Islamic Library Burned to the Ground [Fisk ALERT]

ArabNews - Saudi Arabia ^ | 4-15-03 | Robert Fisk

[Oldeconomybuyer]

BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 — So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then came the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sack of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives — a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents including the old royal archives of Iraq — were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the Islamic Library of Qur’ans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. I saw the looters.

One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy who could have been no more than 10 years old. Amid the ashes of hundreds of years of Iraqi history, I found just one file blowing in the wind outside: Pages and pages of handwritten letters between the court of Sherif Hussein of Makkah — who started the Arab revolt against the Turks for Lawrence of Arabia — and the Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.

And the Americans did nothing. All over the filthy yard they blew, letters of recommendation to the courts of Arabia, demands for ammunition for Ottoman troops, reports on the theft of camels and attacks on pilgrims, all of them in delicate hand-written Arabic script. I was holding in my hands the last Baghdad vestiges of Iraq’s written history. But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Qur’anic library of the ministry, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased.

Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed? When I caught sight of the Qur’anic library burning — there were flames 100 feet high bursting from the windows — I raced to the offices of the occupying power, the US Marines’ civil affairs bureau, to report what I had seen. An officer shouted to a colleague that “this guy says some Biblical (sic) library is on fire.” I gave the map location, the precise name — in Arabic and English — of the fire, I said that the smoke could be seen from three miles away and it would take only five minutes to drive there. Half an hour later, there wasn’t an American at the scene — and the flames were now shooting 200 feet into the air.

There was a time when the Arabs said that their books were written in Cairo, printed in Beirut and read in Baghdad. Now they burn libraries in Baghdad. In the National Archives were not just the Ottoman records of the caliphate, but even the dark years of the country’s modern history, hand-written accounts of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, an entire library of Western newspapers — bound volumes of the Financial Times were lying on the pavement — and microfiche copies of Arabic newspapers going back to the early 1900s.

[MinuteGal]

No water lines, no fire equipment, no firemen.

Why didn't Fisk try to cry on it? He would have had it out in no time flat.

Leni

[LizardQueen]

And the Americans did nothing

Uh, dude, we were fighting a WAR at the time. Too bad about the books but there were living people getting shot at at the time.

If you want to know why this was done, ask the damn looters. No American told them to go burn their own heritage down.

LQ

[Blue Screen of Death]

The vandalism and looting in Iraq says much more about the Iraqi people, their culture and moral values than it does about American soldiers who are there to fight a war, not put out fires.

I thought all of the American soldiers had been informed that Saddam had plastic surgery and now looks exactly like Robert Fisk. They should shoot on sight. Didn't every one get the memo?

[try phecta tom]

Too bad every copy of the koran fairy tales weren't burnt along with the other sh!t.

[Support Free Republic]

Attention!

Our troops give so much of themselves, and we all benefit from their efforts.

The next time you look at your bank balance, why not find some way to take some money and put it towards supporting the members of our armed services in some way? Maybe find a family who has someone serving, and buy them dinner, or some groceries, or a gift for their children? Maybe find a way to contribute to a fund for the memory of any of those who have fallen? Our armed forces deserve our support in tangible ways.

[Argus]

Fisk is a proven liar. He's probably reporting on the burning of the Baath Party Reading Room, not some imagined library of ancient lore. Does he even read Arabic? If not, how does he know what was in the documents he claims to have seen burning? As a related matter, why is this known Baath propagandist allowed to remain in Iraq?

[try phecta tom]

Sorry, forgot to include:
Excuse me, I have to take a Fisk.

[TopQuark]

Now they burn libraries in Baghdad.

Correct: these are the values of people that choose socialism over personal responsibility and fascist dictatorship over human dignity and fredom.

And you, Mr. Fisk, are one of the main admirers of that choice.

[wideawake]

Of course, if the Marines had stopped to put out the fire, Fisk's column would be: "American troops, obsessed with material things like valuable historical documents which would probably fetch a handsome sum at Sotheby's, ignored the human suffering of the people of Baghdad while they spent precious time and water in recovering mere objects."

[Paul Atreides]

And the Americans did nothing.

Where were the humans shields?

[RaceBannon]

As a Lover of old historical books, I do think this is a tragedy...But I'll get over it.

[amused]

LOL....in his zeal to rip the United States, Fisk gives the impression that in his mind the Iraqis are animals needing of control and that Saddam provided that control.

I probably shouldn't laugh as Fisk is a prime example of the sickening lengths much of the left has gone to, supported, and approved of in the name of being the opposition.

[elbucko]

For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?

For what insane purpose, Fisk, were airliners slammed into buildings? Discover the answer to that riddle, Fisk, and you will know the answer to your question!

[dead]

One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy who could have been no more than 10 years old.

That's a really funny image.

This aging angry queen trying to take a book from a 10-year-old and getting chased away by some screaming arab.

Fisk probably wet himself.

[aristeides]

Allied bombing destroyed the Monastery of Monte Cassino in 1944. Does Fisk think that discredits the Allied cause in WW II?

[amused]

Of course, if the Marines had stopped to put out the fire, Fisk's column would be: "American troops, obsessed with material things like valuable historical documents which would probably fetch a handsome sum at Sotheby's, ignored the human suffering of the people of Baghdad while they spent precious time and water in recovering mere objects."

Bingo! He doesn't care about anything or anyone as long as he gets a story and the story paints the United States in a poor light.

[Paul Atreides]

Mind you, if it had been Mount Vernon burned to the ground, he would have been elated.

[Technogeeb]

One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy who could have been no more than 10 years old

Translation: "I got caught trying to steal a book from a child and one of the adults scolded me".

[SuziQ]

I'll wait until someone reliable writes about what happened. I am sorry, for History's sake, if these priceless writings were burned, but I'm not going to blame it on our soldiers.

[Petronski]

But for Iraq, this is Year Zero;

Fisk's only paradigm is Communism; here he makes a Khmer Rouge reference.

And we're not supposed to notice that Fisk values historical artifacts over the liberty of living people. In the classic Stalinist/totalitarian mindset, the private life is dead: there is no individual, only classes and nations. Thus, as long as the nation lives on, the life of the individual is irrelevant (paraphrasing Hitler).

Hussein held these items hostage (otherwise he could have protected them), and the blame is his.

[Petronski]

Excuse me, I have to take a Fisk.

Don't forget to wipe your Clymer.

[Billthedrill]

Well, he probably didn't really burn the library at Alexandria, but Caliph Omar did comment on burning books in general: "if they contradict what is in the Koran they are heresy and should be burned; if they agree with it they are superfluous." He wasn't, by reputation, one of the nicer Caliphs...

[I still care]

An interesting statement. The child wasn't burning the book, he was taking it? And Fisk tried to get it from him? This foreign "journalist" is trying to take a book on law from a child. "Here, give me that!"

So was it looted first? Or just burnt? I find it very strange people would burn a library full of antique books when supposedly they were stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. Maybe there was more to this building than met the eye?

[happydogdesign]

[amused]

Mind you, if it had been Mount Vernon burned to the ground, he would have been elated.

Fisk dateline 2010, "as the election of Hillary Clinton and the subsequent people's revolution in Amerika have been a hard to understand movement, we are now provided with a symbolic moment perfectly characterizing the revolution and its glory in the burning of the Library of Congress.... "

"Several members of the worker's revolution set ablaze this insidious institution which housed the propaganda of the Amerikan fascist regime for over a century. You could see the joy in the people's faces as they grabbed original copies of the so-called Declaration of Independence and set them afire along with copies of the reprehensible fascist dogma known as the Federalist papers. Various oppressed peasants were able to redeclare property such as 18 and 19th century furniture that the fascists had claimed for themselves....."

"It was a final and welcome destruction to the plague that had become rugged individualism and superstitious beliefs in "God-given" rights."

[try phecta tom]

Thank you, almost forgot

[Monty22]

"Islamic Library Burned to the Ground "

More good news!

[Technogeeb]

An interesting statement. The child wasn't burning the book, he was taking it? And Fisk tried to get it from him? This foreign "journalist" is trying to take a book on law from a child. "Here, give me that!"

Yes, but it somehow sounds more noble when Fisk says it.

So was it looted first? Or just burnt?

So far, everything that I've seen burned has been "looted" first. The only things that appear to be burning are symbols of Hussein's regime.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The Iraqi people want to attack and destroy all even remotely associated with the hated Sadaminites, and I cheer the on at every level.

Let them have their pound of flesh after suffering so much for so long, I cannot blame them.

[MosesKnows]

Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?

I will never be able to comprehend the mentality of those who celebrate the burning of books. Who would destroy the records of history so no one could read them? That is about as small minded as a human mind can descend.

[calico joe]

So, as with the National Antiquities Museum, why were the artifacts and documents left in their normal place and not moved to a protected spot? We're told all the time that Baghdad is honeycombed with tunnels. Surely there was room down there. Why didn't the archivists and curators take action? Looks like the entire Iraqi government military and civilian was decapitated.

Instead of blaaming the Americans maybe Fisk should blame Iraqi officials who failed to act even though they knew a war was coming.

[aristeides]

Most German art was preserved in WW II because it was kept in vaults in mountain caves.

[tet68]

Tsk, tsk, Fisk,
Robert, you just don't seem to grasp the historic nature of this operation, it has often been said to destroy a country you must first destroy it's history.
I call this a good start.

[roadcat]

"For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?"

And who was complaining when the Iraqi's plundered Kuwaiti museums, looting and destroying many priceless artifacts (many of which were lost forever). What goes around comes around.

[aristeides]

Ba'athists and supporters of Saddam Hussein would certainly have reason to do things that might tend to discredit the invaders.

[knuthom]

If you want to know why this was done, ask the damn looters. No American told them to go burn their own heritage down.

This is a good point. Why would these people burn down their own heritage. Did he ask them? I doubt it. Do they see it as part of Saddam's heritage? Do they hate him that much? Fisk should have asked why. He should spend a little time trying to figure out where all this bottled up rage is coming from. And then he should ask himself why he wanted them to remain under Saddam's evil thumb.

[Major_Risktaker]

The poor and uneducated people in American cities would destroy Government buildings if they could get away with it.

I live is Washington DC and was wondering if the museums on the mall would be pass up by thieves (Ali-Baba's) if all events were the same.

Well, I don’t think so! The Hope Diamond would be the first item to go.

I believe evil people are the same all over the world now because of air travel and communications.

Good Luck...Hmmmmm...I wonder....

45.52 carats The Hope Diamond--the world's largest deep blue diamond--is more than a billion years old. It formed deep within the Earth and was carried by a volcanic eruption to the surface in what is now India. Since the Hope Diamond was found in the early 1600s, it has crossed oceans and continents and passed from kings to commoners.

It has been stolen and recovered, sold and resold, cut and recut. Through it all, the diamond's value increased. In 1958, Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Museum, and it now belongs to the people of the United States.

Visit the Museum to learn more about the dramatic interactions between people and this diamond, and about its natural history. Visit the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals which opened in September, 1997.

[thatcher]

As with the National Antiquities Museum, this library looting and burning, may also be the work of old regime Iraqi officials. No one saw anybody ‘looting’ the museum, as they did with everyother place that was looted, it was found looted. I doubt that any of the average Iraqi people did it, but rather those who were aware of the value contained there in, and wanted to make it look like common looting.

[stop_fascism]

No one saw anybody ‘looting’ the museum

I was wondering if the staff decided it was a good time to make a few bucks in the antiquities market. As someone pointed out, the staff had months to pack up the valuables and put them in a safe place. Curious they didn't do it.

In "normal" wars the victors burn down the losers' towns, steal their valuables and rape their women. When it's an American war the loser's do all of the above, and the victors catch hell for not stopping them. If it wan't so sad, it would be funny.

[Hoppean]

Fisk may have his political biases, but the identity of the author aside, it's quite sad news to read that these materials and relics have been destroyed. Things like this do happen in war, and it's a prime example of why war is horrible. The other posters are right--it's not the US's fault, or anyone else's, really--the books got caught in the crossfire, and when war is being fought all around, cultural relics aren't foremost on the combatants' minds. It's a fact of life that relics are often lost in wars; it's happened before.

If anything good is to come out of this, I hope that events like this inspire curators and scholars and librarians the world over to review the events and try to draw up some more effective procedures to follow when war seems to be on the horizon to get these kinds of materials to safe shelter.

[ladyjane]

I thought all of the American soldiers had been informed that Saddam had plastic surgery and now looks exactly like Robert Fisk. They should shoot on sight. Didn't every one get the memo?

LOL

[stripes1776]

You mean that 1400 years of the records of one oppresive, murderous regime after another has gone up in smoke? That sounds liberating to me as if the burden of centuries of repression is lifted from one's shoulders. Too bad it couldn't have been done symbolically, but maybe this is the only way to do it.

[dennisw]

That's great!

[fire_eye]

You know... I didn't think there was anything in the world that could cause me to rationalize the burning of a library.

But the image of Fisk silhouetted against the flames, howling dismally like a kicked dog over the loss of the sacred written treasures of his beloved Islam, is delectable enough to make me think it *might* be something for which it *would* be worth burning a library...