“Where books are burned, in the end, people will be burned.” – Heinrich Heine
What a shame. #isis has burned and destroyed over 8000 rare books and manuscripts in #Mosul pic.twitter.com/Y3humMLxng
— Newsitis (@Newsitis) February 24, 2015
Perhaps it is no coincidence that as the world hears of the horrors of ISIS burning people alive in cages, it is also burning books. ISIS has struck again in Mosul Iraq. This time, its target was a library filled with ancient and priceless books and manuscripts:
“ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library. They used improvised explosive devices,” said Ghanim al-Ta’an, the director of the library. Notables in Mosul tried to persuade ISIS members to spare the library, but they failed.
The former assistant director of the library Qusai All Faraj said that the Mosul Public Library was established in 1921, the same year that saw the birth of the modern Iraq. Among its lost collections were manuscripts from the eighteenth century, Syriac books printed in Iraq’s first printing house in the nineteenth century, books from the Ottoman era, Iraqi newspapers from the early twentieth century and some old antiques like an astrolabe and sand glass used by ancient Arabs. The library had hosted the personal libraries of more than 100 notable families from Mosul over the last century.
Mosul Library
Again, the parallels between the Nazis and Muslims is on display for all to see. In addition to a shared hatred of the Jews and an alliance between Hitler and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, both reveled in the destruction of books:
One news report expressed succinctly, with near perfection what the sheer evil of ISIS in destroying the books:
When militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria invaded the Central Library of Mosul in January, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people’s ideas.
Here is actual footage of Nazi students marching and burning books on a bonfire. As the books burned Nazi propagandist Goebbels told students that they would be educated by the Nazis, not books filled with alternate thoughts. As a propagandist for evil, Goebbels clearly had his work cut out for him. Eliminating books, something Goebbels refers to in the video as ‘intellectual garbage’ was necessary for that evil to be carried out: