ISIS intentionally destroyed the mosque and tomb below it of Jonah the Prophet in Mosul, Iraq. The site has long been considered to be the tomb of the biblical Jonah, who the Bible says was swallowed by a fish after he fled from God and lived to tell the tale.
According to the Washington Post:
…Agence France-Presse confirmed rumors of the tomb’s fate with an Iraqi official. The official said Islamic State forces closed the mosque and took an hour wiring it with explosive charges. Then:Boom.Jonah’s tomb “has been turned to dust,” the official said.The Islamic State isn’t new to this. As it establishes a caliphate to spread its ultraconservative faith, it’s destroyed cultural artifacts including Sunni, Shia and Sufi sites, according to Newsweek, and replaced the crosses on Mosul’s Syrian Orthodox cathedral with black flags.Why?“It indicates they are going for total eradication not just of their enemies but even of the possibility of people living together under their rule,” Sam Hardy, a professor at the American University of Rome and author of the blog Conflict Antiquities, told The Washington Post in a phone interview.“Sometimes the practitioners of a new religion feel compelled to recognize a place as sacred, and develop their own reasons to continue to venerate it,” Jones wrote. “Other times, they choose to demonstrate the superiority of their own religion over other belief systems by destroying their sacred spaces and building their own in their place.”
