Byzantine Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm, Greek for "breaker of icons" is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture 's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any person who breaks or disdains established dogmata or conventions.

The early destruction of religious icons was done ritualistically to denote rejection of their worth.

Early iconoclasm was generated by the major social and political upheavals of the seventh century for the Byzantine Empire.

Byzantine Iconoclasm refers to two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within

Incited by Muslim leaders who equated the cartoons with a general disrespect for Islam and Muslims, demonstrations and violence in several countries, especially Syria, resulted.

A signature of the Islamic State’s violent expansion into Syria and Iraq has been the targeted defilement of certain sites of religious and cultural significance—a deliberate, systematic program of iconoclasm. During the capture of Mosul, for example, image-breaking accompanied military advancement, as fighters quickly beset upon the tombs of the prophets Seth, Jonah, and Daniel. The razing of holy sites was an essential element of the campaign, not an afterthought or an accident of warfare.

The major similarity of the early iconoclasm and the Islamic iconoclasm is the destruction of images that they feel are against their religious beliefs.

The major difference is that the early religious leaders did not destroy everything without thinking and they did not rejoice in the destruction of