ISIS has begun to destroy the archaeological sites in Palmyra. New York Times.

A photo released by ISIS of the destruction of an ancient tomb. New York Times/AP

ISIS is claiming to have destroyed two ancient tombs near the city of Palmyra, confirming fears that ISIS would damage the ruins in the area. New York Times. ISIS considers all depictions of people and tombs to be blasphemy and have a long history of destroying historical artifacts. The sites that were destroyed were the tomb of a Shiite saint, Mohammad Bin Ali, and the grave marker of a Sufi scholar Nizar Abu Bahaa Eddine. Palmyra fell to ISIS after the Syrian government abandoned it last month. Though the government claimed to have saved as much as they could, there are still fears that there will be even more destruction. There have been reports that ISIS has rigged the rest of the Palmyra ruins with explosives with the hope of deterring any attempts to re-capture the city. 

My Comment:

Yet another atrocity committed by ISIS. ISIS has a long history of destroying history. For whatever reason they consider all burial sites to be blasphemous. From what I understand they consider it idolatry. After all, if you are burying and honoring your ancestors, it obviously follows that you are worshiping them. That's sarcasm by the way, the whole idea is stupid. 

In fact, iconoclasm, the hatred of religious images, is about the stupidest religious idea that anyone has ever come up with. Far be it for me to criticize any religion, but the idea that talking about a religious figure is fine, but the second you draw, sculpt or otherwise depict him you are committing blasphemy, is wrong and makes zero sense. It's not just a problem with Islam, because Christianity had iconoclastic periods as well, but right now it's Islamic groups that are really pushing it. I'd go as far to say that iconoclasm is completely incompatible with the most cherished of western freedoms, freedom of speech. 

As for Palmyra, it sounds like ISIS is mostly leaving it alone. My guess is that ISIS has a hierarchy of offensive imagery. Right now a bunch of ruins are pretty low on their list of priorities. Their main concern is winning the war and right now they have to focus on that. The religious tombs were more offensive to them, so they had to blow them up as soon as possible. Rigging the ruins with explosives, booby traps and landmines seems like a good way to deter any attack in the area. 

Sometimes I wonder if my outrage is misplaced. After all, ISIS has done much, much worse things to actual living people. Just this week they released an execution video that raised the bar from regular villainy to utter depravity. I won't link to the video and I really regret watching it, but needless to say they outdid themselves. The executed people via rocket propelled grenades and by drowning them. As a terrible encore they wrapped a bunch of det cord around a bunch of prisoners necks and then exploded them. And these horrible executions are nothing new.

So why get mad about a bunch of ruins and tombs when ISIS is murdering people in new and terrible ways? History is a part of our shared culture and a large part of what it means to be human. These people aren't just destroying  buildings and artwork, they are destroying information itself. Palmyra has information about the lives of people from dozens of cultures, including ancient Rome and Persia. Though death is a tragedy, in the long term, we will never get back what ISIS has destroyed. 

I think in 100 years people will probably still remember how terrible ISIS was to people. But more then anything else they will regret that we weren't able to save the history they destroyed. There is a difference between looking at pictures of Palmyra online and seeing them in person. And there is a good chance that nobody 100 years from now will be able to see these ruins...