JOIN USThe Islamic State militants have earned more notoriety by vandalising the historic Mosul museum which contained priceless treasures of antiquity. They had invited universal opprobrium and condemnation by barbarously putting to death foreign hostages, members of minority communities and others. A video which has become public now shows the IS zealots rampaging through the museum which has been identified as the Mosul museum, and wrecking its collections. Statues are being seen overturned and other objects like artefacts smashed in maniacal acts of destruction. Mosul is controlled by the IS, which captured it in June last year. The authenticity of the video has been confirmed because it carries the IS insignia. There are some who feel that all the artefacts which are being seen as being destroyed may not be original and the IS may
have been trying to create an impact. But the general view is that the rampage is real.
The museum has a collection of Iraq’s valuable historical and cultural treasures. They include 3000-year statues from the ancient Assyrian empire. IS men were seen as sledgehammering a 9th century statue. The region is known as the cradle of civilisation and the treasures there are the common heritage of mankind. But a narrator is seen in the video as explaining that the attack on pre-Muslim art is in accordance with the injunction against idol worship. History and culture cannot be considered to start from a cut-off date. The present is a continuation of all the human past. Historical monuments and artefacts are milestones in the evolution of civilisation. In fact, the effort all over the world is to unearth the past better through disciplines like history and archaeology so that we can understand the present better. But fanaticism and ignorance have combined to make the IS wage a mindless war against the past.
The militants have also targeted libraries and other seats of learning. Public libraries have been ransacked and books and manuscripts have been burned. Punishment by death has been announced for those trying to hide or save artefacts. Many ancient shrines and tombs have been demolished. The attitude is the same as that drove the Taliban to destroy the 1700-year Bamian Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Some of the valued treasures of Iraq were lost when the Baghdad museum was looted after the US invasion in 2003. Many of them are yet to be recovered. The UNESCO has described the IS actions as cultural cleaning. It is likely that a part of our past has disappeared without trace.