They irreversibly erased an utterly priceless inscription on a UNESCO site central to the history of roughly half the world's population. No worries though. It was an accident:

Iraqi workers erased an ancient Hebrew inscription from the tomb of biblical prophet Ezekiel while renovating a nearby mosque, Army Radio reported on Sunday. The tomb is located south of Baghdad in the village of Al Kilf... Professor Shmuel Morre of Hebrew University, who was born in Baghdad, says the istorical damage is irreversible. "There are Muslim elements that are attempting to erase the Jewish character of the tomb," Army Radio quoted Morre as saying... the Iraqi government dispelled claims the damage was done on purpose, and asserted that it sees the Jewish sites as assets important for tourism.

First of all, no. Reports have been trickling out for weeks predicting that something this outrage was in the works. The plan is to build a mosque on the site and you can't have the tomb being all Jewish in the middle of a mosque.

But let's play along. The Iraqi government genuinely has been focusing on tourism and - the state's hostility to Israel aside - this stunt can't help. So maybe these workers were just really clumsy and, in the process of restoration, sandblasted an ancient inscription. Failing that, the best-case scenario for the government is that the workers were just freelancing.

Then this would merely be a destruction of ancient artifacts done to further the Islamist goal of wiping out pre-Islamic history, part and parcel of the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues or the Turks' ongoing claims on Hagia Sophia. If that's the case then you have to appreciate how even the official narrative involves renovating a nearby mosque. Metaphorical!

Iraqi Muslims have also taken to attacking churches and Christian schools, indulging in the occasional random murder and baby killing:

Last week 100 Christian leaders and politicians of all religions held an emergency meeting just before fresh violence broke out in the northern city of Mosul, with attacks on churches and Christian schools. On Tuesday a baby was killed and 40 people, including schoolchildren, were injured in three simultaneous bombings. Two days ago a Christian man was shot dead as he travelled to work... In late 2008, killings of Christians in Mosul by insurgent groups left 40 dead and 12,000 fleeing their homes. Fadi reeled off a string of recent, smaller-scale attacks against Christians, fearful that the same level of violence would return.

I've got an idea. Let's put the Palestinian Authority in charge of Jewish and Christian holy sites. Sure they're actively destroying Jewish artifacts on the Temple Mount and in Hebron, to say nothing of how they desecrated Joseph's Tomb and turned it into a mosque. In fact this "tombs to mosques" thing is in danger of becoming something of a pattern.

But respect for non-Islamic faiths is an integral part of practicing "real Islam." I read that somewhere. So let's take a chance.

References and related after the jump...