Islamic State Group Obliterates 10th Century Monastery

Aleteia ^ | March 11, 2015 | JOHN BURGER

[NYer]

Mustafa Khayat

The Islamic State group's attempt to erase any culture but its own continues apace. It now has blown up a 10th century Chaldean monastery north of Mosul and bulldozed a nearby graveyard, according to several reports.

The Mar Gorgis or St. George monastery has been "wiped out" by ISIS militants, Nineveh Yakou , Assyrian Archaeologist and Director of Cultural Heritage and Indigenous Affairs at A Demand for Action, told IBTimes UK.

The building, located on the Ba'werah neighbourhood on a hill north of Mosul on the other side of the Tigris river, was founded by the Assyrian Church of the East on the 10th century but rebuilt as a seminary by the Chaldean Catholic Church in 1846.

"The current monastery was built on an archeological site containing ancient Assyrian ruins. It was an important show of continuity from the Assyrian to our culture," Yakou said.

"Isis is wiping out the cultural heritage of Iraq. The monastery was classified as cultural heritage. It's a cultural and ethnic cleansing."

Anadolou, a Turkish news agency, quoted Dureid Hikmat Tobia, adviser for minorities of Ninawah province in northern Iraq, as saying the monastery was destroyed Monday.

Between killing Christian hostages and defending Tikrit from the Iraqi army's attempt to retake it, ISIS has been busy. But the terrorist organization still finds time to cleanse the territory it controls of cultural and religious heritage sites. Last week its militants reportedly bulldozed the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra and the Nimrud archaeological site near Mosul. Two weeks ago, the jihadist group published a video showing militants destroying artefacts in a Mosul museum and at the Nergal Gate to ancient Nineveh, taking a sledgehammer to artifacts. UNESCO director general Irina Bokova has described the actions as a “war crime.”

[Darksheare]

Marie Harf: “They just need jobs!”

[goodwithagun]

Hmm. Is he lighter now?

[dandiegirl]

That would have been the perfect opportunity for some American soldiers to go gun them down while they were driving the bulldozers.

[Pollster1]

“10th century is too modern for some people” ping.

[concernedcitizen76]

ISIS is not only destroying Christian artefacts (var. sp.), they are destroying pre-Christian historical sites, indeed, their own history. Look at the job they did on Nimrud.

George H. W. Bush called G. W. before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and pleaded with him not to take out Saddam Hussein and create a power vaccuum leading to eventual chaos. The younger Bush, the idiot, hung up on his father who knew that strongman Saddam held the key in keeping the rival factions within from slaughtering each other. G. W. ignored those lesssons of history. Even Colin Powell had that one figured out.

—Archaeologists and officials have expressed outrage about the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud by Islamic State militants in Iraq.

IS began demolishing the site, which was founded in the 13th Century BC, on Thursday, according to Iraqi officials.

The head of the UN’s cultural agency condemned the “systematic” destruction in Iraq as a “war crime”.

IS, which controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, says shrines and statues are “false idols” that have to be smashed.

“They are erasing our history,” said Iraqi archaeologist Lamia al-Gailani.—

[Grateful2God]

Nazis had Berlin. We flattened it.- FDR

Japs had Tokyo. We flattened it.- H.S. Truman

ISIS has Raqqa. WHY IS RAQQA STILL STANDING?- B.Hussein O

[SunkenCiv]

Better yet, let there be ZERO of their generations to come.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Pollster1.

[Biggirl]

For this reason is why I often say that the God of Islam is NOT the same God as the Jewish and Christian faiths.

[Bigg Red]

Big difference:
Our president was not in bed with the enemy during WWII.

[Bigg Red]

Well, Truman wasn’t, anyway. Not so sure about FDr.

[arthurus]

This is what a Moslem world will look like. There iwll be no history and thus no further development. Mankind will have reached stasis at a very low level. The population als o must regress. Moslem methods cannot support a greater density than that experienced by the first pastoralists and farmers.
And that will be hard to maintain due to the constant internecine warfare that is endemic to Islam. Ultimately Islam survives only so long as there are adjacent non Islamic civilizations to pillage.

[skinkinthegrass]

*

[TBP]

We don’t feel like it.

Besides, Obama is on their side.