Iraqi libraries ransacked by Islamic State group in Mosul (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150131/ml--iraq-libraries_in_danger-62581f4dca.html)
QuoteBAGHDAD (AP) â€" When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people's ideas.
Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books â€" including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science â€" into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.
The rest?
"These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah. So they will be burned," a bearded militant in traditional Afghani two-piece clothing told residents, according to one man living nearby who spoke to The Associated Press. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation, said the Islamic State group official made his impromptu address as others stuffed books into empty flour bags.
QuoteDays after the Central Library's ransacking, militants broke into University of Mosul's library. They made a bonfire out of hundreds of books on science and culture, destroying them in front of students.
A University of Mosul history professor, who spoke on condition he not be named because of his fear of the Islamic State group, said the extremists started wrecking the collections of other public libraries last month. He reported particularly heavy damage to the archives of a Sunni Muslim library, the library of the 265-year-old Latin Church and Monastery of the Dominican Fathers and the Mosul Museum Library with works dating back to 5000 BC.
Militants? Extremists? No.
Believing pious Muslims.
Science is scary to savages.
Religion?
Not exactly. This is a strategy to gain control of thought and therefore control of a given population.
Without competing ideas, then the mind will accept the only idea remaining.
Without documentation of history, then the mind will accept whatever is told to them about the past.
Without an understanding of science, the mind will accept whatever explanation is told to them.
This extends beyond a belief in a deity on some individual level to controlling the masses through the use of fear and ignorance. A slave is more accepting of their chains if they believe they are alone and help will never come.
Something like this has happened many times before. When they start building concentration camps, then the world will begin to recognize the similarities with the more recent occurrence of such atrocities. The sad thing is that much of the world has similar views on this issue as they did on the former issue. We have learned nothing.
I have a sign on my door that says: "I taped a Bible and Quran under my bed, do not bomb"
My room is visible from the front door, so I hope no crazies come to my house... Ever!
Quote from: Munch on February 01, 2015, 02:12:49 PM
Science is scary to savages.
The religion of peace strikes again. Cue the apologists.
I have to say that destroying books in our contemporary time with our massive interwebs is less effective at suppressing ideas than it used to be.
Quote from: kilodelta on February 01, 2015, 05:55:23 PM
I have to say that destroying books in our contemporary time with our massive interwebs is less effective at suppressing ideas than it used to be.
next thing they're going to burn pc's, laptops and kindles.
Those bastards!
What ISIS and the fundie Muslims are doing is egregious, but similar things in a lower key happen all over. They tried to ban Harry Potter in many schools and libraries in the U S because they weren't Christian in nature. Books are banned all over that ought to be read, from atheist authors or any subject not deemed worthy by some pinhead with a rubber stamp. One is horrible, but the other as bad in its own way.
That's what religion is all about, fear of knowledge while thinking they have it, when all they have is ignorance. :wall: :madu: I think if there was a devil he couldn't do better than writing the buybull and Qu'ran, threatening people with hell if they don't placate him, wait! Maybe that's what happened? Who would know? A "rose by any other name smells as sweet." :shifty: :fU: :snooty: :biggrin2: Solitary
Quote from: dtq123 on February 01, 2015, 05:29:14 PM
"I taped a Bible and Quran under my bed, do not bomb"
Aren't you supposed to keep your Quran on the highest shelf in the house?
Burning or outlawing books shows the world how weak your beliefs are. It shows just how much you fear the words and ideas of others. It shows that your desperate claim for the monopoly on truth is impotent in nature and unable to compete in the fields of logic and validity. Its a weak argument that can't stand on its own legs if it needs someone to tackle the opposition.
Quote from: Mr.Obvious on February 03, 2015, 04:23:53 PM
Burning or outlawing books shows the world how weak your beliefs are. It shows just how much you fear the words and ideas of others. It shows that your desperate claim for the monopoly on truth is impotent in nature and unable to compete in the fields of logic and validity. Its a weak argument that can't stand on its own legs if it needs someone to tackle the opposition.
This all hearkens back to many historic examples. The Christians condemned Aristotle's science and Greek myth to the point of destroying documents. Another chapter in the saga of stupidity which is human history. Reminds me of the movie "The Name Of The Rose" where a few monks are trying to save books being condemned and burned by the church. This is a classic example of removing competing ideas in a narrowly framed conservative religious environment.
just be thankful we live in a time where information and knowledge can be saved and categorized in a place there savages can't get to, online. And even if they had the brains to figure out how to make virus's for sites with information, it doesn't stop information from spreading.
Quote from: Munch on February 03, 2015, 06:43:42 PM
just be thankful we live in a time where information and knowledge can be saved and categorized in a place there savages can't get to, online. And even if they had the brains to figure out how to make virus's for sites with information, it doesn't stop information from spreading.
That is the good news. The bad news is that ancient structures and priceless items of antiquity are destroyed along with the books. Think what we would have if the library of Alexandria had survived. The science and philosophy of the Greeks and other ancient cultures would have done much to lighten the Dark Ages. And how much further ahead would we be? We had to rediscover Calculus and other mathematical and scientific knowledge lost from the past.
Yeah thats true. but still, at least we now live in a time we can record that information, instead of it remaining in a physical format that can be damaged or destroyed over time. I'm very much for the digital preservation of knowledge and history, and cases like these savages burning that informations physical form just highlights it even more why it needs to be saved in digital format.
Its the same as with movies, I think there was a movie from the 1920s-30s that was recently digitally restored, it was unplayable until now, but it was saved because of modern technology.
Lets just hope more can be saved before some feral monkeys destroy more.
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on February 01, 2015, 05:47:14 PM
The religion of peace strikes again. Cue the apologists.
Because the actions of a few members of a group necessarily characterize the totality of the group.