According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt's Great Pyramids--or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi'i, those "symbols of paganism," which Egypt's Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain's "Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs" and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt's new president, Muhammad Morsi, to "destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not."
Just how long would it take the engineers of the Egyptian army to do it? Not very bloody long.
Ain't the Arab Spring wonderful?
In the past,
This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad's companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity. While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself--deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran--was destroyed under bin al-As's reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar's command.
And, considering past actions and current ones, anybody think Obama would really say squat about it?
3 comments:
Egypt's tourist resorts belong to the military.
I don't think they'll stand by while their main attractions and best daytrip venues are destroyed.
Coup D'etat time.
When I was a wee lad the saying was, "If Mohammed won't come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed." So they want to blow the pyramids to Hell. The completion of the thought I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Oh damn.
Hope greed wins here. No pyramids or other antiques, not much of a tourist trade.
But Timbuktu may be a lost cause by now. And those weren't even pagan relics from their viewpoint. Although the fights between different creeds of a same religion can sometimes be worse than fights between people of different religions.
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