Oh crap, another one. The worst one yet, by some accounts. AFP via the Guardian:
Islamic State jihadis have destroyed a 2,000-year-old statue of a lion outside the museum in the Syrian city of Palmyra, the country’s antiquities director has said.
Maamoun Abdelkarim said the statue, known as the Lion of al-Lat, was an irreplaceable piece. “IS members on Saturday destroyed the Lion of al-Lat, which is a unique piece that is three metres [10ft] tall and weighs 15 tonnes,” Abdelkarim told AFP. “It’s the most serious crime they have committed against Palmyra’s heritage.”
The limestone statue was discovered in 1977 by a Polish archaeological mission at the temple of al-Lat, a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, and dated back to the 1st century BC.
Abdelkarim said the statue had been covered with a metal plate and sandbags to protect it from fighting, “but we never imagined that IS would come to the town to destroy it.”
That. It’s gone now. It’s rubble. It was there, a testimony to a human genius for art and sublimity, and now it’s just lumps of stone.
No doubt there are IS supporters throughout North Africa and as far as Pakistan, so any graven image or Kuffar artefact is a target. I’m amazed that some barking-mad Islamists haven’t already attacked the Cairo Museum or used a bulldozer on the Indus Valley sites in Pakistan. No work of art in the West is safe either.
If there ever was a compelling reason to go after these guys, it is to stop them from destroying historical artifacts.
Seems the Daesh (IS-IL/S) docuhebags have also turned the ancient ampitheatre at Palymra into an execution ground :
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-05/is-video-shows-mass-execution-in-syrian-city-of-palmyra/6595644
Daesh are vandals, murders and utter scum. But we knew that already. We need to do more to stop them although I don’t quite know what.
They will be particularly motivated to destroy anything related to Al-Lat, as she features in the episode of the Satanic Verses which suggests a compromise between the Prophet and the polytheists. We can expect more of this.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Satanic_Verses
@ 2 Knight in Sour Armor
Um… you realise they kill, rape and enslave people, right?
😯
“… the fascism of our age.”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/04/islamism-prevails-we-suppress-free-speech-bangladeshi-blogger
And my reaction echoes this comment below:
“My goodness, a sensible article in the Guardian!”
@ 5. Siletbob
Yes, but that’s hardly a unique bundle of atrocities… hell, the US has trained a number of South American groups that are fond of doing that to fight the communists.
Ok, Knight in Sour Armor, so murder, rape and enslavement wasn’t reason – or special – enough? And what’s the exchange rate on ancient lions in the desert? Three stonings (hmm, I wasn’t aware that the US was teaching that technique)? One beheading and one rape? But do tell us more about the nasty Americans.
Hello, StevoR!
The vandalic tribes would like you to apologize to them. Though they did ransack Rome, they feel that vandals are unjustly singled out for actions practiced by many at the time and feel that it cannot be compared to committed to ISIL.
Thus prompt considerate apology would be appropriate.
As well vandals are considering campaigning to change term “act of vandalism” to “act of isilism” as it more appropriate of current times.
Many thanks in advance,
Self appointed Vandalic tribe apologist
How do you quote someone, uh?
@daba,
[blockquote]Quote someone[/blockquote]
Except instead of [ ]s, use s.
Oops. They went invisible.
Use the pointy, arrowhead-like brackets. These: >