Iraqis enraged by demolition of 300-year-old mosque minaret for road expansion

Locals, religious leaders, and cultural officials were outraged by the destruction of a mosque’s 300-year-old minaret on Friday to make room for road construction in Basra, a city in southern Iraq. They denounced the action as further eroding Iraq’s cultural legacy.

The Siraji mosque and its 11-meter (36-foot) tall minaret, which were both built in 1727, were knocked over by a bulldozer early on Friday morning, with its brown mud-brick spire and turquoise embellishments disappearing in a cloud of dust.

Religious and cultural authorities, particularly Sunni Muslim endowment and antiquities officials, were aware of the governor of Basra’s plans to demolish the minaret in order to relieve traffic congestion in the city, but they insisted that it was intended to be transferred rather than demolished.

“All peoples preserve their heritage and history and here they destroy our history and heritage?” Basra resident Majed al Husseini said, standing by the rubble of the mosque.

Much of Iraq’s rich cultural heritage – dating back thousands of years to some of the world’s first empires in ancient Mesopotamia, and more recently to its Islamic history – has been degraded by neglect and years of conflict such as with Islamic State.

Now, heritage conservationists fear a building boom in Baghdad and plans to expand roads, bridges and other infrastructure across the country could destroy what remains.

Culture Minister Ahmed al-Badrani told Reuters he had not given permission to destroy the Siraji Mosque’s minaret and that local antiquities authorities had agreed with the governor to relocate it.

The ministry would now seek to recover and preserve its remains and reconstruct a model, similar to what was being done with Mosul’s Al-Nuri mosque that was blown up by Islamic State in 2017.

Basra Governor Asaad Al Eidani, who oversaw the demolition in person, defended the move, saying the Sunni endowment and antiquities authorities did not dismantle and relocate the minaret despite being given more than a year to do so.

He said they were recently given notice of its imminent destruction and did not protest, adding he planned to build a new mosque in its stead.

Mohammed Munla, the head of Basra’s Sunni endowment at the time when Reuters spoke to him, said the body had not agreed to, nor had its officials been informed of, plans to demolish the mosque’s minaret, adding it had instead agreed with the governor to find a company that could relocate it.

Munla was relieved of his duties shortly after speaking to Reuters but before this interview was published.

The Sunni endowment did not respond immediately to a Reuters request for comment.

(With agency inputs)