Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 20:10:33 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] How =?UTF-8?B?VGltYnVrdHXigJlzIG1hbnVzY3JpcHRzIHdlcmUgc2F2ZWQgZnI=? =?UTF-8?B?b20gamloYWRpc3Rz?=
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
Radical Islamists had entered Timbuktu four months earlier, and they had =
set
about destroying everything they deemed a sin.

They had demolished the tombs of Sufi saints. They had beaten up women fo=
r
not covering their faces and flogged men for smoking or drinking. They
most certainly would have burned the manuscripts =C3=A2=C2=80=C2=94 nearl=
y 300,000 pages on
a variety of subjects, including the teachings of Islam, law, medicine,
mathematics and astronomy =C3=A2=C2=80=C2=94 housed in public and private=
 libraries across
the city.

The scholarly documents depicted Islam as a historically moderate and
intellectual religion and were considered cultural treasures by Western
institutions =C3=A2=C2=80=C2=94 reasons enough for the ultraconservative =
jihadists to
destroy them.
<...>
This is the story of how nearly all the documents were saved, based on
interviews with an unlikely cast of characters who detailed their roles
for the first time. They included Traore, a 30-year-old part-time janitor=
,
and his grandfather, a guard.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/how-timbuktus-manuscripts-were-saved=
-from-jihadists/2013/05/26/299e26f6-bbd5-11e2-b537-ab47f0325f7c_story.htm=
l>

       mark