generalspeaking

Pagan Insults to Islam

"Al-Asaad was a treasure for Syria and the world. Why did they kill him?"
"Their [Islamic State jihadists] systematic campaign seeks to take us back into pre-history. But they will not succeed."
Khalil Hariri, son-in-law of antiquities scholar Khaled al-Asaad

"I begged him two months ago to leave the town and come to Damascus with his family, but he refused."
"He believed in destiny. He told me, 'I was born in Palmyra and will stay in Palmyra and will not leave even if costs me my blood'."
"We have lost not just a scholar of archeology, but one of the pillars of archaeology in the 20th century."
Ahmad Ferzat Taraqji, antiquities expert

"We knew they would not leave him alone. We used to stand together and watch the trenches and the barricades go up … he couldn’t stop his tears. He’d say they were punishing everything – even the stone."
Khaled al-Homsi, a nephew of Khaled al-Asaad

Well "Mr. Palmyra" has paid with his blood. And in Palmyra he remains, his headless body hung in a public square, a notice hanging from it that he was a traitor to Islam. At 81 years of age the distinguished scholar has retired from life, years after retiring from his proud profession. His death might have been predictable, given the penchant of Islamic State fanatics to destroy anything that doesn't agree with their view on anything beginning and ending with Islam.

Abducted and held in the custody of the enemies of antiquity and humanity, he underwent pitiless interrogation no doubt enhanced by threats and torture. The ultimate torture to this man, however, would be to witness the despoliation of all he held dear; the priceless treasures of antiquity. It is all forbidden in Islam, despicable idolatry, according to Islamic State which delights to distribute videos of its members destroying the irreplaceable treasures.


But of course, that kind of carnage should be limited since those treasures are capable of funding Islamic State activities, so artifacts appear on the black market where their value is expressed in rendering to ISIL what it feels is due it; a new take on jizya. Looted treasures returning millions to the administration of the caliphate, topping up the black market in Islamic State oil refinery production for the greater good of pure Islam.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hierarchy evidently decided that no more could be dredged from Khaled al-Asaad, in ISIL's demands that he inform them where artifacts had been taken for safeguarding from their depredations. The hidden treasures that were taken for safekeeping elsewhere will remain elsewhere for the time being to ensure that the UNESCO treasures are neither destroyed nor sold to private investors.

The elderly Mr. Asaad simply could not envision himself abandoning his beloved Palmyra, and so he did not. Age took from him the capacity to continue visiting the two-thousand-year-old ruins he had dedicated his life to preserving, but from where he lived he had the comfort of proximity "and he could see the archaeological site from his house", explained his nephew Khaled al-Homsi.

Who witnessed his uncle brought to a crowded main square close to a vegetable market. Mr. al-Asaad, dressed in a suit, waited as a jihadist read aloud accusations that ISIL brought against him as the "director of idols" who represented Syria "at infidel conferences", visiting Shiite Iran, proving his heretical status as a quasi Muslim.

He was then beheaded, his body hung from a pole. 

Still: Telegraph video

Labels: Antiquities, Atrocities, Islamic State, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, August 20, 2015