A new video making the rounds of Islamic State social media forums allegedly shows operatives of the terror state blowing up a 2,500-year-old temple to Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom, along with other historic sites near the captive Iraqi city of Mosul. The video ends with a threat to give the legendary pyramids of Egypt the same treatment.
Vocativ describes the ten-minute video as showing the demolition of the temple to Nabu, using powerful explosives. Nabu was one of the gods in the Babylonian civilization, which was a regional power from roughly 4,000 years ago to roughly 2,500 years ago. The video also depicts the bulldozing of the ancient gates of Adad and Mashki at Nineveh.
According to Vocativ, the video concludes with footage of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which an Islamic State jihadi promises to “demolish with the help of [Allah] God” because the pyramids are “ancient sites built by infidels.”
ISIS says their destructive practice is tangible evidence of Islam’s earthly supremacy over other belief systems. That’s straight out of the Koran, which warns Muslims that “systems have passed away before you … [so] travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for those who did deny” Islam’s supposed truth.
That is an old and very orthodox Islamic practice. For example, the nose on the Sphinx was destroyed in 1378 because some Egyptians were still worshipping the pre-Islamic Egyptian deities.
International Business Times reports the name of the video is “The Axe of Ibrahim, the Intimate Friend of Allah,” and notes that the destruction of the temple of Nabu has not yet been independently confirmed.
After the UK Daily Mail circulated a clip from the ISIS video, Egyptian security sources assured local media that “Egypt’s antiquities and tourism sites are highly secured and monitored, ruling out the possibility of any attacks,” according to Egyptian Streets.