Liberal, Science, Narrative, Islam

Timbuktu's priceless collection of ancient scientific texts is at risk of destruction by hard-line Islamists. Ansar Dine, a Tuareg militia, occupies territory around Timbuktu, a town in northern Mali listed as a world heritage site. In recent weeks, the group has destroyed historic tombs in the town (see picture), which house the remains of Islamic Sufi saints and which Ansar Dine says are idolatrous. "We know six or seven shrines have been attacked," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, chief of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre's Africa Unit, told New Scientist. "But there are many scientific documents at risk too, and no one can tell if they'll be safe."

Liberal, Violence, Science, Narrative, Islam, Vandalism

It was barely mentioned in the Israeli and global media, but the following event pertains to the whole of Western civilization: Last Saturday, violent groups of Islamic-Salafi radicals burned the famous scientific institute established by Napoleon in Egypt after its first encounter with the West.