The New-Old Islam Restored

Perhaps there is a point indeed beyond which people will not be intimidated and will fight back to protect a thing that has great meaning to them, stifling their fear in favour of defying religious tyranny. Doing that by placing their own version of religious faith in contrasting value of the fanatics that compel them to surrender to threat of death. Which led some residents of Mosul, the Iraqi city overtaken by ISIS to form the basis of their Islamic Caliphate to gather in defiance of the terrorists' plan to destroy an ancient heritage site.



Prepared to destroy what Iraqis speak of as their beloved Crooked Minaret, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham were taken aback when Mosul residents declared 'over their dead bodies'. That declaration might at any other time have been taken as an invitation that ISIS would gladly accept, but on this occasion, it appears, they were prevented from destroying the ancient minaret where people sat on the ground around it, arms linked forming a human chain of defense.

Those same residents are under no illusions that they have won anything but a reprieve. ISIS will return to complete their intention. There is ample proof that this will be only one of many such travesties of religious zeal they will carry out, in the name of fanatical Islamism. Those now ruling Iraq's second-largest city have enjoyed their campaign thus far to purge their geographic possession of anything they deem to represent an offense against Islam.

FILE - In this Monday, June 8, 2009 file photo, residents walk past the al-Hadba minaret in a busy market area in Mosul, Iraq. The fear, anger and sadness was palpable across Mosul on Saturday, July 26, 2014 as rumors made their way across Iraq’s second-largest city. The militants who had taken over and purged it of some of its most cherished landmarks were eyeing their next target: al-Hadba minaret, an 842-year old tower that leans, like Italy’s Tower of Pisa _ one of the country’s most famous structures which decorates the 10,000 dinar bill until today.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

And that includes Muslim shrines which the iconoclasts believe represent apostasy. "The bombing of shrines has nothing to do with Islam", said Abu Abaida, a government employee. "They are erasing the culture and history of Mosul." And likely with intention, since for the Islamists history begins and ends with their conquest of territory enabling them to form their sacred Caliphate. Returning Islam to its roots -- growing Islam by bloody conquest.

ISIS sought at first to calm the alarm of the Mosul population, as it rescued them from Shiite domination emanating from Baghdad. Neglected civil infrastructure and lack of municipal services were, surprisingly, their first priority. As they restored garbage collection and other services neglected by the government in Baghdad. Their version of Sharia-led Islamic law was gradually imposed and not yet enforced to avoid alienating the Sunni majority whose support they initially required. That was then.

More recently Mosul has been purged of almost its complete Christian population. Women's rights have been restricted, and landmarks have been systematically destroyed. "No place is safe" an engineering professor in Mosul stated mournfully: "If I say one wrong thing, I am dead." Sunni Muslim shrines are targeted for destruction; viewed by the radicals as an encouragement to worship others besides Allah; a horrible apostasy, dedicating shrines to popular historical figures.

The Crooked Minaret; al-Manara Al-Hadba, is particularly seen as un-Islamic because of its national symbolism, anathema to the Islamists. Pictured on Iraq's 10,000 dinar bill, it is ripe for destruction. Built in 1172, it is venerable, part of the Great Al-Nour Mosque, leaning about 2.4-metres off perpendicular. Its lean, according to fond legend, represents its reverential bow to the Prophet Muhammad as he ascended to heaven.

In this Thursday, July 24, 2014 file photo, people walk on the rubble of the destroyed Mosque of The Prophet Younis, or Jonah, in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. The revered Muslim shrine was destroyed by militants who overran the city in June and imposed their harsh interpretation of Islamic law. he fear, anger and sadness was palpable across Mosul on Saturday, July 26, 2014 as rumors made their way across Iraq’s second-largest city. The militants who had taken over and purged it of some of its most cherished landmarks were eyeing their next target: al-Hadba minaret, an 842-year old tower that leans, like Italy’s Tower of Pisa _ one of the country’s most famous structures which decorates the 10,000 dinar bill until today.(AP Photo, File)

A wall of explosives was laid around the Mosque of the Prophet Younis (Jonah the prophet of the Bible) on Thursday. Everyone was ordered out of the shrine said to contain the prophet's tomb, before it was blown to smithereens. The following day, the Mosque of Sheeth (Seth), held to be the burial site of Adam and Eve's third son, had its turn. On Saturday, the Mosque of the Prophet Jirjis became rubble.

Crosses on the domes and brick walls of the 1,800-year-old Mar Behnam monastery were removed. The Islamists stormed the monastery, forced the monks and priests to abandon it or face death. Days before, the jihadists had proclaimed over mosque loudspeakers that Christians must convert to Islam, or pay a tax or choose to die by the sword. These are, after all, the most basic precepts of Islamic jihad. Christians fled en masse.