And speaking of silencing writers – in Lebanon the silencers have silenced some dead ones.
Ancient books in a historic library in the Lebanese city of Tripoli have been torched by Islamist[s], after a pamphlet purportedly insulting religion was found inside one of the books.
Security sources say that up to 78,000 books, many irreplaceable ancient Muslim and Christian texts and manuscripts, are now unsalvageable, according to Agence France Press.
The Al-Saeh library in the Serali neighborhood was set ablaze after a local gang
to objection[took exception] to a sheet apparently insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, found hidden in the pages of one of the library books.
One sheet in one book, so they destroyed 78,000 books.
Lebanese blogger Elie Fares, who runs the website A Separate State Of Mind, blogged on Saturday night: “The country is burning, let’s not worry about a library. A lot of people might say that. But the library in question was a true national treasure, containing 78000 books, many of which exist in very few copies and many of which are, ironically, books about Islam.
“We just lost 78,000 books. We have lost many innocent lives as well over the past few days. And for the sake of what?
“I’m not Muslim but I’m more Muslim than the lunatics who torched that library and so are most of the people of Tripoli that many Lebanese love to dismiss so easily.”
This is not a good trend.
Ophelia.
I posted about this awhile back. You can find it here
https://atheistoasis.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/what-real-persecution-looks-like/
The book drive has gone very well and I would be interested in finding out how they are doing. Rimal Abeed has added some links about the library itself as she has visited it. She also added links on where and how to donate. The Islamists are afraid of books and cartoons. They can’t stop us.
Well, if the library didn’t want to be burned it should have been more careful. What was it wearing?
That’s a rape joke. You’re punching down.
/sarcasm.
*damn, I’m in a ****really***** foul mood about this.
Sounds about right. After all, why do we need to educate ourselves or learn from other books when the holy book clearly has all of the answers we will ever need. Now . . . we just have to figure out which holy book and which interpretation of that holy book is the right one! This determination will be based only on gut intuition and not on anything even remotely resembling science or ordered investigation . . . that would be the work of the devil.
Here is a report from February, a few weeks after the arson:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/world/meast/lebanon-tripoli-library-fire-crowdfunding-restoration/
And the bookshop/library was re-opened a couple of weeks ago, exactly one year after the attack.
http://arablit.org/2015/01/05/reopening-ceremony-for-tripoli-lebanons-burnt-al-saeh-library/
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/tripolis-torched-al-saeh-library-reopens-after-one-year
This news from the future year of 2015 is more encouraging than the old news of our own time.