By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

BAGHDAD, Iraq – New video released Thursday appears to show militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) destroying Assyrian and Akkadian artifacts, smashing and scraping though artifacts dating back to at least the 7th century B.C.E. The ISIS supporters who took sledgehammers to ancient artifacts, from some of humanities earliest civilization, claimed they were ordered by the Profit to destroy all symbols of Idolatry. Instead these men are committing unjustifiable mass atrocities taking lives and attempting to destroy the histories of all people in the region who do not share their radical views. I’m totally shocked,” a professor at the University of Mosul’s college of archaeology said of the video, “It’s a catastrophe. With the destruction of these artifacts, we can no longer be proud of Mosul’s civilization.”

ISIS supports destroy cultural and historic artifacts dating back to at least the seventh century B.C.E.. (Photo courtesy of The International Business Times UK)

The video shows only the latest episode of cultural destruction in a spree of iconoclasm, the destruction of religious artifacts, and outright ethnocide committed by ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq. In May 2014, there were several reports of separate Assyrian artifacts, which have stood for a millennia or more, being excavated and destroyed by ISIS supporters. In July 2014, ISIS supporters destroyed the Tomb of the Prophet Jonah in Nineveh. Earlier this week, reports claimed ISIS burned 100,000 books and manuscripts from the Mosul library. This week ISIS militants in Syria overran Assyrian Christian villages, taking more than 250 Christians hostage and destroying homes and churches in their wake.

Lamia al-Gailani, an Iraqi archaeologist and associate fellow at the London-based Institute of Archaeology, said the militants had wreaked untold damage. “It’s not only Iraq’s heritage: it’s the whole world’s,” she said. “They are priceless, unique. It’s unbelievable. I don’t want to be Iraqi anymore,” she said, comparing the atrocity to the dynamiting of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Afghan Taliban in 2001.

In the video published by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Thursday which showed men destroying artifacts with sledgehammers and drills, saying they were symbols of idolatry. The men claimed they were ordered by the Profit to commit these acts of Iconoclasm saying, “the Prophet ordered us to get rid of statues and relics, and his companions did the same when they conquered countries after him.” While the militants claim their actions were motivated by a desire to destroy idolatry it seems the real motive for releasing this video was mere propaganda. ISIS itself does not destroy all artifacts its encounters, instead the illegal looting and selling of antiquities is a primary source of ISIS funding.

Acts of iconoclasm are not uncommon throughout history.  According to legend Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, destroyed idols and there was a long history of icon-destruction in early Christianity. However, iconoclasm is now considered a crime against humanity in modern civilization, an act that destroys not only the culture and history of a single people but the collective history of humanity itself.

For more information please see:

The Atlantic – Erased: ISIS and the Destruction of Ancient Artifacts – 26 February 2015

The Guardian – Isis Destroys Thousands of Books and Manuscripts in Mosul Libraries – 26 February 2015

International Business Times UK – Iraq: Isis Take Sledgehammers to Priceless Assyrian Artefacts at Mosul Museum [VIDEO] – 26 February 2015

Reuters – With Sledgehammer, Islamic State Smashes Iraqi History – 26 February 2015

Author: Impunity Watch Archive