In March 2001, Taliban fighters solemnly gathered around the giant Buddha statue, a famed 6th century monument in the Bamiyan Province of Afghanistan, laid explosives at its feet and blew it to smithereens. Mullah Omar Mohammad, then the group’s leader, had proclaimed triumphantly: “Muslims should be proud of smashing idols [for] it gives praise to God that we have destroyed them.”
More recently, the brutish group known as Ansar Dine — dubbed by the western media as “Islamist rebels” — who invaded Timbuktu, turned into rubble centuries-old mausoleums recognised by Unesco as world treasures, burned ancient caligraphed manuscripts, tore down libraries and destroyed priceless cultural artefacts. Said one of their spokesmen: “The destruction is a divine order.
looking beyond borders 