ISIS burns books and manuscripts of extraordinary kind in which UNESCO regards as "one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history." ISIS burns books, the people's treasure- an act they call 'cultural cleansing' to wipe out the memories, culture, and history of a nation.
The ISIS militants unleashed their rage by burning the Mosul library, the cradle of Iraq's modern civilization, which was established in 1921. Using invented explosive devices, the ISIS burns books and manuscripts counting to 8,000 pieces of rare types.
Although initial findings reported blazing of 8,000 books and manuscripts, newer reports indicate that there are about 112,709 manuscripts and books set on fire including rare types that have been registered to UNESCO rarities list, according to a report by the Independent.
"Burning books is an attack on the culture, knowledge and memory, as we witnessed in Timbuktu recently," Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova mentioned in a statement Tuesday as she refers to the destruction by al Qaeda-allied militants of libraries in Mali. "It adds to the systematic destruction of heritage and the persecution of minorities that seeks to wipe out the cultural diversity that is the soul of the Iraqi people," she said.
The devastating burning of the library's treasure was seen as a cruel and violation of the people's pride as the ISIS burns books, maps and article collections from the Ottoman period and destroyed collection of Iraqi newspapers dated 20th century.
The Fiscal Times mentioned that authorities in Mosul tried to convince the militants to spare the library from burning but they all had been unsuccessful. ISIS burns books since the Ottoman era, manuscripts from the 18th century, Syriac books in the 19th century and Iraqi newspapers from the 12th century.
On the same day the ISIS burns books in Mosul, the militants also destroyed an old church in Mosul, the church of the Virgin Mary, and the Mosul University Theater.
ISIS campaigns burning of books all over Iraq. They destroyed 100,000 titles in Western Iraq and blazed the Mosul University Central Library in December. ISIS burns books that are non-Islamic as students watch the militants set fire their Culture and Science textbooks, the Breitbart reports.
Iraq is considered as the birthplace of agriculture and writing and home of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Arab and Babylonian civilizations. It is the cradle of civilization as Yahoo Finance reports. Since the Mongol area in the middle ages, it has not experienced an attack on its rich cultural heritage.
There was a heated debate last week on how and who will free Mosul from the hands of the militants. After the meeting, announcement was made that there will be over 20,000 US trained Iraqi soldiers who will be deployed by April or May to fight the ISIS.
The ISIS burns books of vast heritage. And the Iraqis are ready to fight the militants to liberate Mosul. But the Iraqi government condemned the US Central Command for divulging their plans claiming the US commanders revealed their hand to ISIS.