RustyNails
Member
No surprise whatsoever. These terrorists destroyed Jonah's mosque as well.
Propaganda tool or that Mosque is a representation of Islam they disagree with, heresy which justifies destroying it.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but why would they destroy a mosque? Is it just a scorched earth thing so they deprive us of being able to raise a flag on a site that was once important to them?
Iraqi officials had privately expressed hope that the mosque could be retaken in time for Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. The first day of the Eid falls this year on June 25 or 26 in Iraq.
July 29, 2014
BAGHDAD (AP) — Residents of Mosul have watched helplessly as extremists ruling the northern Iraqi city blew up some of their most beloved landmarks and shrines to impose a stark vision of Islam. Next up for destruction, they feared: the Crooked Minaret, a more than 840-year-old tower that leans like Italy's Tower of Pisa.
But over the weekend, residents pushed back. When fighters from the Islamic State group loaded with heavy explosives converged on the site, Mosulis living nearby rushed to the courtyard below the minaret, sat on the ground and linked arms to form a human chain to protect it, two residents who witnessed the event told The Associated Press on Monday.
They told the fighters, If you blow up the minaret, you'll have to kill us too, the witnesses said.
The militants backed down and left, said the witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the militants.
But residents are certain the militants will try again. Over the past two weeks, the extremists ruling Iraq's second largest city have shrugged off previous restraint and embarked on a brutal campaign to purge Mosul of anything that challenges their radical interpretation of Islam. The militants — though Sunnis — target shrines revered by other Sunni Muslims because the sites are dedicated to popular religious figures. In the radicals' eyes, that commits one of the worst violations of Islam: encouraging worship of others besides God.
The scene on Saturday was a startling show of bravery against a group that has shown little compunction against killing anyone who resists it. It reflects the horror among some residents over what has become of their beloved city.
"The bombing of shrines ... has nothing to do with Islam," Abu Abaida, 44, a government employee, told the AP by phone from the city. "They are erasing the culture and history of Mosul." Like other residents, he spoke to the AP on condition he be identified by a nickname or first name for fear of retaliation.
Nearly daily, the militants have been destroying some of the city's most famed sites.
On Thursday, they lay a wall of explosives around the Mosque of the Prophet Younis — or Jonah, the prophet who in both the Bible and Quran was swallowed by a whale. They ordered everyone out of the shrine, which is said to contain the prophet's tomb, and blew it up.
The next day, it was the turn of the Mosque of Sheeth, or Seth, said to be the burial site of the third son of Adam and Eve. On Saturday, they reduced to rubble the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis.
Last week, they removed the crosses on the domes and brick walls of the 1,800-year old Mar Behnam monastery, then stormed it, forcing the monks and priest to flee or face death. The move came days after jihadists proclaimed over loudspeakers from mosques that Christians must convert to Islam, pay a tax or die, prompting the flight of almost all the Christians who remained in the city.
This. Bombing the mosque of the Prophet you claim to follow... Something doesn't add up 👀Another day, another action that enrages muslims, wiping cherished history and culture. Palmyra was too painful for me, and now they've done it again. If it were up to them they'd bulldoze Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Alhambra in Spain, Al Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Pyramids, Nankana Sahib in Lahore, Prambanan of Indonesia, they even carried out bombing outside the Prophets mosque in Saudi Arabia. They care very little for current religion and its people, rather they want to establish their new religion.
There isnt a group of humans i detest more. Fuck these pieces of shits.
How did this work against fucking ISIS? What do they care about killing innocents?It could be that, from Reuters:
But when IS first captured Mosul, they did attempt to destroy the minaret of the mosque. AP: Blowing up shrines, extremists shrug off restraint and unleash their vision on Iraq's Mosul
Lots of no true Scotsmen arguments in here.
What's the reaction in the Muslim world?
judging by #alnurimosque on Twitter they seem pretty upset.
Yeah, but a quick tour of Aljazeera's comment section shows a lot of conspiracy theories.
"ISIS is a US-zionist creation"
"US did this to upset Muslims"
a quick tour of literally every news website's comment section will display such things.
Sales of artifacts to billionaires. Takes too long and requires to much skill to dig up normally... So they just blow it up to get to it. It's fucked up.Why would they blow up that?
Yeah, but a quick tour of Aljazeera's comment section shows a lot of conspiracy theories.
"ISIS is a US-zionist creation"
"US did this to upset Muslims"
They only partially destroyed it and it can be restored.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but why would they destroy a mosque? Is it just a scorched earth thing so they deprive us of being able to raise a flag on a site that was once important to them?
Lots of no true Scotsmen arguments in here.
Yeah I'm not sure I understand the reference either, could you explain please.tell me more
Yeah I'm not sure I understand the reference either, could you explain please.
Yeah I'm not sure I understand the reference either, could you explain please.
Have you not realised by now that the whole thing is a fight between Muslims? Sunnis vs Shiites. Saddam Hussein was Sunni. The majority of Iraq is Shiite. ISIS is Sunni. Iran is Shiite. Saudi-Arabia is Sunni. Syria is Sunni with a minority (Alawites, Assad) being in powert. It's all a religious war. The only reason why it influences the West is because we interfered. They don't care about mosques. They wanted to destroy it three years ago.
Have you not realised by now that the whole thing is a fight between Muslims? Sunnis vs Shiites. Saddam Hussein was Sunni. The majority of Iraq is Shiite. ISIS is Sunni. Iran is Shiite. Saudi-Arabia is Sunni. Syria is Sunni with a minority (Alawites, Assad) being in powert. It's all a religious war. The only reason why it influences the West is because we interfered. They don't care about mosques. They wanted to destroy it three years ago.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria (FSA and Gov), Jordan, Morocco, UAE.... are allied with 15 christians and secular countries against ISIS.
So it's hardly a religious war.
Well it is a 'religious' war in the sense of ISIS' perverted distorted version of Islam vs the rest of the world, be it Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Christians or Atheists.
At the height of the reformation following the iconoclasm and wars with the catholic south, Dutch protestants sought alliances with the Ottoman Empire (that was laying siege to Europe at the time) and would wear crescent moon icons that read "rather be Turkish than Papist"Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria (FSA and Gov), Jordan, Morocco, UAE.... are allied with 15 christians and secular countries against ISIS.
So it's hardly a religious war.
At the height of the reformation following the iconoclasm and wars with the catholic south, Dutch protestants sought alliances with the Ottoman Empire (that was laying siege to Europe at the time) and would wear crescent moon icons that read "rather be Turkish than Papist"
Brittle interfaith alliances may be just as much proof of a religious war as refutation against it.
Good post.Claiming a modern liberal interpretation of scriptures is more "accurate" isn't really a good talking point when these scriptures (OT/Koran alike) were the product of openly misogynistic, violent tribalists. And I don't mean misogynistic as in "women should be quiet" I mean it in terms of "how many cows is your daughter worth" or "how big a stick is legal to beat your backtalking wife with" types.
Ancient scripture is inevitably trapped inside unethical, violent, bad ideas, unless you're going to claim no moral progress has been made in the past 1500-4000 years. Isis thinks secular humanism is garbage because it isn't true to the original intent of these tribalistic, violent authors, and they're largely right. It's just that Judaism and Christianity had a reformation that slowly convinced people to symbolize the blatantly unethical verses away over 100s of years, eventually turning those verses into meaninglessness as they continuously played catch up with newer ethical norms. People expect Islam to play catch up in short order, but that's a really big ask.
It also doesn't help that the entire Koran is supposed to be the literal word of Allah, which makes the symbolization/reformation aspect all the more difficult to embrace even for non-Islamist Muslims. Imagine if most Americans believed the constitution was literally written by God himself. You'd have a lot more constitutional literalists today than there currently are. There would be no amendments. It's hard to make a "intent of the words should be shaped by the time we live in" argument even if it's just the word of important humans, let alone God.
Also, anyone claiming Isis has little or no religious motivation is explicitly denying Isis own argument for its existence. I believe most people who don't believe Isis is filled with true believers and scriptural scholars, even at the top, doesn't really understand how a religious person thinks in the first place.
From Dabiq, Isis' now closed propaganda magazine:
They're sure laying out a compelling case for faith by doing their damnedest to create hell on earth.Yeah, from their perspective (at least their public stance), it's definitely "a holy war between faith and disbelief".
Surprising no one. I don't know if I've seen a single conversation about religious extremism where someone comes to the defense of religion without resorting to that kind of intellectual dishonesty.Lots of no true Scotsmen arguments in here.
Why tho?
Like...Isn't this bad for their brand.
Ugh...
This is at the bottom of the long list of their attrocities.
Claiming a modern liberal interpretation of scriptures is more "accurate" isn't really a good talking point when these scriptures (OT/Koran alike) were the product of openly misogynistic, violent tribalists. And I don't mean misogynistic as in "women should be quiet" I mean it in terms of "how many cows is your daughter worth" or "how big a stick is legal to beat your backtalking wife with" types.
It also doesn't help that the entire Koran is supposed to be the literal word of Allah, which makes the symbolization/reformation aspect all the more difficult to embrace even for non-Islamist Muslims. Imagine if most Americans believed the constitution was literally written by God himself. You'd have a lot more constitutional literalists today than there currently are. There would be no amendments. It's hard to make a "intent of the words should be shaped by the time we live in" argument even if it's just the word of important humans, let alone God.
It's all interpretation. There is no such thing as a religious text with a single objective unalterable meaning. And who's going to accept that their interpretation is wrong if they don't want to hear it?Please provide the quranic verse where it speak about how big the stick should be or how many cows a daughter is worth. Nothing openly misogynistic or violently tribalistic exist in the Quran. Of course, you'll find horrendous interpretation who reflect nothing but the mind of the interpreter but nothing in the litteral revealed text.
Also your argumentation about intrinsic inability of the muslim to ever be civilized because of the relation they got with their text is a copy/past of the argumentation people made with the jewish faith. A little peak in the history of islamic/jewish philosophy just show that it can go as far/further from what the christian intellectual tradition have accomplished.
It's all interpretation. There is no such thing as a religious text with a single objective unalterable meaning. And who's going to accept that their interpretation is wrong if they don't want to hear it?
This is a big bear of a problem for people who truck with irrationalism.
Much of the history of religion is people striving for, or believing they've found, the correct interpretation of their source texts. It's 2017 and we still have extremists sawing off each other's heads, treating women like cattle, and destroying priceless art.I believe that the objective meaning is with God only and we can only try to reach it. The idea that it's all an attempt should be what prevent us to commit crimes in the name of God, it's the antithesis of fanaticism, it's why fundamentalism always try to destroy the intermediary role of the human reason in the lecture of a religious text.
Also, you're right: most people will stick with the interpretation most useful to them. So if you want to conquer the world, you won't go for the more contemplative interpretation of your sacred text.
We have to move past this beastly snare of conflicting beliefs, and embrace shared humanistic values. Religion is part of our global culture, and the benign parts of culture should be preserved. Over 2500 years of this war of interpretations, and here's ISIS in the 21st Century. Can religion ever be entirely benign? How many more generations would that take?
There are no simple answers. It's beyond frustrating.
Over 2500 years of this war of interpretations, and here's ISIS in the 21st Century.
He is angry we are saying that they are not representing islam or muslims.
It's a recurrent meme against muslims. Muslims should condemn terrorism and reject the terrorist interpretation of Islam, but if they do so, they are accused of using the "No true Scotsman" argument.
I had heard the phrase before but was unsure who was 'the Scotsman' in this context (reading back it makes sense, early morning brain fart), thanks guys.It's an old story about a Scotsman, who is reading his newspaper and sees that a woman has been raped. He shouts out "No Scotsman would do that". The next day he reads his paper and they caught the rapist, and he's Scottish. So our guy screams out "No true Scotsman would do this".
Much of the history of religion is people striving for, or believing they've found, the correct interpretation of their source texts. It's 2017 and we still have extremists sawing off each other's heads, treating women like cattle, and destroying priceless art.
Clearly religion is not its own antidote. We have to move past this beastly snare of conflicting beliefs, and embrace shared humanistic values. Religion is part of our global culture, and the benign parts of culture should be preserved. Over 2500 years of this war of interpretations, and here's ISIS in the 21st Century. Can religion ever be entirely benign? How many more generations would that take?
There are no simple answers. It's beyond frustrating.
Why would they blow up that?
Enlightenment values, basically. It's all laid out by philosophers like Plato whose work shares certain common threads that include seeking virtue and respecting human dignity. We can also rely on the much older golden rule: treating people how we (or better yet, they) want to be treated.Sorry what? What values are those? The same ones that many of these religions that you're so intolerant of preach or? And what percentage of them should be shared? Who is going to be the arbiter in deciding that?
If religion can't even stop people from behaving that way, how can anyone trust it to moderate normal behavior?And here they are committing flagrant abuses of the most basic tenets of a faith they claim to follow. Killing innocent women and children, the vast majority of which are muslims, torture, rape, attacking the prophet's mosque, blowing up other mosques- everything they do flies in the face of the religion they claim to follow- their actions are actions against the vast majority of the muslim ummah and yet here you are talking about intellectual dishonesty?
I don't think anyone really believes that overcoming religion would solve the world's problems. However, it would make their solving simpler since we wouldn't have a massive network of cults that propagate highly tenacious brain worms which specifically instruct people to trust their feelings, believe without evidence, mistrust evidence, huddle themselves into hostile little (or not so little) tribes that think every outsider is corrupted and deluded, etc.Abolishing religion won't change anything since the main issue are the motivation of domination in the first place. Religions are not a magical phenomenon distinct from others phenomenons, the worst things you'll find in the worst religious interpretations, you'll be able to find them as well in seculars ideologies or even humanism. Marxism is a form of humanism and history show us where did that goes. French colonialism was made in the name of humanism, but was not different from the "christians conquest" from England or the Spain.
Religion is just used as a tool. Give anything to humans beings, the worst of them will do the same: dominate, kill and conquer in the name of this tool. The only change is the symbol they put on the flag.
I don't think that essentializing religion can lead somewhere, especially when you agree it's "all interpretation". If it's "all interpretation", so it's all humans. If it's all humans, you won't solve anything except by changing human nature. And we also saw where this project went historically.
He is angry we are saying that they are not representing islam or muslims.
It's a recurrent meme against muslims. Muslims should condemn terrorism and reject the terrorist interpretation of Islam, but if they do so, they are accused of using the "No true Scotsman" argument.
Enlightenment values, basically. It's all laid out by philosophers like Plato whose work shares certain common threads that include seeking virtue and respecting human dignity. We can also rely on the much older golden rule: treating people how we (or better yet, they) want to be treated.
It's actually not that complex, with our vast inheritance of wisdom from earlier centuries, just hard to put into practice because everyone's constantly kicking over each other's sand castles. What we've got to do is use our best tools (science) to understand the nature and causes of human suffering, and then we develop policies and align our behavior toward the goal of minimizing suffering for as many people as possible.
We raise kids a bit like the Ancient Greeks, on stories that inspire virtue (defined by expert consensus and the lessons of the past) and cultivate civic pride. We do so in an environment that conditions children to ask a lot of questions, encouraging them to exercise their curiosity and develop their skepticism, and teaching them how using evidence and their own rational capacities to find answers or ask better questions is intrinsically rewarding. Then we let our educated, well-adjusted citizens to use their finely honed consciences to guide them in daily situations that can't be solved by appealing to laws or social mores. It's a cyclical process where better people lead to better conditions, which in turn lift the next generation to higher peaks.
If religion can't even stop people from behaving that way, how can anyone trust it to moderate normal behavior?
And to think people have the gall to say it takes religion to be good. I, an atheist, have no desire to burn down a fucking church or mosque even if the people inside it want to stone or shoot me. Wonder how that happened.
I don't think anyone really believes that overcoming religion would solve the world's problems. However, it would make their solving simpler since you wouldn't have a massive network of cults that propagate highly tenacious brain worms which specifically instruct people to trust their feelings, believe without evidence, mistrust evidence, huddle themselves into hostile little (or not so little) tribes that think every outsider is corrupted and deluded, etc.
I'm not for a second claiming that every religious person is like this. Most of the people in this world are religious, and I coexist with them in peace every day. But religion itself is a uniquely potent compound, and delivery system, of weaponized irrationality. There's nothing else quite like it—nothing that can compromise so many people's minds with such virulent efficiency, convincing them to act against their own best interests and those of their fellow human beings.
I had heard the phrase before but was unsure who was 'the Scotsman' in this context (reading back it makes sense, early morning brain fart), thanks guys.
No thats not what's happening. What's happening is muslims are saying that Isis has absolutely nothing to do with Islam and that they are not muslims and we should stop doing that.
Its not all 100 procent about Islam. But it also has SOMETHING to do with Islam
There's nothing else quite like itnothing that can compromise so many people's minds with such virulent efficiency, convincing them to act against their own best interests and those of their fellow human beings.