Mao’s Cultural Revolution was one of the darkest chapters of the 20th Century: communist zealots, known as “the Red Guards,” attached revolutionary messages to Buddhist statues; seventeen professors from the Shanghai Music Conservatory committed suicide; intellectuals were harassed in public trials during which they had to confess their “sins,” kneeling on makeshift rostrums; thousands of churches, temples and monasteries were demolished; ancient libraries went up in smoke; imperial ceramics were smashed and religious relics melted down. Millions of people were killed.
A new Cultural Revolution is now taking place in the Middle East, where Islam’s Red Guards are obliterating the non-Muslim heritage. If Mao’s Guards took inspiration from the “red book,” Islamic zealots have the Koran. Their targets are Jewish shrines, Christian churches, ancient monuments and cultural masterpieces.
A few days ago in Timbuktu, Mali, Islamists destroyed the tomb of a Sufi saint, Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar. Timbuktu is known as “the city of the 333 saints”, classified as Unesco World Heritage Sites. Sufism is a mystical dimension of Islam, but extremists believe Sufi shrines are “sacrilegious.” The UN cultural body didn’t raise its voice against this Islamic iconoclasm.
A few weeks before, Abdulaziz ibn Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, the grand mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, issued a religious fatwa, saying it is “necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.” The most important Muslim cleric in the land that gave birth to Islam called for the destruction of churches without his rule attracting any global condemnation.
While in Libya Jews have been throw out again after trying to restore Tripoli’s ancient synagogue, Egyptians are planning to block Israelis from making the pilgrimages to the tomb of a Jewish saint, Yaakov Abuhatzeira.
An Islamic mob destroyed the Institute of Egypt in Cairo, founded by Napoleon and containing 192,000 books and documents from as far back as the XIX century. Now, it’s gone. Napoleon’s legendary “Description de l’Egypte” is also lost (in 1822 Jean-François Champollion used this document to unveil the mistery of the hierogliphycs). Unesco, again, stood silent. As it stood silent when Egypt’s former cultural minister, Farouk Hosni, said he “would burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries”.
Like in Mao’s China, Islamic salafists are trying to ban ancient statues that dot Egypt and suggested that the pagan treasures “could be covered with wax”. The sirens that embellish the fountain of Zeus in Alexandria have already been deemed “inappropriate” by the Salafist party, which decided to “veil” them completely with a sheet. Salafi leaders are also terrifying liberal intellectuals by calling for banning the novels written by Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab Nobel Prize laureate for Literature who has been called “Egypt’s Balzac”, because his works “encourage drinking alcohol and using drugs”. Mahfouz’s novel “Awlad Haretna” is labelled as “atheistic”. Islamists also want to ban the greatest masterpiece of oriental literature, “One thousand and one arabian nights”, because it’s “depravity” and “offensive to the public good”.
In Israel, Palestinian Muslims are erasing any Jewishh trace on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s most holy site. In 2005 thousands of Arabs torched the synagogues in Gaza’s Katif Bloc. It was an orgy of hate, like that of the Red Guards. Twelve years ago, Arabs destroyed Joseph’s tomb, Judaism’s fourth holy site, smashing the stone structure and ripping it apart, brick by brick, as the Red Guards did with Tao’s temples. The arson attack on the Shalom al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho and the continuing gunfire at Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are two other examples that come to mind in the Israelo-Palestinian conflict.
Islam’s cultural revolution began when the Taliban destroyed the two wonderful Buddhas in Bamyan, Afghanistan. It was a turning point for a proto-Nazi ideology bent on the physical eradication of its enemies and their religious symbols. If Mao’s Red Guards destroyed the imperial Chinese heritage, Islam’s Red Guards want to cancel any non-Muslim trace in the Middle East. It’s a Koranic Inquisition.
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They aren't extremists, they are fundamentalists. Extremist muslims are those trying to fit into the real world of the West, and by muslim definitions, that makes them apostate and need to be killed.
Wow, I am amazed to read that my Koran is now the new red book! Protocol Nazi, Love your ideas mate. Since when Mali is in middle east?
Wow, and that is all you have to say about the content of the article?? Mali is not in the ME?
Did you miss the point? Let me enlighten you: it is not a geographical essay, but about how islamists are destroying great cultural heritage.
Maybe they should make a "Last Chance to See" series about the beautiful sites and arts that will soon be gone…
Mein Koran? A racist book of hate.
What happened to Live and Let Live?
Muslims are the new nazis. Attacking and destroying anything that they deem deviant.
Actually, your satanic Koran is far worse than Mao's Red Book or even Hitler's Mein Kampf. Compared to Islam, Nazism and Communism are downright enlightened and humanistic.
its not only in the koran but in the hadith.Its then confirmed in the tafsir. Mohomad himself stated there is to be no other religion in the arab peninsula than islam-period.Thats in official islamic text. I didnt make it up.Its also backed by 1000s of years repetitive actions from crusader times til now. Its like the pope telling all Christians to expel muslims, destroy their mosques and make them third rate citizens if they stay. But the Christs teachings have nothing of the sort.Just the opposite.Muslims enjoy freedom and respect in teh wet more than any islamic country.When they arent respected, its usually due to how the general islamic population behaves. Cartoons are a good example. World wide riots over a cartoon-but not a word when muslims kill 1000s the world over monthly.
ahmed – actually, it turns out that your koran was shat from the anal orfice of mohamat the pedophile. Apparently, following sex with, then later a meal of his favorite pig (he called him aisha), he experienced some intestinal distress (they didn't know about properly cooking pork, and he thought the heat generated from friction from their "love" was enough). The resulting "movement" was mistaken as divine, but was really just loose bowel movements.
Muslims joined with Hitler in WWII
"A few days ago in Timbuktu, Mali, Islamists destroyed the tomb of a Sufi saint, Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar. Timbuktu is known as “the city of the 333 saints”, classified as Unesco World Heritage Sites… The UN cultural body didn’t raise its voice against this Islamic iconoclasm" – Giulio Meotti.
If Islamists want to destroy their own Muslim heritage, by all means let them.
UNESCO has no business designating tombs of Islamists as world heritage sites.
It is definitely not in the interest of humanity to preserve the 'heritage' of such a barbaric intolerant hate cult?
I am however apprehensive that with the rising Islamic intolerance in Egypt; the pyramids and Sphinx of Giza might end up like the Buddhist Bamiyan statues of Afghanistan.
Since the pyramids, Sphinx and the temples of Luxor cannot be conveniently removed to a safe non-Muslim site, we infidels must make it abundantly clear to Muslims that if they destroy any of ancient Egypt's treasures, we will reduce Mecca & Medina to rubble and prevent them from being rebuilt.
If Muslims have no respect for our heritage, we will not respect theirs either.
We should reduce Mecca, Medina and every other Moslem city to glass craters regardless. After all, the Moslems will keep attacking us until either they exterminate us or we exterminate them.
Is this not the mindset of all totalitarian movements, to replace all culture and history that would vie for the hearts and minds of the people and replace it with their particular ideology?
Why have you used this particular photo here? This has nothing to do with the subject matter
Yes it does. It's from the Christmas Bombings in Nigeria, I believe.
OK never mind, it is the wrong photo.
http://injustices.in/fuel-tanker-overturned-and-e… ….. Wrong photo!
Why are goverments silent.
Because they're cowards and don't want to lose any votes.
THOSE that commited all these eye sore are not to be revered to as human beings, but animals and foolish elements, they must surely meet their waterloo one day.
That's sad. All that knowledge and history gone. What a sad thing to do. What's even sadder is no one is condemning such atrocities.
Islamism, Communism and Nazism are all tares of humanity.
Backwoods ret@rds destroy what they dont understand. They believe some block of stone in mecca has significance. Dolts. And they were suppose to be great thinkers and invented great things. Just like their predecessors, current day muslims are cheats, plagiarists, and only invent ways of using current technology to destroy things. What new gadget has the middle east exported to the west? What new invention? All they got is oil and their people still ride around on camels and live in mud huts. I cant wait till the day we can tell the ME to take a hike, we dont need your oil anymore. Then watch the implosion and degradation of the ME. You'll get your transport back to the 4th century yet : )
My feeling is that, due to their own wickedness, we in the West will eventually have to kill millions of muslims, who have moved here to live amongst us. It won't be a pleasant episode in anyone's history, but it will be cathartic.
Unfortunately, you may be right.
I wonder if Neda would would say if the Iranian secret police hadn't murdered her already.
Good thing this extreme fundamentalism isn't happening everywhere. It would be tragic for the world to lose historic areas just because of otherwise innocent philosophies and beliefs taken way overboard.