In most cases I am against the death penalty…..in most cases but there are a few that I think should be mandatory……that being when someone knowingly destroys a heritage site or a cultural site……
This guy for instance…….
The trial of a Malian jihadist, charged with war crimes for orchestrating the 2012 destruction of nine Timbuktu mausoleums and a section of a famous mosque, opened Monday at the International Criminal Court
Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi asked for forgiveness as he pleaded guilty to the 2012 attacks on the fabled city of Timbuktum in Mali, Africa, and urged Muslims not to follow such “evil” ways at his unprecedented war crimes trial.
“Your honor, regrettably I have to say that what I heard so far is accurate and reflects the events. I plead guilty,” he said as his trial opened, admitting a sole war crimes charge of cultural destruction.
This prick is sorry? He knew what he was doing….there is NO excuse! He should fry!
This destruction was NOT an isolated situation….
The following are examples of world cultural heritage destroyed or damaged during recent conflicts.
– Mali –
The fabled desert city of Timbuktu, named as the “City of 333 saints” and listed by UNESCO, was for months attacked by jihadists bent on imposing a brutal version of Islamic law.
In June 2012, Al-Qaeda-linked militants destroyed 14 of the northern city’s mausoleums, important buildings that date back to Timbuktu’s golden age in the 15th and 16th centuries as an economic, intellectual and spiritual hub.
The reconstruction of the shrines began in March 2014, relying heavily on traditional methods and employing local masons. Several countries and organisations financed the reconstruction, including UNESCO.
Work finished on the site in July 2015, and a ceremony marking the completion was held on February 4, 2016.
– Syria –
More than 900 monuments or archeological sites have been looted, damaged or destroyed by the regime, rebels or jihadists in Syria, where a devastating war has raged since 2011, according to APSA, the association charged with protecting Syrian architecture.
In September 2015, Islamic State (IS) fighters destroyed two of the most important temples in the UNESCO-listed Syrian city of Palmyra as they pressed a campaign to wipe out some of the Middle East’s most important heritage sites.
They include the ancient city’s most famed shrine, the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel, blown up a week after the destruction of the temple of Baal Shamin.
Other notable sites damaged or looted include Dura-Europos in eastern Syria, once known as the “Pompeii of the desert”, Apamea, Ebla and Tal Ajaja.
However, the IS group is not the only one responsible for ravaging Syria’s heritage, with all sides in the fighting looting and destroying ancient sites.
“Two thirds of the ancient city of Aleppo have been bombarded and set on fire,” according to UNESCO.
– Iraq –
IS has carried out a campaign of “cultural cleansing”, razing part of ancient Mesopotamia’s relics and looting others to sell valued artefacts on the black market.
In a video released by IS on February 26, 2015 militants were shown using sledgehammers to smash pre-Islamic treasures in the museum in the country’s second city Mosul, sparking global outrage.
Thousands of books and rare manuscripts were also burned in February in Mosul’s library.
According to the Iraqi government, IS militants on March 5, 2015 bulldozed and blew up Nimrud, an ancient Assyrian city south of Mosul.
They also attacked Hatra, a Roman-period site, in the northern Niniveh province.
– Libya –
Several mausoleums have been destroyed by Islamist extremists since the overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
In August 2012, Islamist hardliners bulldozed part of the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman, close to the centre of the Libyan capital.
The demolition came a day after hardliners blew up the mausoleum of Sheikh Abdessalem al-Asmar in the western city of Zliten.
In 2013 suspected Islamic extremists destroyed the centuries-old mausoleum of Murad Agha in Tripoli, but the tomb inside withstood the attack.
Afghanistan –
In March 2001, Taliban leader Mullah Omar ordered the destruction of two 1,500-year-old Buddha statues in the eastern town of Bamiyan, because they were judged to be anti-Islamic.
Hundreds of members of the Taliban from across the country spent more than three weeks demolishing the gigantic statues carved into the side of a cliff.
In 2003 the cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley were put on UNESCO’S world heritage list.
– Algeria –
Armed Islamic groups in the 1990s destroyed several sanctuaries which dotted Algerian soil.
(yourmiddleeast.com)
There must be consequences when you destroy a nation’s cultural and historic sites…execution would suit me just fine.
Morning chuq….I see you are in fine fiddle!
Been following this ….outrageous as per norm…wots more outrageous is how they treat women! grin
as for the death penalty….send him off to war for the other side….I hear the French Foreign Legion is looking for recruits…..hahaha….I hear it is pretty tough…no time to destroy heritage sites….the death penalty is not something I agree with…
slightly off topic….but destruction nonetheless…
Remember my links with Romania..(nothing like sitting in the British Embassy talking to a goodly Christian American who was horrified at the prospect of Romania joining the EU) I diverge…could tell you a few tales!
here is a link..written in 2012… will not take long but confirms all & wot with recent events…..
http://freecriticalthinking.org/daily-pickings/1771-the-soros-empire#.V71cUJall8U.twitter
I am out today….keep on trukin’ catch up later… (the Romanian link inside…spot on)
Don’t laugh I almost joined the Legion in the 70’s after Vietnam……cultural sites need to be a priority for protection if that means the death penalty…I can live with it….be safe and will see you later….chuq
Hahaha..;(
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
What the terrorists don’t destroy the sands of passing Time will so what’s the big deal about a bunch of rotting rocks in the middle of nowhere? History is so re-written that it is never accurate anyway so why even bother with it? I have been out of school for more than 60 years now and I haven’t used “History” or “Algebra” once since graduating.
Sad for you….would you be okay with the destruction of Independence Hall? That is why it is a big deal
All these things are material objects and subject to decay. Who even thinks of attending the Roman Forum anymore? Yes, I wouldn’t give a damn if they turned it into a bed and breakfast. It is nothing but a symbol of something that no longer exists.
One the Forum is NO longer there and functioning….two any loss of heritage is a loss of identity…
The World has been losing heritage since the beginning of Time and details have been lost forever or changed forever but identities still remain intact. (The identities that pertain to those of us now living and having to contend with the world around us — and what other identities even matter?).
I will wait until an attack here before I respond….I believe that attitude will dissipate….
All things dissipate … eventually … visit any graveyard and see what I mean.
Whatever you say….
By the way, The Congress is no longer functioning either so what about that? Is that a different story or what? You speak of losing identity? What part of the identity of The United States that was envisioned by the Founding Fathers is to be found anywhere except in some damned dusty old book somewhere?
That ios a debate question and I am not feeling the “apologist” label today…maybe later when I have brought myself upright…..besides I nee to walk my puppies…
I agree!
Ripening Wanderer, I think you have your Zen cap on. (All well and good!) But as soon as you said “rotting rocks” I thought of the Grand Canyon and our national park system — or as some call it, “America’s best idea.” It makes me furious that our park system is not properly funded and that corporate interests and developers are always trying to encroach upon it. It’s a different kind of national heritage, and a different kind of enemy, but just as surely an attack on America’s heart and soul. You have probably gone camping once or twice in the last 60 years, and I suspect you would prefer the rocks to crumble away at their own pace.
I would prefer the rocks to crumble away at their own pace just the same as I prefer myself to crumble away at my own pace — but I know Human nature and I am sure that sooner or later we will see signs in neon proclaiming, “Grand Canyon, Brought To You By (This Commercial Brand or That Commercial Brand) or multiple oil derricks in the midst of the pristine wildernesses where we can all take our kids camping in their shadows. Ah yes, we will all be singing “Kum-By-Aye” by the campfire … roasting our marshmallows .. in the shadow of the oil wells dotting the landscape. Perhaps they will have mercy on us all and paint their oil wells green or something. But the wholesale commercial destruction of all our natural resources is as surely just around the corner as the Sunshine follows the storm. The greed for dollars knows no boundaries.
No boundaries at all. 🙁
How can you not use history after your schooldays?
I wouldn’t know how to do that!
It wasn’t hard to do. I worked to make a living and History never seemed to matter. I am not interested in crumbling old bones or mummies or ancient temples or any of that useless stuff. I do appreciate a few hundred thousand dollars of extra cash lying about however and History has little to do with that.
An attack on a heritage site is an attack on the identity, spirit and will of a people. It also robs the world of historical and cultural value, intangible riches.
Well said!
And the world goes on as uncaring and unable to do anything to prevent the destruction as ever before and the new generations arise promising not to make the same mistakes their forebears did but then going ahead and not only making the same mistakes but putting their own little refinements on those mistakes making them worse than they were before.
I think if we have all this concern about preserving the historical sites being destroyed by the Islamist terrorists then we ought to assemble a coalition of the willing and wipe them and every vestige of their evil ideology from the face of Mother Earth once and for all time. But we all know that isn’t going to happen, don’t we?
Yes. It’s a near overwhelming task to take on the billionaire class. But once we do manage to restore some boundaries or sensible regulations with them, that’s not the end of the job. We need to keep what we have won.
They control the regulatory process so sensible regulations are never going to happen.
Death penalty for destruction of heritage sites.
What good would that do!
Destruction of historical sites wherever in the world is a destructing a part of history that doesn’t follow your ideas and convictions.
It is whiping out cultures, people, certain ideas out of excistance.
There are several reasons for that:
Religious and/or political fanatics.
In the region I live:
In Dutch called the “Beeldenstorm”
The Iconoclasts Outbreak (1566) came from every layer of society. The high and low, rich and poor, male and female and young and old all stormed churches, destroyed images of saints and other works of art. Some hated the clergy with all their privileges, others were unhappy about their own meagre existence, and the Calvinists believed the Church had to be purified of “papist superstitions”. By drinking the communion wine, trampling consecrated wafers underfoot or feeding them to birds and smashing images of saints, they aimed to rid these Catholic symbols of their mystical value.
USA:
I remember in history class (part of it was US history) the bookburnings in the US.
Destruction of written thought, different opinions, ways of live.
Civil war, or war between countries:
In the region I live we have seen that through the centuries.
WWII brought also a lot of destruction of historic sites (by Germans and Allied; some by accident, some on purpose)
Money, economical benefits.
Earning money
USA:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/24/american-indian-artifacts-paved-over-california/8086609/
Neglect:
So money spending .
New Orleans, hurricane Katrina.
The lack of proper maintenance of levees, dikes, no preventative action taken brought a lot of destruction, it cost human lives, material damages but also destruction of the cultural heritage in the region.
What I want to say is this. Destruction of cultural heritage is not only something happening in our time and age.
It also doesn’t limit itself to certain regions.
It happens far from home.
But don’t forget it can happen closeby, in your backgarden, your hometown, your state, your country.
As a history nut I detest any one and anything that destroys history and that includes my own country….we lose our history everyday so to blatantly destroy it has no place in my sympathies…
Neither have I!
The destruction you write about is for everyone to see.
Of course people protest; they should.keep on doing that.
But remember the silent hush-hush destructions, the seriousness of the damage done, how do you measure that?
I felt the same way about the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld in 2003, who gave his clueless imprimatur to the Iraqi peoples by allowing them to loot their famous archeological museum. He said something along the lines that they were just blowing off steam.
Another good example…..but they did secure the oil ministry and the war was not about the oil….huh?