“Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, according to the Saharan town’s mayor, in an incident he described as a “devastating blow” to world heritage.
Hallé Ousmani Cissé told the Guardian that al-Qaida-allied fighters on Saturday torched two buildings that held the manuscripts, some of which dated back to the 13th century. They also burned down the town hall, the governor’s office and an MP’s residence, and shot dead a man who was celebrating the arrival of the French military.
French troops and the Malian army reached the gates of Timbuktu on Saturday and secured the town’s airport. But they appear to have got there too late to rescue the leather-bound manuscripts that were a unique record of sub-Saharan Africa’s rich medieval history. The rebels attacked the airport on Sunday, the mayor said.”
However before we get too righteous in our understandable indignation it is worth remembering that the desecration of priceless historical artefacts is not unique to Islam. They have it in Italy as the effects of an economy in freefall start to percolate upwards to people previously unaffected by poverty or financial hardship. They have it in Greece, the shameful socio-economic laboratory of the European Union. And they have it in Ireland too where no one has yet to face arrest or prosecution for the deliberate vandalism of the Lia Fáil or Stone of Destiny at Teamhair na Rí.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
This is terrible news that comes on top of previous acts of cultural terrorism carried out by extreme ideologues in the Moslem world. From the Guardian:
However before we get too righteous in our understandable indignation it is worth remembering that the desecration of priceless historical artefacts is not unique to Islam. They have it in Italy as the effects of an economy in freefall start to percolate upwards to people previously unaffected by poverty or financial hardship. They have it in Greece, the shameful socio-economic laboratory of the European Union. And they have it in Ireland too where no one has yet to face arrest or prosecution for the deliberate vandalism of the Lia Fáil or Stone of Destiny at Teamhair na Rí.
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