Destruction in Timbuktu

The reason it is important to distinguish amongst Muslim sects is that they are not all the same. Here is a report from New Scientist, which talks to Anser Dine, a Tuareg group, intent on destroying ancient scientific texts, located at Timbuktu, Mali, because those texts are associated with Islamic Sufi followers.  The term idolatrous was used.  One person noted:

The destruction may (may) be the fundamental application of the prohibition of Tasweer. 
  
The description in the media seems consistent with the Islamic prohibitions on making, and the mandates for destroying, certain images, monuments and structures. 
 
We saw it when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhist's statues; part of an assertion process.
 
Please see: Shakir, Abu Muhammad Abdur-Ra’uf. The Islamic Ruling Concerning Tasweer: Two and Three Dimensional Images, Drawings, Paintings, Photography and Sculptures. Zakee Muwwakkil Books, Philadelphia: (1998).

So, our conclusion might be that we, as Americans, welcome, and respect, all Muslims, but we insist on our First Amendment demands that the religious freedom of one person stops at the "nose" of the other person.  As for what we see as wonton destruction of historic sights in other nations, we will use diplomacy, but not force.  If invited in by the lawful, recognized government of the nation, we will consider assisting but make no guarantees.

The destruction of historic treasures is a terrible thing, but not the only terrible thing in this world.

Regards  —  Cliff