Attempting to Crumble Iraq’s Multi-Faith Heritage
For a terrorist group which has no regard for human life, it is unsurprising that Daesh have persistently taken their attack to historical cultural buildings too.
Satellite images confirmed last week that the group destroyed the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq – St Elijah’s – around August to September 2014.
<above: A 1920s photo shows a ceremony at the monastery, where a Christian community thrived for centuries. Photograph: Otrakji family collection/AP>
Stephen Wood of Allsource Analysis said that the images showed that “the stone walls have been literally pulverised”, adding that, "bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of grey-white dust”.
In doing so, Daesh is directly opposing the Qur’an’s affirmation of a multi-faith society where the status of houses of worship are as profound as each other: “To those who were unjustly expelled from their homes only because they said, ‘God is our Lord.’ Had it not been for God’s repelling some people through the might of the others, the monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques in which God is very often worshipped would have been utterly destroyed. God shall certainly help those who help Him. He is All-powerful and Majestic.” (22:40)
The group’s destruction tactics are an attempt to show power and cause chaos in a country which has already been riddled by conflict.
Daesh has persecuted Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, seizing their property and forcing them to convert to Islam, or alternatively, pay a special tax or flee.
But it’s not just Christians who have been the victim of these annihilation projects. As well as demolishing a number of monasteries and churches, Daesh has had no issues with destroying Islamic sites and pre-Islamic Nimrud, Hatra and Nineveh in Iraq, as well as Palmyra in Syria.
Funnily enough, the so-called values of the brutal group have not stopped them from making huge profits from theft and ruin. Their hypocrisy is astounding - hey have been selling antiques on the black market – and what they can’t sell, they destroy.
With these contradictions in mind and with the resilience of the Iraqi people, it’s clear that the Daesh programme of hate will not stand for long. With our strong message of unity, we can take our fight to social media and show that they cannot break our unshakeable spirit.
Send your #MessageToISIS on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages and show that we will not stand for the destruction of our shared heritage.
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