachings have been warped by those who crave power.
I see the UN is right there on the spot helping out and controlling the situation as usual. Yep- the Un - What a great society and force they are. Yep the UN.
Undermine, deride. Deride, undermine. Got it. Good tactics.
Well, I can take the "End of the World Gate" off my Bucket List. It was right below "Have Lunch with the Children of the Sand" in Timbuktu. My travel agent was crushed, after all, this is the high travel season for Timbuktu.
oh boy, another sand box to play in! notice how they slipped in "an area the size of France...controlled by al queda"? where's ole W and his side kick DICK? i'm sure they are hiding WMD's and must be annihilated! do they have any oil? everyone knows war is good for the economy, we must find WAR!
Mad- What meds did you not take this morning- in case you have not notice W is not prez any more its BO and that band of idiots. But you don't have to worry-BO would never do anything to interfere with his brothers actions over there.
Kell, by "BO and his band of idiots", you meant that President who killed Osama Bin Laden? Yeah, thought so. Thanks for the reminder.
Were fighting one now genius and the economy sucks.But that doesn't fit with the idiot ideas in your head.Liberal?
Mike- Navy Seals got Osama if you remember correctly- BO sat in the room in the back lookinging like a scared child. He practically had to be forced to give the OK to go in for Osama. Read the real story behindthe hype. I heard he actually did kill a spider the other day in the White House. maybe he can use that in his campaign trail speeches. BO out in 2012!
Kelldoon, your post has so much BS I can smell it from here. Your man Bush didn't get him with the same military at his disposal. What's your excuse? his gross mismanagement of the entire 9-11 Iraq, Afghanistan debacle led to Obama successfully cleaning up part of the mess Bush left behind. Get over it and show some patriotism and support for once. You Rethuglicans make me sick. You spout jingoistic platitudes and outright lies, and you'd rather wreck the country for spite than see another President have some success. He got the job done and your guy didn't. Your guy f'ed everything up and this guy has been stuck cleaning it all up.
The Pyramids, Sphinx ?
[SIGH]...Thank Jeebus I live in a country where I have AC and real floors and I do not have to live in fear of having my head cut off for worshiping the wrong god...
Since this is the first I heard of this shrine and they are doing it on the other side of the world, and it is their own shrine, LET SHARIA LAW HANDLE IT. Perhaps if the Muslims were to rise up against their own religious fanatics and 'thinned out their herd' a little bit by eradicating the so-called Radical Islamic Fundamentalists (aka terrorists, aka thugs, aka vandals, aka @!$%#ing savages) then the rest of the world to include the U.S. Military won't have to be the world's policemen...and THEN we can all get along mo' betta.
If the Muslims and Sharia law do not condemn these savages actions and do not take care of these savages with great vengeance, then they condone their actions and we know the truth about ALL Muslims.
o.o, these are the TRUE believers. They are doing EXACTLY what they are supposed to do. Funny how they will kill someone for making fun of Mohamhead, but disrespect the memory of everyone else that died.
MOSinEur-
How right you are; their religion is essentially illogical. Call them Bizarro of religions. When all you have to say is, "God wills it" or "It is God's will" and then commence with your act and you are shielded I guess.
Amazing and Pathetic at the same time.
And these "guys" demand from the world to respect and love them. Why?
Cover photo looks like someone from Planet of the Apes ... maybe that's what End of the World means.
But Islam is a religion of peace. This must be an aberration, like say Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, most of the UK, Yemen, you know, anywhere with things that explode.
all religions are professors of peace. Unfortunately it seems the nations that claim to support them are not.
just so we are clear yes I was being sarcastic and yes I mean us too.
so we are safe from December 21, 2012 now right? cause theres no more gate? so thanx guys?
sidenote: that guys teeth are fabulous.
No dude. They opened the door that was not supposed to be opened until the end of the world. They just caused 2012 to become real!! Who knows what they released.
And those teeth have an incredible Dentine shine. What's his dental plan I wonder?
Maybe he's a Romney kid. Ever see their brilliant white teeth? Also, Muslims & mormons are both extremists with whacked religious views.
I'm thinking they released something that will create the Muslim Extremist Zombie Apocalypse. Because there is nothing worse than a suicidal Zombie with great teeth.
They are barbarians.
Veneers by Dr. Ali
Here we have the illustration of just who is forcing their religion down the rest of the world's throat.
All you Christian haters are quick to claim Christianity has done the same hundreds of years ago. Oh? Then you DO think it is a bad thing? Swooping forward to the 21st century, we can assume you hate Islam equally now, right?
I, for one, lump all fundamentalist nutcases into one turd incapable of being polished in any century past or present.