BABYLON, IRAQ (CNN)–ISIS has smashed priceless ancient statues in Mosul, bulldozed the ruins of Nineveh and Hatra, and dynamited centuries-old churches, mosques and shrines.
In a battle between Iraqi forces and ISIS over control of Tikrit recently, the tomb of Saddam Hussein was squashed to rubble, though it’s not clear which side did it.
Luckily, the ancient city of Babylon is outside the extremists’ grasp, south of Baghdad. For nearly 5,000 years it has stood as a symbol of the glory of ancient Mesopotamian civilization.
Saddam Hussein renovated the ruins in the 1980s, leaving his own crude personal stamp on the bricks there. They bear his name and describe him as the son of Nebuchadnezzar, who had the reputation of being ancient Babylon’s greatest king.
One of Hussein’s former palaces still peers down over the city.
But it continues to be source of great pride for Iraqis who see themselves as the heirs of the world’s oldest civilization.
Appalling destruction
And many Iraqis know better than to buy the claims of their deposed despot. “This wasn’t Saddam’s,” said Adnan Abu Fatima. “It belonged to our grandfathers, the Babylonians.”
Abu Fatima strolled through the ruins with his family. Saddam’s vain brick inscriptions may annoy him, but ISIS’ destruction appalls him.
“The Mosul museum was destroyed. Why?” he wants to know from ISIS. “That is the heritage of your grandfathers. Why did you do that?”
The defacers’ reasoning? The artifacts, some of the oldest in ancient civilization, are from the “age of ignorance,” ISIS says, before the advent of Islam.
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