Islamic State destroys famous lion god statue in Palmyra

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/islamic-state-destroys-famous-lion-god-statue-in-palmyra

May 28, 2015 6:32 pm By Robert Spencer 1 Comment

Still pursuing al-Lat after all these years. “The statue was dedicated to the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess Al-Lat, who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca along with Manat and al-Uzza.”
The Qur’an says: “So have you considered al-Lat and al-Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other one? 

Is the male for you and for Him the female? That, then, is an unjust division.” (53:19-22) This passage is ridiculing the idea that these three goddesses are the daughters of Allah, for that would mean that the deity only had daughters while human being have sons, who were assumed to be superior to daughters — that would have been “an unjust division.” The three goddesses of Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh of Mecca, were overthrown by Islam, but it is not insignificant that the Islamic State did the most damage to the lion of al-Lat.


Incidentally, that passage in the Qur’an’s 53rd sura is the only trace left of the celebrated “Satanic Verses.” Long before the novel of the same name by Salman Rushdie, this term referred to an incident recorded in Islamic tradition, in which Muhammad tried to achieve reconciliation with the Quraysh by a “revelation” in which he declared, “So have you considered al-Lat and al-Uzza? And Manat, the third, the other one? They are the exalted cranes (gharaniq), worthy of veneration.” The Quraysh, hearing this, prostrated to Allah with the Muslims, who accepted the three goddesses as Allah’s daughters. But Muhammad soon realized that he had thus compromised the absolute monotheism that he had preached up to that point, and so he reneged, and claimed that Satan, not Allah, had inspired those verses, which were then duly replaced by the “revelation” recorded in Qur’an 53:19-22. The concept of abrogation, which ultimately led to the idea that the Qur’an’s violent passages take precedence over its peaceful ones, justified this change in still another “revelation”: “We do not abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten except that We bring forth  better than it or similar to it. Do you not know that Allah is over all things competent?” (Qur’an 2:106)

“ISIS ‘destroys’ famous lion god statue in captured Syrian city of Palmyra… just days after promising locals they would not obliterate ancient monuments,” by John Hall, MailOnline, May 28, 2015 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

Militants fighting for the Islamic State have reportedly destroyed a famous statue of a lion in the captured city of Palmyra – despite promising locals they would not obliterate the ancient city.
Following their capture of Palmyra last Thursday, ISIS militants are understood to have won the support of much of the local population by promising not to destroy the city’s famous monuments.
But it appears that promise was too much for the jihadis to keep, with eyewitnesses claiming they destruction of millenia-old Statues and buildings is already very much under way, with the most significant loss so far being the celebrated Lion of Al-Lat, which dates back to the first century AD.
The lion statue was destroyed by ISIS militants on Saturday, according to the International Business Time, who quoted eyewitnesses on the ground in Palmyra.
‘I heard a loud noise, so I went up to the roof to see what is going on,’ one local man said.
‘I saw Daash crushing the ‘god lion’ statue with construction machines. There were many other crushed statues but I could not recognise the rest of them because they were totally ruined,’ he added, using an Arabic acronym for the terror group.
The act of destroying the statue came just days after ISIS gathered Palmyra’s citizens together and publicly promised not to bulldoze the city’s ancient buildings, as they previously did in Nimrod.
‘As for the historical monuments, we will not touch it with our bulldozers as some tend to believe,’ ISIS commander Abu Leith was quoted as saying on a local radio broadcast.
However the promise did come with a get-out clause, as the depraved fighters insisted they would ‘pulverise’ any statues they discovered in the city that the believed citizens secretly prayed to.
The lion statue in Palmyra dates from the first century AD and stood outside the city’s famous Temple of Bel.
The statue was dedicated to the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess Al-Lat, who was one of the three chief goddesses of Mecca along with Manat and al-Uzza.
The Temple of Bel itself was built in 32 AD – six hundred years before the arrival of Islam in Syria – and was dedicated to the Semitic god Bel – who was worshiped by Palmyra citizens along with the lunar god Aglibol and the sun god Yarhibol.
Since ISIS seized control of Palmyra, the temple and its surrounding area have been appropriated by ISIS militants, who are said to be using it as a military base.
Locals who preserved the site for the last 1,900 years are now said to be banned from entering the area unless the are willing to sign up to become ISIS jihadis….