The international community is appalled by the scale of destruction of unique ancient monuments of Middle Eastern cultures and the shameless trafficking in cultural artifacts pillaged in territories controlled by the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other radical militant groups. Irreparable damage is also taking place in areas that have become war zones where combat aircraft and artillery are used in the course of coups, interventions and internal conflicts.

Archaeological landmarks of unique value to humanity have been destroyed and looted in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya. It would be a mistake to believe that this process did not start until after the Arab Spring of 2011. Coalition forces failed to prevent the destruction and looting of valuable relics by militants in Iraq after a 2003 invasion that created a power vacuum there. According to Mostafa Amin, chairman of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, more than 170,000 Iraqi artifacts have been stolen and smuggled during the conflict in Iraq since that time.

However, this cultural devastation reached truly tragic proportions only after jihadi fanatics took control of a number of territories in the Arab world. Three trends can be identified in this recent process of destruction and looting of the cultural heritage of the Arab states.

First, it is a systematic destruction of monuments resulting in an irretrievable loss of entire layers of humankind’s cultural heritage. In some instances, this destruction is purposeful and planned, as was the case with the ancient Parthian city of Hatra in Iraq (founded in the third century B.C.), a UNESCO World Heritage site that was razed to the ground by IS barbarians. In another case, Akkadian and Assyrian antiquities from the once-vast collection of the Mosul Museum were destroyed. There are many other notorious examples of the destruction of monuments in Iraq and Syria. Also, these bigots have not spared numerous mosques that did not conform to their dogmatic standards.