CHICAGO FIRE: HE WHO FORGETS HISTORY IS DOOMED TO REPEAT IT

• In Montpellier, France, in the year 1233 the collected works of the great Jewish philosopher, Maimonides were burnt before the town church. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting Jews.
• In the 1480s the Catholic Church in Spain ordered the burning of non-Catholic literature, especially Jewish Talmuds and, after the final defeat of the Moors at Granada in 1492, Arabic books also. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting Jews or Arabs.
• In 1499, in Andalucia, Spain, over a million Arabic and Hebrew books from one of the richest collections in history were burned on the orders of the Archbishop of Granada. Most of the poetic works that were destroyed were of a homoerotic nature. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting Jews, Arabs and Homosexuals.
• In 1562, Fray Diego de Landa, acting bishop of the Yucatan, burned every book found in all known Maya libraries, including all scared religious works.  Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting Native Americans.
• In January 2001 the Egyptian Ministry of Culture burned 6,000 books of homoerotic poetry by Abu Nuwas, after pressure from Islamic Fundamentalists. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting homosexuals.
• On May 6, 1933 Nazis ransacked the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin; four days later as part of large public burnings of books viewed as "un-German," thousands of homosexual books plundered from the Institute's library were thrown into a huge bonfire. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime targeting homosexuals.
• On March 26, 2001, members of the Harvest Assembly of God Church in Penn Township sang songs as they burned books, videos and CDs that they had judged offensive to their God. Authorities did not investigate this as a hate crime.
• On June 14, 2006, Chicago Police investigated a suspicious fire that burned about 100 books from the gay and lesbian selection at a North Side Chicago Public Library branch. Detectives were not investigating the fire as a hate crime, The gay and lesbian collection includes roughly 1,000 books ranging from history and athletics to travel and culture.

He who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.

Comments

[dwight]

Wow. Provocative. Insightful. Hate to sound like a book review, but this really makes me think!

[gunmetalblue]

...god bless amerika right?

this makes me sad. these people are sposed to be our peers and all they teach us is how to disrespect each other? WTF?!

[Dee]

It's a sad state for humanity to continue to repeat the same acts of hate and prejudice over and over.
They say history is taught so humanity doesn't keep making the same mistakes over and over.
Yet because of hate,fear,prejudice and ignorance it continues anyway.
Knowledge,which is power brings understanding
which brings about compassion and tolerance.
Which many seem to be afraid of.
It's a shame that in this so called modern enlightened time of humanity such ignorance is perpetuated.
It's a shame such individuals and organizations have limited compassion and tolerance of diversity.They truely make humanity look inhumane.
Actions made in the above article also indicates a limited Christianity comcept which isn't what Christianity is about.

[Dee]

Sorry that was suppose to say concept