Recently, Islamists were driven from the town of Timbuktu in Mali. In their wake, they left a trail of destruction desecrating graves and ransacking and burning the library of the first university of human history.

Fortunately, 90% of the manuscripts had been smuggled out and most of the manuscripts are in the care of the Ford foundation which has undertaken the task of restoring and recording the library.

These deluded individuals are clearly a threat to civilised society. In the case of Timbuktu, THEIR OWN CIVILISATION. The graves they desecrated were of Muslims scholars and saints! The library that they sought to destroy was Islamic. Clearly they are ignorant of their heritage and the teachings of their religion.

This not a clash of civilisations. It is a clash of ignoramuses.

This is how the university is described in wikipedia:
"The University of Timbuktu was a medieval University in Mali, West Africa which comprised three schools; namely the Masajid of Djinguereber, the Masajid of Sidi Yahya, and the Masajid of Sankore. During its zenith, the university at Timbuktu had an average attendance of around 25,000 students within a city of around 100,000 people. There were four levels within the University curriculum, that included, the "Circle of Knowledge", the "Superior Degree", the "Secondary Degree", and the "Primary Degree". Teachings mostly consisted of Quranic principles; however, literature covering topics of science, mathematics, and medicine,among other disciplines." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Timbuktu

FURTHER INFORMATION:
1. Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4pJTaiev8k

The documentary shows the effort undertaken by Ford Foundation to save archives from the world's first and oldest university in the great city of Timbuktu, the center of knowledge in the 12th century.

2. Desecration and destruction in Timbuktu: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/15/1107127/-Desecration-and-destruction-in-Timbuktu

So Askari, should we just lie down and let them walk all over us ?

There are lots of misconceptions on this thread.
First, the US & other Western powers did not invade Iraq to seize the oil.
It would be much cheaper just to buy it.
They were concerned with reliability of supply.
It was mainly the Europeans that were worried about supply.
They still are and so should we.

Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, I heard & saw Saddam say so.
He obtained devices, including centrifuges. He held up one device that
he said had been banned for export to Iraq. Did not say what it was.
I suspect they had not gone far down the road to a weapon, but the
program was very real.