Mali rebels burn library full of ancient manuscripts

[sandinista]

No, I didn't say that at all. I'm against those silly Muslims burning books. Like the Christians and the Aztecs, dopey religious cultists.

so..what do you mean by "meh"? Sounded like you have no problem with christians destroying peoples cultures.

It's no surprise to me that one religious group would destroy another religious group's stuff. The Muslims do it all the time. The Christians do it all the time. It's no surprise, so -- meh.

Don't think anyone is surprised by this, disgusted yes, surprised...no.

And American TV has destroyed Canuckian Culture. We actually sent people up there to turn on the boob tubes and hold guns to people's head to make them watch.

you are senile aren't you? Just random words that have nothing to do with the op at all. Might as well just respond to a post with; "Oh but there are whales AND sharks in the ocean"

[Horwood Beer-Master]

He added: "This is terrible news. The manuscripts were a part not only of Mali's heritage but the world's heritage. By destroying them they threaten the world. We have to kill all of the rebels in the north."

But don't know if I quite agree with his logic there..

Meh. Works for me.

[Tyrannical]

It's like people forgot what Timbuktu was and how it acquired it's fame and fortune.
The Auschwitz of Africa for hundreds of years.

I landed here once. 16°43'49.58" N 3°00'23.57" W


And I thought you were on vacation?

Yeah, at Disney World. But it's hard to resist sharing my knowledge on certain subjects.

[JimC]

Could you imagine if a Muslim burned a copy of The God Delusion? Or, worse yet, Saint Christopher Hitchens magnum opus 'God is Not Great'? We'd go apeshit!

No, we'd carefully measure the maximum temperature reached, total CO2 produced and heat energy released, draw graphs and write a paper...

[cronus]

More details of the atrocity begin to emerge?


http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2 ... ripts.html

Retreating rebels burn Timbuktu's science manuscripts

It is what conservators, archivists and researchers have feared. As Malian troops, supported by the French military, advanced on the fabled city of Timbuktu in northern Mali, retreating Islamist rebels have set fire to the Ahmed Baba Institute and a warehouse containing valuable scientific manuscripts dating back to medieval times.

The Ahmed Baba Institute housed an estimated 30,000 manuscripts. The texts include documents on astronomy, medicine, botany, mathematics and biology, evidence that science was under way in Africa before European settlers arrived. They were not only from scholars working in Timbuktu, once a centre for learning, but also from all over Mali and as far as the borders of Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, Niger, Algeria and the Ivory Coast.

It is unclear at this stage how many of the texts have been destroyed.

The rebel group Ansar al Dine wrestled control of Timbuktu from Tuareg separatists in April last year, and since have been using the Institute as their base. The rebels had earlier looted the building of its vehicles, computers and other equipment.

(continued)

[Tyrannical]

He said the manuscripts were important because they exploded the myth that "black Africa" had only an oral history. "You just need to look at the manuscripts to realise how wrong this is."

That quote is almost comical, it was the Arabic Muslim slave traders not black Africans who created everything of note there. Timbuktu existed soley as a means to buy, sell, and move slaves from black africa to Arabia.

[cronus]

He said the manuscripts were important because they exploded the myth that "black Africa" had only an oral history. "You just need to look at the manuscripts to realise how wrong this is."

That quote is almost comical, it was the Arabic Muslim slave traders not black Africans who created everything of note there. Timbuktu existed soley as a means to buy, sell, and move slaves from black africa to Arabia.

When there is no pressure to evolve socially or technically then it won't happen. The natural habitat is the wrong place to look for social or technological progress.

[Audley Strange]

This is an interesting reaction here.

Who cares? Some ink-scrawls by half-witted primitives burned by half-witted primitives. It's of no real value.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

This is an interesting reaction here.

Who cares? Some ink-scrawls by half-witted primitives burned by half-witted primitives. It's of no real value.

Yeah, I feel the same way about the Library of Alexandria. So what if it had the collected wisdom of the ancient world, perhaps including works that would be important even today? It was obviously a fire hazard or it wouldn't have burned.

[Audley Strange]

This is an interesting reaction here.

Who cares? Some ink-scrawls by half-witted primitives burned by half-witted primitives. It's of no real value.

Yeah, I feel the same way about the Library of Alexandria. So what if it had the collected wisdom of the ancient world, perhaps including works that would be important even today? It was obviously a fire hazard or it wouldn't have burned.

Yeah perhaps some ancient Egyptian Courtier discovered cold fusion something. We lost exactly what we always lose when libraries burn. A bunch of books on harping on about royalty and some paperbacks by their equivalent of Tom Clancy and Len Deighton. I'm sure they might have been of interest to perhaps a couple of thousand people worldwide but it's not like we've lost anything but ink and paper.

































"It's a trap!!!"

[pErvinalia]

Nazi.

[Jason]

Could you imagine if a Muslim burned a copy of The God Delusion? Or, worse yet, Saint Christopher Hitchens magnum opus 'God is Not Great'? We'd go apeshit!

No, we'd carefully measure the maximum temperature reached, total CO2 produced and heat energy released, draw graphs and write a paper...

and then go apeshit.