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700-year old mosque built without permit scheduled for demolition

February 06, 2008 @ 13:07 By: gordon Category: Current affairs, Seen on the 'net

There’s a mosque in Umm Tuba, which is near Jerusalem, that was apparently built on a Sunday 700 years ago. You need a license to build things on Sundays and the mosque in question is alleged to not have had such a permit 700 years ago, so Israeli authorities have decided to demolish it. (Ma’an News Agency story and the blog entry I stumbled across)

This immediately reminded me of the destruction of the giant Buddha statues by the Taliban in 2001 (see also Wikipedia). As you may recall, the Taliban destroyed several huge sandstone Buddha statues as part of their campaign to rid Afghanistan of everything they did not approve of.

If there’s any truth to the story about the mosque, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) needs to step forward and prevent the destruction of this mosque, which is arguably a cultural heritage site.

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