Secular Café: Farewell, Timbuktu: Former seat of Islamic learning to become an “Islamic state” under Sharia

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Farewell, Timbuktu: Former seat of Islamic learning to become an "Islamic state" under Sharia May 28th 2012, 12:26 http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2012...+News+Daily%29 This is not a good thing.... Quote: Timbuktu, the city (and state) in northern Mali which was once a wealthy center of trade and seat of Islamic learning and culture, more recently home to many UNESCO World Heritage sites, will become an Islamic state under Sharia, the BBC reported today. Quote: Two rebel groups that seized northern Mali two months ago have agreed to merge and turn their territory into an Islamist state, both sides say. The Tuareg MNLA, a secular rebel group, and the Islamist group Ansar Dine signed the deal in the town of Gao, spokespeople said. Ansar Dine, which has ties to al-Qaeda, has already begun to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, in towns such as Timbuktu. The groups took advantage of a coup in March to seize the territory. … Mali’s Communications Minister Hamadoun Toure told the BBC that other countries should help Mali tackle al-Qaeda in the region. An Islamist group with ties to al-Quaeda is going to help Mali tackle al-Quaeda? Am I the only person who sees this as naive as thinking that Mitt Romney will prove a ‘strong church-state separationist’? Meanwhile, even before reaching the agreement–and I’m not sure how a secularist group reaches agreement to Sharia law–the Islamists had already been hard at work destroying Timbuktu’s fabled past. Quote: Since seizing the city in March, Ansar Dine has targeted Timbuktu’s precious Muslim heritage. The shrine of a 15th Century sufi saint Sidi Mahmoud Ben Amar has been attacked, according to Lazare Eloundou Assomo of Unesco. “The entrance gate of the mausoleum was completely destroyed and burnt,” Mr Assomo told the BBC World Service. “The curtain that protected the shrine was destroyed.” Timbuktu is known as the city of the 333 saints, says Alida Jay Boye, author of Hidden Treasures of Timbuktu. The fundamentalist Salafi branch of Islam objects to the veneration of saints’ tombs, maintaining that it amounts to saint worship. “Salafis do not want there to be any intermediary between the believer and God. It looks like Ansar Dine is going after shrines just like other groups have done in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia,” she says. Neil Whitehead, a former hotelier in Timbuktu, has fled to Morocco because of the recent unrest. He says that conditions are deteriorating in the city. “The Salafis are turning on the locals, raiding their homes and taking anything of value, together with any food. All shops are shut and, in the words of our friends, ‘everything is broken’,” he said. “They have introduced a form of Sharia and the locals feel like prisoners in their houses.” Once again, Islamists demonstrate their acceptance of other cultures and their willingness to leave others to their own beliefs. Yes, they act much like fundamentalist Christians. If it doesn’t support their belief system, they want it destroyed. You can read more about Timbuktu’s present and past at UNESCO.org, and about how UNESCO and the government of Mali are working to preserve Timbuktu’s earthen architectural treasures here. There are links at the site with further info.....

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