AMONG TRADITIONAL CULTURES throughout the world, building and preserving temples and shrines is a sacred act. It is a sacred act because these temples and shrines are dedicated to providing Divinities and ancestors, whom are pure, an abode or place of purity where they can have temporary residence. The builders and keepers of these holy places have been initiated as priests, monks, etc...and have learned how to purify themselves and the area around them long enough to be able to approach these pure entities and communicate with them for short periods of time. This is because the human being is, by its nature, a corrupt or impure entity which must continually work to clean itself. Within the Kemetic culture, initiatic priests do frequent ablutions in order to maintain a pure body while working in a temple. A clean heart and mind are also a prerequisite for spiritual work, the capacity for which is learning through initiation as well. This spiritual work, over tens of thousands of years, had led to the development of humanity away from barbarism.

Over the past 2000 years, political and religious organizations seeking to gain power have been attacking traditional cultures, their people and practices. A culture cannot survive with its practices prohibited and its people forced off their land, only to find refuge in colonial cities ruled by the oppressor. In the colonial world, the domain of the sacred is ruled by two major religions, Christianity and Islam, both of which are hollow misrepresentations of what traditional spirituality represents. In one recent case of the pot calling the kettle black, Western media outlets have expressed outrage over alleged calls for the destruction of the largest pyramids in Egypt and other monuments of traditional culture in Northern Africa by Islamic clerics. These alleged calls for the destruction of the Egyptian pyramids have been attributed to Islamic Clerics who believe the strict Islamic (Sharia) law that prohibits pagan, or idol, worship should be enforced. This strict Islamic law also calls for destruction of any pagan monuments. The fact that the Egyptian Pyramids and many other traditional monuments of the region pre-date Islam causes all of these monuments to be considered pagan and, therefore, should be destroyed according to Islamic law.

Recently, the NY Times, French TV and local sources have reported on the destruction of lesser-known traditional monuments in Mali. The reports coming from Mali, which include a recent incursion by the French military, are regarding the destruction of shrines in the city of Timbuktu. These reports are coming from local sources and include video footage which is posted on YouTube. However, Western media has been restricted from northern Mali since the recent Coup d’état. The report focuses on actions taken by a group of armed Islamic militants whom destroyed the door to the centuries-old Sidi Yahya mosque. Cisse Baba, a local high official from another mosque, reportedly asked the men why they were destroying the door. "They said, ‘People believe that if that door is opened, the world will end’— an un-Islamic superstition, the men explained, that had to be disproved" Cisse Baba said. Over one half-dozen other above-ground mausoleums of religious leaders venerated in Timbuktu as saints have reportedly been destroyed as well. After reading this report a question comes to mind, "Why would Islamic militants destroy a Mosque?", or perhaps, "Why would a Mosque have an un-Islamic superstition attached to it?" The answer is because these shrines are not simply Islamic Mosques. These shrines pre-date the arrival of Islam in the region. Additionally, these saints were very accomplished traditional priests (See Rising Firefly Vol. 65, Touba Article for greater insight as to why these and other sites may have been destroyed). So, on a local level, we can see how these actions further the religious agenda of the Islamic militants now in control of Northern Mali.

Actions like these have contributed to the publicity of calls to push this agenda even further by destroying the largest of the pyramids in Egypt. These calls have resulted into a media propaganda war between opposing religious and political leaders, all trying to negatively affect the other and gain more power themselves. For example, many Western commentaries, blogs, etc, have called the Islamic destruction of traditional monuments evidence of the fanaticism of Islam, however, their own Christian and Judaic religions did not spare many traditional monuments or inhabitants from the regions they colonized. The propaganda war over whether Islamists will destroy the great pyramid in Egypt confuses the listener into missing the underlying reality. Historically speaking, the spread of Christianity and Islam comes with the destruction of traditional civilizations and their monuments. This is also true of the political systems that work hand in hand with these religious organizations. If the Pyramids present an enigma, or mystery, in the colonial culture of the Christian, Islamic or Judaic societies it is because the answer to the mystery reveals more than religious and political leaders want their people to know.