ISIS Atrocity in Yemen

Yesterday came the news that a suicide bomber had killed forty people at a mosque in Yemen. The country is currently torn in a civil war between its Sunni population and government, and the Houthi tribe, who are Shia. It was first feared that the bomber was a member of the latter. He wasn’t. Nor was he a member al-Qaeda, who were also initially suspected of involvement.

It was ISIS, yet again.

This is extremely disturbing. It’s not just that forty innocents were murdered and a house of worship desecrated for no other reason than that they and it belonged to a different faith, though this is bad enough. It’s because ISIS also attempts to destroy the very culture, including the ancient monuments, of the peoples it conquers and rules. I’ve blogged several times this week, including today, about the cult’s destruction of the Assyrian antiquities in Iraq, their smashing of art treasures in a museum in Mosul, the bulldozing of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrod and their destruction of the mosques and shrines to the Patriarch Seth, revered in Islam as the Prophet Sheth, St. George, also revered in Islam as Jerjis, and the Prophet Jonah, known in the Qu’ran as Yunus. They also attempted to demolish one of the earliest minarets built in Iraq, but were fortunately prevented by the local people.

Yemen is also vulnerable to this destruction. It is, like the rest of the Middle East, a country with ancient and rich history. The city of Marib was the capital of the ancient South Arabian civilisation of Saba, known in the Bible as Sheba, whose queen visited King Solomon to test him with ‘hard questions’. This episode is also mentioned in the Qu’ran, and the Muslim name for the Queen is ‘Bilqis’. According to the chapter in the Qu’ran, the Surat al-Naml, which means ‘The Ants’ in English, Solomon could understand the language of birds. He was brought news of the Queen of Sheba by the hoopoe. the same sura also describes the destruction of the town’s great dam, the remains of which are still extant. The South Arabian languages spoken in the Gulf are also the origin of the modern majority languages of Ethiopia, Amharic, Tigre, and Tigrinya, which are all descended from the medieval language, Ge’ez. And the Ethiopian people themselves in their national epic, the Kebra Nagast, or ‘Glory of Kings’, traced their descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

The British Museum has a gallery devoted to the ancient cultures of Yemen, and a little while ago they staged an exhibition of its antiquities and the archaeology of this rich and ancient country. Any attack on these would be yet another blow against adab and the culture, not only of Islam and the Arabs, but of the world.

Video on ISIS’ Destruction of Ancient Monuments in Iraq

I’ve posted a number of pieces condemning and commenting on ISIS’ destruction of the priceless monuments and archaeological treasures in Iraq. These include not only the ancient Assyrian artefacts in Mosul and the ancient city of Nimrod, but also the shrine of the Adam’s son Seth, venerated in Islam as the Prophet Sheth. I’ve found this short video about this cultural vandalism on Youtube. It’s from a Christian perspective, but it does report not only the destruction of the ancient Assyrian monuments of especial interest to Christians and Jews, but also the Islamic mosques and shrines that have been destroyed. These now include the tomb of Saint George, venerated in Islam as Jerjis, and the mosque dedicated to the Prophet Jonah, revered in Islam as Yunus. Here it is.

The piece also suggests that ISIS had already looted the site for artefacts, which they could sell on the international antiquities market in order to raise money for their war against everything good, decent and civilised. They trashed Nimrod, the video alleges, in order to cover up their looting.

I’ve also seen reports elsewhere that the Islamist terror groups are funding their war through pillaging and selling the region’s antiquities.

Regardless of the reasons for its destruction, this is just a monstrous attack on culture and civilisation, that has left the world and all its peoples poorer.