ISIS troops destroy Jonah's tomb and burn 1,800-year-old church in Mosul (Iraq)

[mota bhai 2,675]

Staff writer, Al Arabiya News
Sunday, 20 July 2014

Militants from the radical jihadist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have set fire to a 1,800-year-old church in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, a photo released Saturday shows.

The burning of the church is the latest in a series of destruction of Christian property in Mosul, which was taken by the Islamist rebels last month, along with other swathes of Iraqi territory.

A video posted on YouTube July 9 shows a tomb being destroyed with a sledgehammer which government officials said was “almost certainly” the tomb of Biblical prophet Jonah.

Earlier, Mosul’s Christians fled the city en masse before a Saturday deadline issued by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for them to either convert to Islam, pay tax, leave or be killed.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/20/ISIS-burns-1-800-year-old-church-in-Mosul.html

[OriZ 3,157]

Peaceful folks, leave them alone.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Damn Christian militants. Oh wait..............................

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Peaceful folks, leave them alone.

It's just the 60% that give the other 40% such a bad name

[spookyturtle 9,466]

It's just the 60% that give the other 40% such a bad name

Marvin appearing in 3, 2, 1..........

[mota bhai 2,675]

Peaceful folks, leave them alone.

[lostinblue 1,989]

After 1,700 years, Buddhas fall to Taliban dynamite

By Ahmed Rashid in Islamabad

12:00AM GMT 12 Mar 2001

THE world's two largest standing Buddhas - one of them 165ft high - were blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan at the weekend.

A Buddha of Bamiyan statue stands over 150 feet high above a small town situated at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan, prior to its destruction

After failing to destroy the 1,700-year-old sandstone statues of Buddha with anti-aircraft and tank fire, the Taliban brought a lorryload of dynamite from Kabul. A Western observer said: "They drilled holes into the torsos of the two statues and then placed dynamite charges inside the holes to blow them up."

The operation to wreck the statues carved into a cliff in the Bamiyan Valley in the Hindu Kush mountains of central Afghanistan was supervised by Mullah Obaidullah, the Taliban defence minister. There has been an international outcry since Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban leader, issued a special edict on Feb 26 ordering the destruction of all non-Islamic statues.

Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, had pleaded with the Taliban's foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, in Islamabad yesterday to save Afghanistan's cultural heritage.

Destroy anything in the name of ..... year after year it continues.

[mota bhai 2,675]

That's old news, LIB. Tragic, but old and something we've already discussed at length here on VJ.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/26020-governor-of-bamiyan-province-in-afghanistan-wants-to-put-back-together-buddha-statues-blown-up-by-taleban/

[JohnR! 5,495]

[...]

Destroy anything in the name of ..... year after year it continues.

[...]

You raise a good point. In whose name is ISIS operating? Certainly not god, as many may wish to purport, just because they sell themselves as Muslims. As with any other organization, be it Muslim or Christian, their violence does not stem from god. Terrorism is self-serving. Religion just gives it the apparent justification it would never otherwise warrant. This MO has not changed in over 2,000 years.

[lostinblue 1,989]

That's old news, LIB. Tragic, but old and something we've already discussed at length here on VJ.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/26020-governor-of-bamiyan-province-in-afghanistan-wants-to-put-back-together-buddha-statues-blown-up-by-taleban/

And the destruction continues world wide.... tolerance of other peoples faith..????

[mota bhai 2,675]

And the destruction continues world wide.... tolerance of other peoples faith..????

No such thing. Saudi Arabia doesn't even allow cremation of bodies; so if a Hindu does in the KSA, they have fly the body to a friendly nation (like the UAE, also Muslim but quite moderate by comparison) for last rites. The estimated half a million Hindus in the KSA aren't even allowed to worship publicly. They have to hide like a common thief.

But then there's the UAE, a shining beacon of tolerance by comparison.

It's not Islam, in other words, that's the problem.

It's a particular variant of it that is.

[JohnR! 5,495]

No such thing. Saudi Arabia doesn't even allow cremation of bodies; so if a Hindu does in the KSA, they have fly the body to a friendly nation (like the UAE, also Muslim but quite moderate by comparison) for last rites. The estimated half a million Hindus in the KSA aren't even allowed to worship publicly. They have to hide like a common thief.

But then there's the UAE, a shining beacon of tolerance by comparison.

It's not Islam, in other words, that's the problem.

It's a particular variant of it that is.

Religious fundamentalism has been the issue for over 2,000 years now. There is little you can do when people assert their powers to be derived directly from god. Look at the Crusaders, Mr. Torquemada, various popes, Kings, Rev. Moon, Jim Jones, David Koresh, Jim Fallwell, etc...