Kinetic Islam Déjà vu
In March of 2001 Mullah Omar and the Taliban destroyed two 1700 year-old stone Buddahs in Afghanistan. One of them stood 165 feet tall. At the time few westerners understood that act. Six months later when the twin towers of The World Trade Center were destroyed we all got an education in how kinetic Islam feels about infidel idols and symbols.
Fast forward to today and the exact same thing is happening in Iraq. Islamic State, or ISIS, or ISIL, is summarily destroying ancient churches, statues, artwork, and symbols of the infidels. This time we have some perspective on why this behavior is occurring – Islam, or at least a fundamental interpretation of Islam, leads its followers to destroy these symbols. It turns out the Quran, like the Old and New Testaments, contains a fair amount of idol destruction. The difference is Christians and Jews do not go about re-enacting these verses from the early days of monotheism. Muslims do, particularly the kinetic radical fundamental type.
What scares me is the timing of all this. Six months after the Buddahs came down we got 9/11. I hope kinetic Islam has a different schedule this time.
