Ahmed Baba library in Timbuktu torched by Islamists

[Carras Dad]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2013/jan/28/ahmed-baba-library-torched-islamist-pictures

behaving like romans, these islamists.
i mean even the nazis could refrain from doing needless stuff like this...

 

[ace99]

i mean even the nazis could refrain from doing needless stuff like this...

Like demolishing the Nuremberg Synagouge and book burnings.

 

[Carras Dad]

yeah, well, ehm...

i guess that backfired.

 

[TomYo689]

The difference is the muslims burned Islamic literature

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah, it's a real tragedy. I hope all the Islamist rebels burn.

 

[ace99]

The difference is the muslims burned Islamic literature

Sufi literature. And Sufi shrines. Wahabi's and Salafists consider Sufi's to be some manner of heretics for their more esoteric beliefs.

 

[warpus]

The Muslim world really needs its own age of enlightenment. How likely is that though?

 

[ShahJahanII]

Sufi literature. And Sufi shrines. Wahabi's and Salafists consider Sufi's to be some manner of heretics for their more esoteric beliefs.

I read an article that suggested Sufism is based more on Neoplatonism that traditional Islamic beliefs. While I can't seem to find it at the moment, this is an interesting read: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arabic-islamic-mysticism/#NeoSuf

Either way, it saddens me whenever I see priceless artifacts like these lost. I can only imagine what the people that run the library are going through.

 

[Leonel]

The Muslim world really needs its own age of enlightenment. How likely is that though?

Christianity had it's own about 1600 years after it was founded so... around 2200 AD?

 

[Patroklos]

The Muslim world really needs its own age of enlightenment. How likely is that though?

They had it already, that's where the places they are burning now came from.

 

[aronnax]

Would like to quickly step in and say that Islamist =/= Islamic population

 

[ace99]

It's the year 1494 in the Muslim calender, only another 200 years!

 

[aronnax]

Honestly, the worse thing to ever happen to Islam was that Saudi Arabia found oil.

Otherwise, we may had like two dozen Turkeys and Indonesias everywhere.

 

[ace99]

Honestly, the worse thing to ever happen to Islam was that Saudi Arabia found oil.

Otherwise, we may had like two dozen Turkeys and Indonesias everywhere.

Or two dozen Somalia's. The resource curse is a thing, but its hard to say how that shakes out.

 

[HannibalBarka]

Or two dozen Somalia's. The resource curse is a thing, but its hard to say how that shakes out.

I think he was thinking about oil rich Saudi Arabia being able to sponsor and spread its own version of Islam, a harsh extremist and very "backward" interpretation of Islam. I also happen to agree with that. Golf states have a lot of money and they use it to spread their way of practicing Islam through TV, program sposoring, free teaching, etc..... It is indeed a curse and it is causing problem in many countries, in Tunisia for example.

 

[Squonk]

i mean even the nazis could refrain from doing needless stuff like this...

Nazis burned lots of books and archives in Poland.

 

[classical_hero]

The Muslim world really needs its own age of enlightenment. How likely is that though?

You mean like how Europe went through the Reformation and Renaissance at the same time. It is pretty telling that both social and religious reform happened when people looked into what the Bible said and not the words of a pope. If you go into the Koran, You won't see the possibility that Christianity allowed to go through.

 

[emzie]

You mean like how Europe went through the Reformation and Renaissance at the same time. It is pretty telling that both social and religious reform happened when people looked into what the Bible said and not the words of a pope. If you go into the Koran, You won't see the possibility that Christianity allowed to go through.

The Reformation started in 1517 with Luther's 95 Thesises. The Renaissance is considered to have begun as early as the end of the 14th century (late 1300s) though is more commonly described as having taken off in the 15th century (1400s) from previous work. As you can see, your overly simplistic view of the Pope keeping Europe down doesn't really fit with the historical timeline. You also seem to be discounting that much of what is considered to be the finest examples of western art ever were created before literally in Rome (Sistine Chapel) and that entire schools of art (Baroque) were founded under the direction of the Pope in the counter-reformation.

But let's say your hypothesis had a solid observation, how does this preclude an Islamic revival? And if your hypothesis had something strong behind it, how does it explain away the Islamic golden age?

 

[ace99]

The Enlightenment happened in the 17th and 18th century besides.

 

[emzie]

The Enlightenment happened in the 17th and 18th century besides.

Also that!