Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

dear all
on the lamentable destruction of mausaleums and mss. in timbuktu, here are two reports. first from pbs: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/01/timbuktu-transcripts.html

he Ahmed Baba Institute, an Islamic learning center in the town of Timbuktu in the West African nation of Mali, holds thousands of ancient drawings and writings from the Quran and everyday life in this point along a historic Saharan caravan route.

On Monday, Timbuktu's Mayor Ousmane Halle said from Mali's capital Bamako that he had gotten word Islamist fighters had torched the library as well as his office before retreating. The Malian army, backed by French forces, are working on driving back rebel forces from cities they had taken over last year.



here is al-jazeera's latest:http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/01/201312911752571772.html

Life has started returning to normal in Timbuktu as French and Malian troops are consolidating control of the ancient desert city.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reporting from Timbuktu on Tuesday, said Malian troops had established a very clear physical presence in the city.

"They're manning checkpoints and intersections and they're talking to local people - sending a very clear visual message that they're in charge now, rather than the al-Qaeda-linked rebels who seized the city last year," she said.

"Timbuktu is a very important point along the road."

Footage released by the French military on Tuesday showed its troops preparing for the Timbuktu operation, as well as aerial shots of its planes flying over the city.

Francois Gere, President of the French Strategic Analysis Institute, discusses who controls what in Mali

The French military also released still photos of jubilant residents greeting the arrival of troops in the city, where rebels whipped women for going outside without veils and amputated the hand of a suspected thief.

The rebels systematically destroyed cultural sites in Timbuktu, including the ancient tombs of Sufi saints, which they denounced as contrary to Islam.

ken


On 1/29/13 6:44 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua wrote:

Let us not change the subject.

Did Islamic insurgents destroy ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu? Some sources say yes. ab says no. His evidence is that “No Muslim will set fire on Islamic documents for it is a grave haram”. This in spite of all that is known about Islamic disagreements , revolutions, and wars. Can evidence be more  vacuous?

Strong views on past and contemporary events are more persuasive when they are not based more on intense dislike and other negative emotions than anything else.

There is a lot that was and may still be wrong with politics in Mali. That is no reason to destroy irreplaceable ancient manuscripts. Political grievances cannot be an acceptable reason or justification for this crime. The library in Timbuktu is a pride of Africa. Its loss to any extent, will be a grave one indeed.

 

oa  

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Abdul Bangura
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 4:04 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

 

Please, please, please, oa, the mayor of Timbuktu, like the other BOZOS and crookish and co-opted Tuareg leaders/thieves in Bamako who have robbed the people blind, is just another BOZO. He will say anything to preserve his little fiefdom. But for all of them, their days are numbered. The people are ready to vote in 100 percent all new leaders. The call has been very clear across Mali: i.e. anyone who had served in any regime, civilian or military, need not waste his time and money to run for even the post of a dog catcher.

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: 1/29/2013 3:30:16 PM

Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

 

?No Muslim will set fire on Islamic documents, for it is a grave haram.?

 

ab

 

I hope that the point being made above is not that no Muslim ever commits grave and other haram? If this was the case, all Muslims must be perfect adherents to their faith. No one in their right mind will say that they all are.

The Mayor of Timbuktu  is probably Muslim. If he, who is in the city said that Islamist insurgents did, more robust evidence must be presented to cause anyone paying attention to disbelieve reports of the Islamists? acts of vandalism. It is sometimes convenient for some Africans to dismiss inconvenient facts about Africa as Western and in this case anti-Tuareg propaganda. Is it any surprise then that things do not get better in Africa as they should. I am still not aware that the Islamists have denied that they did.     

There are injunctions in every religion. Religious lawgivers and lawmakers know that believers will from time to time, not abide by them. They recognize that ambition, folly, greed, and temptation among others are real. They recognize that even the most fervent and true believers being human, are imperfect, weak,  and may fall short from time to time. They know that human behavior and choice can be situational. This is arguably why every religion has penalty and punishment  for infractions and transgressions, and contrition and atonement for forgiveness and redemption.

Injunctions are more likely to be violated when religion (faith and practice) are corrupted by politics and extremist ideology. It makes sense that politics and religion should be apart and separate.  

 

oa

 

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Abdul Bangura
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 9:44 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; usaafricadialogue
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

 

Most respected Mwalimu Kenneth Harrow, if you believe that western and anti-Tuareg Malian propaganda foolishness, then I have a bridge in Washington, DC to sell you. No Muslim will set fire on Islamic documents, for it is a grave haram.

 

Recall when a few Christians burn the Qur'an and Muslims are asked about why they do not retaliate by burning the Bible what their response has always been? Any Muslim who burns the Bible, the Torah, the Qur'an and any other Islamic manuscript will burn similarly in Hell Fire, Jahannama.

 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: 1/28/2013 1:23:26 PM

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

 

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
ken

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/malian-town-of-gao-celebrates-exit-of-islamist-extremists-as-french-malian-forces-push-north/2013/01/28/629caec4-6927-11e2-9a0b-db931670f35d_story.html?hpid=z2

SEVARE, 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 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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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
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