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But thanks to a few, some of Kabul Museum’s objects have come to light and been successfully returned
A Begram Ivory: saved, conserved and returned
but the piece on the right is still unlocated
K.P.Beg.279.19KM inv. no. 59‐1‐13
2 February 2001The Kabul Museum re‐opens but Taliban officials were said to be so horrified by a bodhisattva from TepeMaranjan that they slapped it across the face and chest
26 February 2001
“On the basis of consultations between the religious leaders of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, religious judgements of the ulemaand rulings of the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all statues and non‐Islamic shrines located in different parts of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan must be destroyed. These statues have been and remain shrines of unbelievers and these unbelievers continue to worship and respect them. God Almighty is the only real shrine and all fake idols should be destroyed. Therefore, the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has ordered all the representatives of the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice and the Ministries of Information to destroy all the statues. As ordered by the ulema and the Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan all the statues must be destroyed so that no‐one can worship or respect them in the future” (decree by Mullah Omar)
March 2001
“When they entered, they were like a hungry tiger looking for prey. The minister told us that if we tried to stop the destruction, they would break our heads with the same axe”
“the Minister of Culture pounded it [the statue of Kanishka] to pieces, amused by his own work”
“If you were not old I would break your head too”
(eye witness accounts, 2001)
“Do you prefer to be a breaker of idols or a seller of idols?”
(response on interview on Radio Shari’a by the late Mullah Omar)
“smashing the idols and statues of ancient nations and erasing their legacy of shirk [polytheism]”
“these statues and idols, these artifacts, if God has ordered its removal, they became worthless to us even if they are worth billions of dollars” (Daesh statements, 2015)