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3
Jul 2012
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National
Post - (National Edition)
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BY
RUKMINI CALLIMACHI
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The
Associated Press
Ransacking of timbuktu by ‘divine order’
DAKAR , SENEGAL • Muslim extremists razed tombs and attacked the
gate of a 600-yearold Timbuktu mosque on Monday, triggering an international
outcry over the destruction of the ancient Malian city.
The International Criminal Court has described the demolition of
the city’s patrimony as a possible war crime, while UNESCO’S committee on world
heritage was holding a special session this week to address the pillaging of
the site, one of the few cultural sites in sub-saharan Africa that is listed by
the agency.
The Islamic faction, known as Ansar Dine, or “Protectors of the
Faith,” seized control of Timbuktu last week after ousting the Tuareg rebel
faction that had invaded northern Mali alongside Ansar Dine’s soldiers three
months ago. Over the weekend, fighters screaming “Allah Akbar” descended on the
cemeteries holding the remains of Timbuktu’s Sufi saints, and systematically
began destroying the six most famous tombs.
Reached by telephone in an undisclosed location in northern
Mali, a spokesman for the faction said they do not recognize either the United
Nations or the world court. “The only tribunal we recognize is the divine court
of Sharia,” said Ansar Dine spokesman Oumar Ould Hamaha.
“The destruction is a divine order,” he said. “It’s our Prophet
who said that each time that someone builds something on top of a grave, it
needs to be pulled back to the ground. We need to do this so that future
generations don’t get confused, and start venerating the saints as if they are
God.”
Among the tombs they destroyed is that of Sidi Mahmoudou, a
saint who died in 955, according to the UNESCO website. In addition, on Monday
they set upon one of the doors of the Sidi Yahya, a mosque built about 1400.
Local legend held that the gate leading to the cemetery would only open on the
final day at the end of time.
Local radio host Kader Kalil said the members of Ansar Dine
arrived at the mosque with shovels and pickaxes and yanked off the door,
revealing a wall behind it. Mr. Kalil said that they explained they were doing
so in order to disabuse people of the local legend and to teach them to put
their whole faith in the Koran.
“Since my childhood, I have never seen the door on the western
side of the mosque open. And I was born in 1947,” said Mr. Kader, a longtime
resident of the city. “When we were children, we were told that the door would
only open at the end of time. These religious people want to go to the source,
to show us that this is not true ... Of course our population is not happy. The
women, especially, are crying a lot.”
Shamil Jeppie, who heads the Tombouctou Manuscripts Project at
the University of Cape Town in South Africa, says the destruction in Mali is
analogous to the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddha in Afghanistan. The Wahabi
interpretation of Islam that Ansar Dine — like the Taliban — espouses is a
narrow version of the faith, and stands in contrast to what he says is the
history of Islamic learning.
“Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning, a very significant
centre — there is lots of internal and external evidence of this. But Ansar
Dine is ignorant of this,” Mr. Jeppie said. “For them, there is only one book
and it’s the Koran. All this other [Islamic] learning is inconsequential to
them,” he said.
The UN cultural agency has called for an immediate halt to the
destruction of the sacred tombs. Irina Bokova, who heads the UN Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, reported in a statement issued Saturday
that the centuries-old mausoleums of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi Moctar and Alpha Moya
had been destroyed. Meeting in St. Petersburg in Russia, UNESCO’s World
Heritage Committee, last week placed the mausoleums on its list of sites in
danger due to earlier attacks by the Islamists, said UNESCO spokesman Rony
Amelan.
On Sunday during a stop in Senegal, Fatou Bensouda, prosecutor
for the International Criminal Court, said the destruction of the city’s
patrimony constitutes “a possible war crime,” according to private radio
station RFM. And on Monday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
condemned the destruction, telling reporters in Washington that the United
States calls on all groups to enter into a ceasefire.
For years before the north of Mali became a base for an offshoot
of al-Qaeda, Timbuktu was a must-see for backpackers and package tour groups.
Much of the city thrived on tourism.
Scholars held out hope that the Islamists would not also attack
the city’s 20,000-catalogued manuscripts, some dating as far back as the 12th
century. Beyond the tombs, the manuscripts are considered to be the real
treasure of the region and library owners have succeeded in spiriting some of
the manuscripts out of the city, or else buried them in secure locations.
“We’re talking about generations and generations of culture
being destroyed,” said New York-based Michael Covitt, chairman of the Malian
Manuscript Foundation . “It’s an outrage for the entire world.”
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Of course, these people are not acting in an Islamic way, they are no different than cultish sorts in Christianity who burn Bibles and wave placards saying God loves dead fags. of course. Except with Christianity, they tend not to get violent and death engaged killing as they go. Oh, yes, maybe 500 years ago, but Christianity has evolved. That, and the fact Christians exclude the extreme and embrace toleration versus these individuals who run amok with no regulation killing and destroying in the name of their religion.
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