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Islamists Destroy Sufi Shrines In Timbuktu, Mali

2012-07-07 135 Dailymotion

Militants from the al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine group in Mali have ignored international outcry, and on Sunday continued to destroy mausoleums of Sufi saints in the famed city of Timbuktu.<br /><br />The Islamist fighters have used pick-axes, shovels and hammers to shatter earthen tombs and shrines of local saints, labelling them idol worship. <br /><br />The Ansar Dine groups backs strict sharia law, and considers the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu to be idolatrous. <br /><br />But historians say their campaign of destruction in the UNESCO-listed city is pulverising part of the history of Islam in Africa, which includes a centuries-old message of tolerance. <br /><br />During the past year, Sufi shrines have also been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya.<br /><br />Ansar Dine is made up of Islamist fighters of various nationalities including Malians, Algerians and Nigerians. <br /><br />In combination with allies such as the al Qaeda splinter group MUJWA, they have appropriated a separatist uprising by local Tuareg rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north territory. <br /><br />This territory is now bigger than France, heightening fears that Mali will become a haven for jihadists. <br /><br />The Timbuktu attack recalls the two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

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