From the "Some Things Never Change" File

In The Assassin Lotus, the Muslim conquest of the Silk Road Buddhist kingdom of Khotan is recounted in a poem by the 11th century Turkish scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari:

"Like river torrents,

We flooded their cities,

We captured their monasteries,

And shat on their statues of the Buddha." 

A thousand years later they're at it again, most recently destroying Sufi and Shiite mausoleums in the ancient Silk Road city of Palmyra.

A photo released on Monday by a militant website shows the wreckage of one of two mausoleums that were destroyed by Islamic State militants in the historic town of Palmyra, Syria. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS