Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - timbuktu and french

what i found saddest in yesterday's news, when i googled timbuktu
manuscripts damaged, all that came up over and over was the $500 million
in military aid that is being assembled, and the details of the military
operation, and which troops will support the malian army, and on and on
about military this an that.
it would be a joke to those people, who see the world in military terms,
to appeal for just a little of that half a billion dollars to help
preserve a treasure of muslim manuscripts.
what a joke that it was muslims who destroyed them or damaged them, in
the name of islam. what damage have they really done to islam itself,
but imposing by jihad a version of islam that the people don't want, and
that possibly a majority of people in any state don't really want.
and it is sad to me that they give islamophobes reason to vilify them,
to the point where we should want to cry, a pox on both your houses.
ken

On 1/30/13 4:30 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) wrote:
> Totally agree with you and Ken on this. The Muslims in question are of dfferent sectarian
> loyalties. Some are plain bandits and opportunists. Others are extremists with a Taliban mentality.
>
> Remember the destruction of the Buddhist images in Afghanistan?
>
> Some of them may even go so far as to say that
> the Islamic documents were not Islamic enough.
>
> Note also that conquerors on the attack or on the retreat, no matter their religion, often
> tend to burn things up.
>
>
>
> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
> www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
> www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>
> ________________________________
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anunoby, Ogugua [AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2013 1:29 PM
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> 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 -----
> From: kenneth harrow<mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
> To: usaafricadialogue<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> 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<mailto: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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