http://m.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/25/after-leveling-iraqs-tomb-of-jonah-the-islamic-state-could-destroy-anything-in-the-bible/?tid=HP_more

After leveling Iraq's Tomb of Jonah, the Islamic State could destroy 'anything in the Bible'

By Justin Moyer July 25 at 4:50 AM

Video of the destruction of the Tomb of Jonah, also known as the Mosque of Jonah, by the Islamic State.

Jonah's main appearance in the Old Testament is short, but none too sweet.

As recounted in the Book of Jonah, God asked Jonah to preach. Not thinking himself cut out for the evangelizing game, Jonah ran away to sea.

But then Yahweh sent a great storm. When Jonah's shipmates found out he was running from the Man Upstairs, they regretfully threw him overboard. Rather than let Jonah drown, God sent a great fish (or a whale, depending on the translation) to swallow him and — yuck — vomit him on dry land. Once saved, Jonah did preach to the people — but then got angry with God when He spared the wicked.

The end.

But as reluctant a prophet as Jonah was, his purported tomb in Mosul, Iraq, is a holy site for Muslims – even though it's not likely the final resting place of a man purported to live in a fish's tummy for three days. Instead, wrote Columbia University Near Eastern history PhD student Christopher Jones, the tomb is a sacred place "to meditate on the questions raised by the story of Jonah: questions of justice, obedience, providence, fairness and divine mercy."

Until this month, when it was destroyed by the Islamic State.

Iraqis inspect the wreckage of the grave of the Nebi Yunus, or the prophet Jonah, in Mosul, Iraq, on July 24, 2014. (EPA)

Agence France-Presse confirmed rumors of the tomb's fate with an Iraqi official. The official said Islamic State forces closed the mosque and took an hour wiring it with explosive charges. Then:

Boom.

Jonah's tomb "has been turned to dust," the official said.

The Islamic State isn't new to this. As it establishes a caliphate to spread its ultraconservative faith, it's destroyed cultural artifacts including Sunni, Shia and Sufi sites, according to Newsweek, and replaced the crosses on Mosul's Syrian Orthodox cathedral with black flags.

Why?

"It indicates they are going for total eradication not just of their enemies but even of the possibility of people living together under their rule," Sam Hardy, a professor at the American University of Rome and author of the blog Conflict Antiquities, told The Washington Post in a phone interview.

"Sometimes the practitioners of a new religion feel compelled to recognize a place as sacred, and develop their own reasons to continue to venerate it,"Jones wrote. "Other times, they choose to demonstrate the superiority of their own religion over other belief systems by destroying their sacred spaces and building their own in their place."

A combination photo of the 55-metre-high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan in December 18, 1997 (left) and after its destruction on March 26, 2001. It has been ten years since the statue was destroyed by the Taliban on March 2, 2001. REUTERS/Muzammil Pasha, Sayed Salahuddin/Files (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: RELIGION POLITICS ANNIVERSARY)

Left: the 55-metre-high Buddha statue in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, on Dec. 18, 1997. Right: After its destruction on March 26, 2001. (REUTERS/Muzammil Pasha, Sayed Salahuddin)

Of course, governments and religions have destroyed antiquities since, well, antiquity. Romans destroyed Jerusalem's Second Temple not long after Christ. During the Crusades, Christians destroyed mosques. The Nazis destroyed degenerate art. And the Taliban destroyed theBamiyan Buddhas in 2001.

The problem: In Iraq, the Islamic State is advancing. If it's willing to destroy anything other religions — even other Muslims — hold sacred, what's next?

"Basically pretty much anything in the Bible," Hardy said.

What can be done?

"If we didn't intervene when they were killing people, it would be kind of grotesque to intervene over a building," Hardy said.

Perhaps the Islamic State will stop on its own?

"You think tactically they'd avoid provoking enemies," Hardy said, but Islamic State forces "seem happy to do that. Possibly they are doing stuff to get media attention."

Mission accomplished.

Justin Moyer is deputy editor of the Morning Mix.

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meand2

1:39 PM EDT

Radical Islam is a plague. There is nothing good comes of it. Ever.

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angie12106

1:27 PM EDT [Edited]

...

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angie12106

1:27 PM EDT

Probably the U.S. government's biggest military mistake - invading Iraq.

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Gracefulboomer

1:28 PM EDT

Agree.

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grumpycarl63

1:17 PM EDT

Yep, Islam is a peaceful religion where all people are treated as equals...

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john0000006

1:12 PM EDT

hi there, its been awhile. I doubt this Islamic state is any differant except maybe women, especially the younger oneswill have more freedom to learn since with theelectronic highway, the ease of doing routine labours such as reading and writing will remain with the female sect there. here, of course, no one except a really stupid person or one that simply can't, for example builders and construction workers, would miss the opportunity to put their own thoughts out. But things are differant elsewhere, such as in Iraq and Egypt.

I am curious as to why the information in this country is so focused on two areasi onthisplanet russia and the middle east. wouldn't it bebetter for the jewish media to focus elsewhere perhaps Africa?

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Holdover

1:11 PM EDT

Jonah is a revered prophet of Islam and the story about the whale swallowing him also appears in the Koran. The author should also have mentioned this in his article.

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notinoman

1:20 PM EDT

Only STUPID Muslims think that they have a 'RELIGION' to be 'holy' about. They don't realize that they are just DUPES who are USEFUL so as to 'SELL' the idiotic idea that ISLAM is some sort of RELIGION even though REAL religions all have TOLERANCE for the other religions and ISLAM has NONE of that, to be sure. And, REAL religions have RESPECT for the members of the other religions while ISLAM only considers INFIDELS to be TARGETS. And, REAL religions ALL promote the 'GOLDEN RULE' of love and care for all Mankind while ISLAM has no such ethic, or, ANY ethics, really.

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angie12106

1:25 PM EDT

Islam is a peaceful religion - but there are extremists -
just as there are extremists in Christianity that kill abortion doctors.

Notice

12:31 PM EDT

Good examples of religious zealots destroying items associated with other religions except that the Nazis were not a religious group and while it was Germans--some Nazis but also many non-Nazis--who set out to destroy some of what they called "degenerate" art--that was not recognized as "degenerate" by outsiders--and to enrich their coffers and private art collections with other so-called "degenerate" art which should be called stolen art--and that art was not artifacts of a religion. What the Germans--Nazis and non-Nazis--working together--destroyed that would fit better into this article's list of examples were Jews. The Germans destroyed 6 million Jewish infants, children, non-combatant adults including women, men, the elderly. They destroyed Jewish books, scrolls, synagogues, and communities. In their attempt to destroy world Jewry, the Germans murdered, defaced, and destroyed Jews and all things Jewish and they stole and enriched Germany and their private fortunes with whatever they thought was too valuable to destroy that they stole instead.

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notinoman

12:45 PM EDT [Edited]

The LAST unpunished NAZI AXIS members remaining from WORLD WAR TWO are the various factions of ISLAM, who, CONTINUE to HATE THE JEWS as fervently and murderously as they ever have.

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