This NY Times article says Mali Islamists "preach a strict form of Islam."
Clearly that should read "imposes a strict form of Islam at the point of a gun."
Islamist Militants in Mali Continue to Destroy Shrines (July 2, 2012)
DAKAR, Senegal Islamists who have taken control of one of Africas most historic cities, Timbuktu, smashed the wooden door of an old mosque on Monday, continuing a campaign of destruction of religious monuments that has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
Timbuktu and the rest of northern Mali are off limits to Western journalists, who have been threatened with reprisals by the Islamist groups that now control the region.
Over the weekend, the Islamists of Ansar Dine the group that has controlled Timbuktu and much of northern Mali since a coup détat and a successful revolt against the central authority in March destroyed at least a half-dozen above-ground mausoleums of religious leaders venerated in Timbuktu as saints. French television stations showed video of men, some armed, resolutely hacking the structures with pickaxes.
There were about 40 of them, said Abdoulaye Idnan, a teacher who saw the destruction. Before they started they said, Allahu akbar, and then they started, he said. People didnt react because they are well armed. It was total silence. There were people who were crying, but what could they do?
Ansar Dine, which means defenders of the faith, preaches a strict form of Islam that advocates a total ban on alcohol, the flogging of adulterers and the imposition of Shariah, or Islamic law, on a part of Mali that has traditionally practiced religious tolerance. The group has embarked on a campaign to stamp out what it sees as examples of decadent Western influence, and now it is going after the monuments that have symbolized Timbuktus eminence as a center of broad-minded Islamic teaching for centuries.
Asked if the destruction would continue, he said: Of course. What doesnt correspond to Islam, we are going to correct.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...qIDoDw&usg=AFQjCNES9SKe_oAigUA6UXxPlP6dFV8IwA
Clearly that should read "imposes a strict form of Islam at the point of a gun."
Islamist Militants in Mali Continue to Destroy Shrines (July 2, 2012)
DAKAR, Senegal Islamists who have taken control of one of Africas most historic cities, Timbuktu, smashed the wooden door of an old mosque on Monday, continuing a campaign of destruction of religious monuments that has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.
Timbuktu and the rest of northern Mali are off limits to Western journalists, who have been threatened with reprisals by the Islamist groups that now control the region.
Over the weekend, the Islamists of Ansar Dine the group that has controlled Timbuktu and much of northern Mali since a coup détat and a successful revolt against the central authority in March destroyed at least a half-dozen above-ground mausoleums of religious leaders venerated in Timbuktu as saints. French television stations showed video of men, some armed, resolutely hacking the structures with pickaxes.
There were about 40 of them, said Abdoulaye Idnan, a teacher who saw the destruction. Before they started they said, Allahu akbar, and then they started, he said. People didnt react because they are well armed. It was total silence. There were people who were crying, but what could they do?
Ansar Dine, which means defenders of the faith, preaches a strict form of Islam that advocates a total ban on alcohol, the flogging of adulterers and the imposition of Shariah, or Islamic law, on a part of Mali that has traditionally practiced religious tolerance. The group has embarked on a campaign to stamp out what it sees as examples of decadent Western influence, and now it is going after the monuments that have symbolized Timbuktus eminence as a center of broad-minded Islamic teaching for centuries.
Asked if the destruction would continue, he said: Of course. What doesnt correspond to Islam, we are going to correct.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...qIDoDw&usg=AFQjCNES9SKe_oAigUA6UXxPlP6dFV8IwA
