Calls to Destroy Egypt’s Great Pyramids Begin
History Repeats?
According
to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have
begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in
the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those
“symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long
planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain’s
“Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd
al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad
Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr
bin al-As could not.”
This
is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin
al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt
circa 641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many
Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity.
While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early
Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself—deemed a
repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran—was destroyed
under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s
command.
However,
while book-burning was an easy activity in the 7th century,
destroying the mountain-like pyramids and their guardian Sphinx was
not—even if Egypt’s Medieval Mamluk rulers “de-nosed” the
latter during target practice (though popular legend still attributes
it to a Westerner, Napoleon).
Sheikhs”
observes, and thanks to modern technology, the pyramids can be
destroyed. The only question left is whether the Muslim
Brotherhood president of Egypt is “pious” enough—if he is
willing to complete the Islamization process that started under the
hands of Egypt’s first Islamic conqueror.
Nor
is such a course of action implausible. History is laden with
examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic
heritage—starting with Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, who
destroyed Arabia’s Ka‘ba temple, transforming it into a mosque.
Asking
“What is it about Islam that so often turns its adherents against
their own patrimony?” Daniel Pipes provides several
examples, from Medieval Muslims in India destroying their
forefathers’ temples, to contemporary Muslims destroying their
non-Islamic heritage in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, and Tunisia.
Currently,
in what the International Criminal Court is describing as a possible
“war crime,” Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient
heritage of the city of Timbuktu in Mali—all to Islam’s
triumphant war cry, “Allahu Akbar!”
Much
of this hate for their own pre-Islamic heritage is tied to the fact
that, traditionally, Muslims do not identify with this or that
nation, culture, heritage, or language, but only with the Islamic
nation—the Umma.
Accordingly,
while many Egyptians—Muslims and non-Muslims alike—see themselves
as Egyptians, Islamists have no national identity, identifying only
with Islam’s “culture,” based on the “sunna” of the prophet
and Islam’s language, Arabic. This sentiment was clearly
reflected when the former Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood,
Muhammad Akef, declared “the hell with Egypt,” indicating that
the interests of his country are secondary to Islam’s.
It
is further telling that such calls are being made now—immediately
after a Muslim Brotherhood member became Egypt’s president.
In fact, the same reports discussing the call to demolish the last of
the Seven Wonders of the Word, also note that Egyptian Salafis are
calling on Morsi to banish all Shias and Baha’is from Egypt.
In
other words, Morsi’s call to release the Blind Sheikh, a terrorist
mastermind, may be the tip of the iceberg in coming audacity.
From calls to legalize Islamic sex-slave marriage to calls
to institute “morality police” to calls to destroy Egypt’s
mountain-like monuments, under Muslim Brotherhood tutelage, the
bottle has been uncorked, and the genie unleashed in Egypt.
Will
all those international institutions, which make it a point to look
the other way whenever human rights abuses are committed by Muslims,
lest they appear “Islamophobic,” at least take note now that the
Great Pyramids appear to be next on Islam’s hit list, or will the
fact that Muslims are involved silence them once again—even as
those most ancient symbols of human civilization are pummeled to the
ground?
Afghan Taliban Begin Destruction of Ancient Buddha Statues
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KABUL - Ignoring an international outcry, Afghanistan's puritanical Taliban Islamic militia began demolishing statues across the country on Thursday, including two towering ancient stone Buddhas.Taliban Minister of Information and Culture Qudratullah Jamal told AFP the destruction of scores of pre-Islamic figures, designed to stop the worshipping of "false idols," had begun throughout the country.
"The work started about five hours ago but I do not know how much of it (the two Bamiyan Buddhas) has been destroyed," Jamal said. "It will be destroyed by every means. All the statues are being destroyed." He said Taliban soldiers were at "work" in the Kabul museum and elsewhere in the provinces of Ghazni, Herat, Jalalabad and Kandahar. An edict announced Monday by the militia's supreme leader, Mulla Mohammad Omar, calling for the destruction of all statues in line with "Islamic" laws, has caused shock around the world. Afghanistan is home to an array of pre-Islamic historic treasures from its days as a key stop on the ancient Silk Road and a strategic battleground for conquerers dating back to Alexander the Great and the Aryans before him. The two massive Bamiyan Buddhas, carved into a sandstone cliff near the provincial capital in central Afghanistan, stand 50 meters (165 feet) and 34.5 meters (114 feet) tall and were built around the second century. Appeals for their preservation have come from the United States, France, Germany, Thailand, Japan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, India and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Koichiro Matsuura, chief of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said he had convened an emergency meeting of members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to try to stop the destruction. "They are destroying statues that the entire world considers to be masterpieces," Matsuura said. "And this is being done in the name of an interpretation of the Muslim faith that is not recognized anywhere else in the world." But Afghan Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel said the edict was irreversible. "Have you ever seen any decision of the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) reversed?" Mutawakel asked. The Taliban, or movement of religious students, seized Kabul in 1996 and have imposed a puritanical mix of Pashtun tribal and Sharia law in a bid to create their idea of a true Muslim state. Their regime is recognised only by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and is not represented at the United Nations nor the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. UN special envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell told AFP he discussed the edict with Mutawakel in Kabul Thursday but was told "the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) is not in the habit of rescinding their edicts." "I told him that the international community is baffled at the moment and it would create international outrage if the edict is carried out," Vendrell said. Afghans, baffled at first by the decree and now its implementation, quietly and sadly condemned the destruction. "Destroyed cities can be rehabilitated. But once the statues are gone, they can never be replaced," said a resident of Kabul. "It is not helping the war-wounded country." Taliban officials also privately said they were not happy with Omar's decree, which is seen as absolute law in more than 90 percent of the country under the militia's rule. "It is causing big damage to our history," said a senior official, refusing to be named for fear of retribution from the hardline militia. "The war had taken everything else. We had only these (monuments) which are now fading." Another Taliban official added: "Personally I am against a brick of Afghanistan being destroyed. It is very sad." [2] |
source: [1] http://frontpagemag.com/2012/raymond-ibrahim/muslim-brotherhood-destroy-the-pyramids/
source: [2] http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0301-04.htm
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