Why is ISIS Blowing Up History? By Molly Jackson, Christian Science Monitor
… Islamic State is well known for its violence against people who stand in their way, or disagree with the group’s strict beliefs. But why has it become equally well known for demolishing silent, ancient, and very valuable ruins across Iraq and Syria, artifacts from long-abandoned faiths?
The simplest explanation may be shock value. UNESCO has called the destruction of sites like Palmyra an “intolerable crime against civilization,” and the attention its videos inevitably draw serves to recruit admirers and horrify enemies. As The New York Times noted in late August, IS sometimes uses such videos as distractions from its military defeats.
Money is strongly suspected to be a motive, as well. Several academics question whether the Islamic State group may be destroying replicas, or blowing up dramatic ruins in order to hide their excavation of valuable artifacts beneath. As The Washington Post reports, IS has even dedicated a bureaucratic department to the excavation industry.
Perhaps the most confusing reason, however, is religion. IS frequently claims that the relics it destroys are un-Islamic, but the targets of their attacks are sometimes Muslim artifacts and Muslim people…