Books and their authors are standard targets in cultural warfare waged by fundamentalists. All the way back to Constantine after the Council of Nicea, the Library of Alexandria, the Nazis, and the Khmer Rouge and many more. ISIS is part of a long human tradition of anti-intellectual violence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_book-burning_incidents
1 Antiquity
1.1 Destruction of Ebla
1.2 Destruction of Mari
1.3 Destruction of Alalakh
1.4 Destruction of Ugarit
1.5 Library of Ashurbanipal (by Babylonians, Scythians and Medes)
1.6 A scroll written by the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (burnt by King Jehoiakim)
1.7 Protagoras's "On the Gods" (by Athenian authorities)
1.8 Zoroastrian scriptures and Persian royal archives (by Alexander the Great)
1.9 Chinese philosophy books (by Emperor Qin Shi Huang and anti-Qin rebels)
1.10 Books of Pretended Prophecies
1.11 Jewish holy books (by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV)
1.12 Aeneid (unsuccessfully ordered by Virgil)
1.13 Roman history book (by the aediles)
1.14 Greek and Latin prophetic verse (by the Emperor Augustus)
1.15 Torah scroll (by Roman soldier)
1.16 Sorcery scrolls (by early converts to Christianity at Ephesus)
1.17 Rabbi Haninah ben Teradion burned with a Torah scroll (under Hadrian)
1.18 Burning of the Torah by Apostomus (precise time and circumstances debated)
1.19 Epicurus's book (in Paphlagonia)
1.20 Manichaean and Christian scriptures (by Diocletian)
1.21 Books of Arianism (after Council of Nicaea)
1.22 Library of Antioch (by Jovian)
1.23 "Unacceptable writings" (by Athanasius)
1.24 The Sibylline books (various times)
1.25 Writings of Priscillian
1.26 Etrusca Disciplina
1.27 Nestorius' books (by Theodosius II)
2 Middle Ages
2.1 Archives of Ctesiphon (during Arab conquest)
2.2 Japanese books and manuscripts (during power struggle at the Imperial court)
2.3 Repeated destruction of Alexandria libraries
2.4 Qur'anic texts with varying wording (ordered by the 3rd Caliph, Uthman)
2.5 Competing prayer books (at Toledo)
2.6 Abelard forced to burn his own book (at Soissons)
2.7 The writings of Arnold of Brescia (at France and Rome)
2.8 Nalanda University
2.9 Samanid Dynasty Library
2.10 Buddhist writings in the Maldives
2.11 Destruction of Cathar texts (Languedoc region of France)
2.12 Maimonides' philosophy (at Montpellier)
2.13 The Talmud (at Paris), first of many such burnings over the next centuries
2.14 Rabbi Nachmanides' account of the Disputation of Barcelona (by Dominicans)
2.15 The House of Wisdom library (at Baghdad)
2.16 Lollard books and writings (By English Law)
2.17 Wycliffe's books (at Prague)
2.18 Codices of the peoples conquered by the Aztecs (by Itzcoatl)
2.19 Gemistus Pletho's "Nómoi" (by Partiarch Gennadius II)
3 Early Modern Period (from 1492 to 1650)
3.1 Library and archives of the Novgorod Republic (by Ivan III and Ivan IV)
3.2 Decameron, Ovid and other "lewd" books (by Savonarola)
3.3 Arabic and Hebrew books (in Andalucía)
3.4 Tyndale's New Testament (in England)
3.5 Angelo Carletti's theological works (by Martin Luther)
3.6 English Monastic Libraries (during the Dissolution of the Monasteries)
3.7 Servetus's writings (burned with their author at Geneva, and also burned at Vienne)
3.8 "The Historie of Italie" (In England)
3.9 Maya sacred books (by Spanish Bishop of Yucatan)
3.10 Arabic writings in Spain (by King Philip II)
3.11 "Obscene" Maltese poetry (by the Inquisition)
3.12 Arwi books (by Portuguese in India and Ceylon)
3.13 Bernardino de Sahagún's manuscripts on Aztec culture (by Spanish authorities)
3.14 Luther's Bible translation
3.15 Uriel da Costa's book (By Jewish community and city authorities in Amsterdam)
3.16 Marco Antonio de Dominis' writings (in Rome)
4 Early Modern Period (from 1650 until the turn of the 19th century)
4.1 Books burned by civil, military and ecclesiastical authorities between 1640 and 1660 (in Cromwell's England)
4.2 Earl of Worcester's library (by New Model Army)
4.3 Book criticising Puritanism (in Boston)
4.4 Quaker books (in Boston)
4.5 Great Fire (London)
4.6 Hobbes books (at Oxford University)
4.7 Swedish National Archives
4.8 Mythical (and/or mystical) writings of Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (by rabbis)
4.9 Protestant books and Bibles (by Archbishop of Salzburg)
4.10 Amalasunta (by Carlo Goldoni)
4.11 The writings of Johann Christian Edelmann (by Imperial authorities in Frankfurt)
4.12 Books that offended Qianlong Emperor
4.13 Anti-Wilhelm Tell tract (at Canton of Uri)
4.14 Books of Voltaire (by French authorities)
4.15 Vernacular Catholic hymn books (at Mainz)
4.16 Cluny Abbey's library
4.17 Egyptian archaeological finds (threatened burning by French scholars)
5 Industrial Revolution period
5.1 "The Burned Book" (by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov)
5.2 Musin-Pushkin's library (In Great Moscow Fire)
5.3 Records of the Goa Inquisition (by Portuguese colonial authorities)
5.4 Original Library of Congress Collection (by British troops)
5.5 The Code Napoléon (by German Nationalist students)
5.6 Early braille books (in Paris)
5.7 Library of St. Augustine Academy, Philadelphia (by anti-Irish rioters)
5.8 Chinese literary works (By Anglo-French troops in Beijing)
5.9 Edmond Potonie's papers (by French Police)
5.10 Library of Strasbourg (in German bombardment)
5.11 Library of the Louvre (during suppression of the Paris Commune)
5.12 "Lewd" books (by Anthony Comstock and the NYSSV)
5.13 Emily Dickinson's correspondence (on her orders)
5.14 Ivan Bloch's research on Russian Jews (by Tsarist Russian government)
5.15 Italian Nationalist literature (by Austrian authorities in Trieste)
6 WWI and interbellum era
6.1 Leuven University Library (by World War I German Army)
6.2 Many books (by Communists in Russia)
6.3 Valley of the Squinting Windows (at Delvin, Ireland)
6.4 George Grosz's cartoons (By court order in Weimar Germany)
6.5 Irish National Archives (in Civil War)
6.6 Plunkett family records (in Civil War)
6.7 Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)
6.8 Theodore Dreiser's works (at Warsaw, Indiana)
6.9 Works of Goethe, Shaw, and Freud (by Metaxas dictatorship in Greece)
6.10 Pompeu Fabra's library (by Franco's troops)
7 World War II
7.1 Leuven University Library (by World War II German occupation troops)
7.2 Chinese libraries (by World War II Japanese troops)
7.3 Works in the British Museum (by German bomber planes)
7.4 Jean Genet's "Our Lady of the Flowers" (by French prison guard)
7.5 Jewish books in Allesandria (by pro-Nazi mob)
7.6 André Malraux's manuscript (by the Gestapo)
7.7 Various libraries in Warsaw, Poland (during World War II)
7.8 Books in the National Library of Serbia (by World War II German bomber planes)
7.9 Douai Municipal Library
7.10 Books in German libraries (by World War II Allied bomber planes)
8 Cold War era and 1990s
8.1 The books of Knut Hamsun (in post-WWII Norway)
8.2 Post-WWII Germany
8.3 Books in Kurdish (in north Iran)
8.4 Comic book burnings, 1948
8.5 Books by Shen Congwen (by Chinese booksellers)
8.6 Judaica collection at Birobidzhan (by Stalin)
8.7 Communist and "fellow traveller" books (by Senator McCarthy)
8.8 Wilhelm Reich's publications (by U.S. Food and Drug Administration)
8.9 Brazil, military coup, 1964
8.10 Religious, Anti-Communist and Genealogy books (in the Cultural Revolution)
8.11 Beatles Burnings – Southern USA, 1966
8.12 Leftist books in Chile after the 1973 coup d'état
8.13 Burning of Jaffna library
8.14 The Satanic Verses (worldwide)
8.15 Oriental Institute in Sarajevo (1992)
8.16 National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992)
8.17 Abkhazian Research Institute of History, Language and Literature & National Library of Abkhazia (by Georgian troops)
8.18 The Nasir-i Khusraw Foundation in Kabul (by the Taliban regime)
9 21st Century
9.1 Berkeley book burning
9.2 Abu Nuwas poetry (by Egyptian Ministry of Culture)
9.3 Independent Librarians (in Cuba)
9.4 Iraq's national library, Baghdad 2003
9.5 Harry Potter books (in various American cities)
9.6 Inventory of Prospero's Books (by proprietors Tom Wayne and W.E. Leathem)
9.7 New Testaments in city of Or Yehuda, Israel
9.8 Non-approved Bibles, books and music in Canton, North Carolina
9.9 Bagram Bibles
9.10 2010–11 Florida Qu'ran burning and related burnings
9.11 Operation Dark Heart, memoir by Anthony Shaffer (by the U. S. Dept. of Defense)
9.12 The burning of the library in the Institut d'Egypte in Cairo
9.13 Suspected Colorado City incident
9.14 Qur'ans in Afghanistan
9.15 Climate change book at San Jose State University
9.16 Manuscripts in Timbuktu
9.17 National Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014)
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