A few months back, I wrote about the travesty that was occurring in the historically and culturally rich city of Timbuktu, Mali. Islamic extremists at that point had only just begun their takeover of the country, but now hold more than two-thirds of its territory. And with their coup comes the destruction that seems to follow in the wake of extremist Islamic groups. The victim this week is Timbuktu.
These extremists, who are said to belong to the Ansar Dine faction of Islam (and closely related to al-Qaeda), have been defiling Sufi mausoleums and tombs in an effort to rid the land of all non-Islamic influences. Now they have even taken so far as to cause serious damage to a mosque - one of the holy places of their own religion.
They excuse themselves with religious rhetoric, saying that the mosque was not constructed in proper Islamic fashion. They also make more blatantly political statements for their actions, claiming that they destroy these monuments because they want the rest of the world to see what they are capable of. Capable of mindless destruction? Yes, we see that very clearly.
Once again, extreme views of religion prove to be destructive to the history of a country. The extremist Islamic groups have already trashed the Great Buddha in Afghanistan and now they seek to enact the same level of damage on Timbuktu. The whole affair seems like something out of the medieval ages, where one conquering country would destroy the important monuments of their new territory in order to cleanse the people of their attachments to the regional culture.
While the loss of human lives and rights is certainly the more important issue when it comes to the politics in Mali, the loss of history is nothing short of tragedy. Will we ever live in a world where people don’t try to impose their beliefs to the point of destruction? Will religion ever evolve to a state where it tries to build instead of destroy?