Posted on 06/26/2014 7:41:49 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Iraq's 'Exorcist' temple falls into Isis jihadist hands
Ancient pre-Christian temple in northern Iraq featured in film The Exorcist at risk of destruction by Isis jihadists
An ancient temple made famous in the film The Exorcist has fallen into the hands of the Islamic militants who have taken over northern Iraq, the Telegraph has learnt.
The pre-Christian worship complex at Hatra, a vast network of 200-ft high sun-god temples that is a Unesco world heritage site, features in the opening sequence of the 1973 horror classic.
But it now lies in the territory claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Isis), prompting fears that its stone statues could be destroyed as idolatrous images by the militants.
Already, Isis fighters in the city of Mosul, 70 miles north-west Hatra, have demolished a statue of Othman al-Mousuli, a 19th Century Iraqi musician and composer, and the statue of Abu Tammam, an Abbasid-era Arab poet.
A councillor from the Hatra area told The Telegraph that the 20-strong squad of Iraqi policemen who had guarded the temple from looters had fled after the area fell to tribal militants and Isis fighters a fortnight ago.
Locals say that since then, the area has been targeted by Iraqi warplanes that have dropped bombs on the militants less than a mile from the temple itself.
“The guards all ran and left their weapons behind when they heard that the tribes and Isis were coming,” said councillor Mohammed Abdallah Khozal, whose own son was killed in the fighting with the militants.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
These Islamofascists are possessed ... they have lots in common with the Pazuzu demon portrayed in The Exorcist
Why did someone build a statue of Anthony Weiner so out of proportion?
No more blind stone carvers!
Ping
It’s pretty amazing that Saddam Hussein kept all these warring factions under control ... :-) ...
Did you know Islam is a religion of tolerance?
And also of ‘peace’ according to the past POTUS.
He never retracted that statement so I must assume that he has not changed his opinion on Islam.
He’ll probably change his outlook when they overpower his bodyguard and come barging into his house.
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