These people are simply monsters. I really don't recall when the Koran was written, I certainly read it once, but I'll have to go back and refresh my memory.
What I do know is that, what is not commonly known, is that Mosul is directly across the Tigris River from the ancient ruins of the ancient Assyrian Empire capital of Nineveh. In roughly 612 B.C. Nineveh was despoiled, and sacked by the Babylonians. With the destruction of Nineveh, thus came to an end the 19 centuries of the Assyrian Empire. So, after being sacked by Babylonia in 612 B.C. the 30 mile by 10 mile city of Nineveh, and the Assyrian Empire fell into ruins, and was lost to history - so lost, in fact, was Nineveh that it was conjectured that its reality was questioned... it was conjectured to be a city that only existed in myth, but yet, there was this unsettling mention of Nineveh in multiple ancient texts/literature... but where was it? Nineveh, and the Assyrian Empire was "lost" for almost 2500 years. The desert retook the ancient city, and thus Nineveh was preserved/lost for almost 2400 years. Fast forward to 1842 when a French bureaucratic functionary, and amateur archaeologist crossed the Tigris river from Mosul and began to dig in the tells (hills) that extended for miles opposite Mosul. Long story short he re-discovered Nineveh, including thousands of cuneiform tablets, and priceless preserved Assyrian sculptures dating back to 2500 B.C. A veritable treasure trove of culture and history saved, and preserved for posterity, literally by the sands of time.
First, enter the Islamic monsters, the Taliban, who in 2001 blew-up and destroyed the 1600 year old statues of Buddha located in Bamiyan, Afghanistan -
http://www.vocativ.com/world/afghanista ... n-buddhas/.
And now in 2015 enter the cretinous Islamic monsters of ISIS who act to destroy the irreplaceable cultural treasures of Nineveh, but only, you understand, in the name of Allah.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/ar ... video.html
To call these sub-human monsters people provides them a dignity that they do not warrant. They do not qualify to be so dignified, these monsters deserve to be reviled, and defeated, and those responsible hunted down and executed. To take an innocent life, is a crime demanding justice. To destroy the irreplaceable past is an unforgivable crime against civilized man everywhere. These monsters are the enemy of all humanity. This reminds me of the Cultural Revolution in China under Mao, when the Red Guards ran amuck, and destroyed centuries of irreplaceable ancient Chinese culture -- in the name of progress.
Sorry John, you have a Western mind-set, and you just don't understand the evil this ideology represents - these people are monsters (Sunni, or Shiite), there is no evil that is beyond them. Perhaps one day you will come to realize, or perhaps not -- environmental conditioning is difficult to overcome.
John, I do, however, understand your thinking though. The revulsion these cretins engender brings Nietzsche's sobering quote to mind: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146