ISIS' Attack on History Has Christian Antecedants

Ever since Barack Obama's comments at the National Pray Breakfast sent Christofascists and their political prostitutes into spittle flecked rants, the godly folk have been making claims that Christianity never caused murder and mayhem like what is seeing under ISIS and Islam.  The truth - see the prior post - is, of course, far different and Christianity has left a violent and bloody wake in its past.  A prior post describes some of the horrors wrought by the godly folk.  Now, ISIS is imitating Christianity in another way: ISIS extremists are destroy archaeological treasures and trying to rewrite history when it doesn't comport with its religious/political agenda.  A case in point is the events this week in Mosul’s museum in Iraq where priceless Assyrian statues were destroyed.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at ISIS's crimes against history and its antecedants.  Here are highlights:

It is important to recognize that while the two most recent examples emerge from a common background, the public and highly publicized destruction of long-standing symbols of earlier cultural symbols is not at all unique to modern militant Islam. When Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman empire after the conversion of the emperor Constantine, pagan temples began to be looted and destroyed. Roman emperors after him instituted strict anti-pagan laws.

In the modern period, the Soviet state, as part of its commitment to atheism, systematically destroyed Russian Orthodox churches and icons.

What all of these instances of cultural destruction have in common is the display of authority thought to be necessary upon the advent of a new regime. Reminders of past glories, pre-existing belief systems, or previous rules and rulers are often the first target of attack. They are lasting signs of the temporality of power—they serve as reminders that governments and dynasties and religions rise and fall with the course of human history. But, such destruction proclaims, this latest one will endure.

The cloak of piety conceals beneath it the universal concern for control over the narrative of history, for the power to efface the past in favor of the new present. ISIS is acting in the name of Allah, but they are in fact acting like all cultural conquerors. This is why they, like others before them, target those structures and items most treasured by the wider world.

The destruction of these priceless antiquities is a staggering loss and a true cultural tragedy. We should not, however, attribute it to militant Islam—even if the militant Islamists say so themselves. It is, sadly, a common project of totalitarian regimes from ancient times to the present: Eradicating the past to prop up the present. 

While traveling in Greece this past September we saw countless tiny churches scattered across the region.  Why? Because they were built over destroyed temples to the old gods of Greece.  Book burnings, the destruction of historic treasures all happened under Christianity even before the rise of Islam. 

"Old believers" being burned in Russia