ISIS burns 8,000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul

ISIS has burned 8,000 rare books and manuscripts, ATS. I just don't get it. Some of these publications go back as far as the 18th century. Despite pleas from library officials not to burn it, ISIS burned it down anyway; this happened the same time as the Academy Awards Sunday.

The former assistant director of the library Qusai All Faraj said that the Mosul Public Library was established in 1921, the same year that saw the birth of the modern Iraq. Among its lost collections were manuscripts from the eighteenth century, Syriac books printed in Iraq's first printing house in the nineteenth century, books from the Ottoman era, Iraqi newspapers from the early twentieth century and some old antiques like an astrolabe and sand glass used by ancient Arabs. The library had hosted the personal libraries of more than 100 notable families from Mosul over the last century.

During the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the library was looted and destroyed by mobs. However, the people living nearby managed to save most of its collections and rich families bought back the stolen books and they were returned to the library, All Faraj added.

I think this is madness. How does a terrorist organization like ISIS benefit from burning down libraries? As far as I know, libraries aren't strategic targets to anyone. What says ATS?

finance.yahoo.com...

a reply to: lostbook

They are simply doing everything possible - their own shock and awe campaign - to draw the West into their theater of war...

We should seriously stop and ask ourselves "Why?" before we consider giving them exactly what they want.

a reply to: lostbook

Hmm. Aboutface shakes her head at the stupidity and wonders how many copies of the Quran were in the building. Surely the library had some copies. Will the Muslim world go ape over that?

The US has burned plenty of books in the past. My guess would be that they did it because history is only for those that win and if you can burn everything about those before you then you can rewrite it in your own way.

a reply to: lostbook

Have you ever seen the Book of Eli?

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
The US has burned plenty of books in the past. My guess would be that they did it because history is only for those that win and if you can burn everything about those before you then you can rewrite it in your own way.

Substantiate this claim please.

Now they've gone too far! How dare they destroy knowledge?!

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: lostbook

They are simply doing everything possible - their own shock and awe campaign - to draw the West into their theater of war...

We should seriously stop and ask ourselves "Why?" before we consider giving them exactly what they want.

I completely agree.Everything IS is doing is meant to provoke us into their yard.Seems to me whatever we do in the region back fires on us.

The benefit to ISIS when burning a Library of Islamic/Arabic/Persian Literature is that it stops people, future generations especially, from reading them and saying "we'll hold on, that's not very traditional as ISIS likes to claim"...



Burning the true Islamic History that would negate the acts of these (T&C ban-able word) stops people form being able to question or teach others exactly what these (T&C ban-able word) are actually attempting to do to the Middle East.


Sad story.

Shameful.

It's weird how history repeats itself. Hearkens back to the middle ages. People say that civilization has advanced so much since then. No it hasn't, technology has advanced but humans are still the same. Hatred, lust for power, and greed are still the same.

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: lostbook

They are simply doing everything possible - their own shock and awe campaign - to draw the West into their theater of war...

We should seriously stop and ask ourselves "Why?" before we consider giving them exactly what they want.

And when does the world decide they need to be stopped?

How far do we let them go?

How many people do we let them kill before it is necessary to get involved?

a reply to: lostbook

But we've seen this before:



Along with the murderous behavior toward religious groups and minorities.

Why doesn't the world wake up and recognize the evil for what it is?

a reply to: lostbook

Not only does the meme seek to reprogram the brain and remove all traces of free will, it seeks to reach into the past and erase knowledge transferred via free will. This is why they destroy art and history books.

In the quest for meme purity they have so far addressed the past and present. There is a fatal bug in the program and someone is eventually going to pool enough brain cells to figure it out.

I would point out, in all sincerity, there is only one way to reach into the future and guarantee purity. Without addressing this critical vulnerability there can never be total certainty about reaching paradise. The very future of Islam may depend on it.

Mass suicide is the only way to ensure the future remains ideologically pure. Think about it. Take action. Like right now. Seconds count! Run. Fast! Faster! The table with cool aid is in the corner.

originally posted by: onequestion

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
The US has burned plenty of books in the past. My guess would be that they did it because history is only for those that win and if you can burn everything about those before you then you can rewrite it in your own way.

Substantiate this claim please.

Wilhelm Reich

On 5 June 1956 two FDA officials arrived at Orgonon to supervise the destruction of the accumulators. Most of them had been sold at that point and another 50 were with Silvert in New York. Only three were at Orgonon. The FDA agents were not allowed to destroy them, only to supervise the destruction, so Reich's friends and his son, Peter, chopped them up with axes as the agents watched.[135] Once they were destroyed, Reich placed an American flag on top of them.[136]

On 26 June the agents returned to supervise the destruction of the promotional material, including 251 copies of Reich's books.[136] The American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release criticizing the book burning, although coverage of the release was poor, and Reich ended up asking them not to help because he was annoyed that they had failed to criticize the destruction of the accumulators. In England A.S. Neill and the poet Herbert Read signed a letter of protest, but it was never published. On 23 July the remaining accumulators in New York were destroyed by S. A. Collins and Sons, who had built them.[137]

On 23 August six tons of his books, journals and papers were burned in the 25th Street public incinerator in New York, the Gansevoort incinerator. The burned material included copies of several of his books, including The Sexual Revolution, Character Analysis and The Mass Psychology of Fascism. Though these had been published in German before Reich ever discussed orgone, he had added mention of it to the English editions, so they were caught by the injunction.[138] As with the accumulators, the FDA was supposed only to observe the destruction. The psychiatrist Victor Sobey (d. 1995), an associate of Reich's, wrote: "All the expenses and labor had to be provided by the [Orgone Institute] Press. A huge truck with three to help was hired. I felt like people who, when they are to be executed, are made to dig their own graves first and are then shot and thrown in. We carried box after box of the literature."[139] It has been cited as one of the worst examples of censorship in U.S. history.[140]

6 tons of his books were burned. He was also imprisoned and died there. Very interesting story if you ever want to dig into a true conspiracy. I have written on it on ATS if you search.

That was not the only US book burning either, but I believe it was the largest.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

I'd say the time for the US to do more to stop ISIS is when the other countries in that region beg and plead for US intervention. Along with those pleas will come financial backing from those oil rich countries so that the US does not spend a dime. In fact, the US deserves some spoils of war after getting nothing but a $2-trillion debt to show for the Afghanistan/Iraq wars, so spoils of war are a must. As for the rest of the world, who knows...I'd wager that most don't even care all that much about something happening half way around the world.

Education leads to reform, as long as the Middle East does not modernize and continues to teach racist, genocidal religious material instead of science we will always have Islamic extremists. As long as oil money keeps pouring into the ME it will never reform, it will never sit down and resolve problems with Israel, it will continue to stagnate back into the dark ages. Islam needs to reform and modernize as much as Christianity and other institutions. ISIS wants to keep the people stuck in stupid and burning their history is symbolic to that.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
The US has burned plenty of books in the past. My guess would be that they did it because history is only for those that win and if you can burn everything about those before you then you can rewrite it in your own way.

When , where and why did they do that?

Burning books is not something you can hide so claims of "it's all been covered up" does not fly one iota.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: lostbook

They are simply doing everything possible - their own shock and awe campaign - to draw the West into their theater of war...

We should seriously stop and ask ourselves "Why?" before we consider giving them exactly what they want.

And when does the world decide they need to be stopped?

How far do we let them go?

How many people do we let them kill before it is necessary to get involved?

We are considered blood thirsty if we ask that.

People sit there like they are smarter than us by just ignoring the inevitable.

They want to pretend if we just talk with these guys and give them jobs and our women.

That we can reason with these people, you know, just shoot the sh!t with Habib.

The truth is...Our Leaders are Cowards.

We will all be lucky if these guys don't get us all killed.

a reply to: LeatherNLace

some countries have already done that

originally posted by: yorkshirelad

originally posted by: Vasa Croe
The US has burned plenty of books in the past. My guess would be that they did it because history is only for those that win and if you can burn everything about those before you then you can rewrite it in your own way.

When , where and why did they do that?

Burning books is not something you can hide so claims of "it's all been covered up" does not fly one iota.

I just posted the link above.....it is a very well known case in the US, and a VERY interesting conspiracy against the author. He died in prison because of the persecution of his work by the US government. I have written on it here on ATS if you search. I have also been in contact with his family about the story and it is a really crazy conspiracy.