salafist islam condemning sufi orders.
high levels of extraordinary stupidity aspiring to higher orders of knowledge, in which they imagine themselves to be instruments of god
stupidity with guns.
k
What is their rationale for destroying the manuscripts?On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 6:12 PM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:read this and weep--
the 'islamists' have signed their departure from timbuktu by setting fire on to the 1000 yr old mss.
abdul, the people who are dancing in the street of gao are not sorry to see them go. neither are the people of timbuktu weeping, they are celebrating.
but the damage they have done to islamic manuscripts and mosques will be forever.
\as scholars we should all feel bereft by this sad report in the washington post
kenSEVARE, Mali — Malian soldiers entered the city of Timbuktu on Monday after al-Qaida-linked militants fled into the desert having set ablaze a library that held thousands of ancient manuscripts ablaze.
French Col. Thierry Burkhard, the chief military spokesman in Paris, said that there had been no combat with the Islamists who have ruled Timbuktu for nearly 10 months, but that the forces did not yet control the town as of Monday afternoon.
Sudarsan Raghavan NOV 30
Northern Mali, one of the richest reservoirs of Music in Africa, grows silent as musicians flee the hard-line edicts of Islamists now in power.
Burkhard said French paratroopers landed north of the city as ground forces headed up from the south.
"The helicopters have been decisive," he said, describing how they aided the ground forces who came from the south as French paratroopers landed north of the city.
News of their arrival came just hours after Timbuktu's mayor confirmed that the fleeing Islamists had in earlier days torched ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu, long revered as a center of Islamic learning.
The militants had occupied Timbuktu for almost 10 months, imposing the strict Islamic version of Shariah, or religious law, across northern Mali while carrying out amputations and public executions.
"In the heart of people from northern Mali, it's a relief — freedom finally," said Cheick Sormoye, a Timbuktu resident who fled to Bamako, the capital.
The French said Mali's weak military must finish the job of securing Timbuktu. But they have generally fared poorly in combat, often retreating in panic in the face of well-armed and battle-hardened Islamists.
The French-led military operation against the Islamists, who seized the northern half of Mali last year, began 17 days ago when the insurgents encroached further toward the south.
It has scored several successes, but hard questions remain about how the Mali government will hold the cities that have been wrested from the Islamists, and whether there is the will and the ability to chase them into the Sahara which is home to many of these desert fighters.
On Saturday, French forces secured key installations in the northeastern town of Gao. Then overnight Sunday troops secured the Timbuktu airport without firing a shot.
Ground forces backed by French paratroopers and helicopters took control of Timbuktu's airport and the roads leading to the town in an overnight operation, a French military official said Monday.
"There was an operation on Timbuktu last night that allowed us to control access to the town," Col. Burkhard said Monday. "It's up to Malian forces to retake the town."
The mayor of Timbuktu said Monday that the Islamists had torched his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute — a library rich with historical documents — in an act of retaliation before they fled late last week from the city of mud-walled buildings.
"It's truly alarming that this has happened," Mayor Ousmane Halle told The Associated Press by telephone from Bamako. "They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science. It is the history of Timbuktu, of its people."
He said he didn't have further details as communications to the city have been cut off.
-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839harrow@msu.edu
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CompcrosComparative Cognitive Processes and Systems"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"--
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-- kenneth w. harrow faculty excellence advocate distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu