Free Republic

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. When the Taliban and its Al Qaeda allies blew up two giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan,it put the Jihadist alliance on the world's radar even before the September 11 attacks. The destruction of the statues was widely condemned by just about everyone. Even Democrats. Now, Joe Biden has decided to free an Al Qaeda commander who helped bomb the statues. As the Taliban retake Afghanistan, Biden’s decision to free Abdul Latif Nasir signals support for the...

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - The Christopher Columbus statue has been torn down and thrown in the lake by protesters in downtown Richmond. The Christopher Columbus statue is located in Byrd Park. The statue was also set on fire before being thrown into the lake.

Absolutely arrogant. For Timothy P. Schmalz, an Ontario-based sculptor, that’s really the only way to describe the renewed push to tear down statues that commemorate people who are now deemed out of step with modern morals. When a Confederate figure gets toppled in the U.S., or a prime minister who was part of brutal treatment of Indigenous people is destroyed in Canada, it says more than just disagreeing, Mr. Schmalz said. It’s a claim that we would have known better, acted otherwise. And that’s the hubris. “When one destroys or puts a Confederate statue in a museum, out of sight,...

PHILADELPHIA - Crews are painting over the Frank Rizzo mural in South Philadelphia early Sunday. The Mural Arts Program, which maintains the mural, says it believes the mural is a 'painful reminder' of the former mayor's legacy... “I was appalled they did it in the middle of the night,” South Philadelphia native George Patti said. “Everyone was proud of Frank. I understand the other side, but even if it was divisive, or stands for something bad, I don’t think we should be erasing...

The 21st century is in danger of becoming an era of statue smashing and historical erasure. Not since the iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire or the epidemic of statue destruction during the French Revolution has the world seen anything like the current war on the past. In 2001, the primeval Taliban blew up two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan on grounds that their very existence was sacrilegious to Islam. In 2015, ISIS militants entered a museum in Mosul, Iraq, and destroyed ancient, pre-Islamic statues and idols. Their mute crime? These artifacts predated the prophet Muhammad. The West prides itself in...

For centuries, the Swat River valley was a Buddhist haven. According to tradition, Buddha himself journeyed to Swat during his last reincarnation, and preached to the local villagers. And by the 6th-century A.D, Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as China flocked to the Swat valley, a beautiful lush land of orchards and rushing mountain streams. One early Chinese account describes as many as 1400 Buddhist monasteries perched along the valley walls in the 7th century. Devout Buddhist artists left an incredibly rich legacy in Swat. Since the valley lay along a major route of the Silk Road -- which...

Islamic militants tried to blow up a statue of the Buddha carved into a mountainside in northwestern Pakistan but did not damage the structure, officials and a witness said Wednesday

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time? Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.” In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked...

A recently discovered Buddha statue was smashed into pieces by local construction workers and a cleric on Saturday in Mardan. The relic was discovered while digging the foundation for a house. A video of the act, which has since gone viral on social media, showed the construction workers, along with a cleric, smashing the Buddha statue using a sledgehammer. According to international reports, the statue was destroyed allegedly on the order of a local cleric. "Your nikah would cease to exist and you will no more be a believer if the statue isn't disposed of," the cleric allegedly told the...

An Iranian newspaper is reporting that government authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran to stop the promotion of Buddhism in the country. … Iran has long fought against items, such as Barbie dolls and Simpsons cartoon characters, to defuse Western influence, but this appears to be the first time that Iranian authorities are showing an opposition to symbols from the East. …

A Chinese company digging an unexploited copper mine in Afghanistan has unearthed ancient statues of Buddha in a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. Archaeologists are rushing to salvage what they can from a major 7th century B.C. religious site along the famed Silk Road connecting Asia and the Middle East.

Archaeologists in Afghanistan, where Taliban Islamists are fighting the Western-backed government, have uncovered Buddhist-era remains in an area south of Kabul, an official said on Tuesday. "There is a temple, stupas, beautiful rooms, big and small statues, two with the length of seven and nine meters, colorful frescos ornamented with gold and some coins," said Mohammad Nader Rasouli, head of the Afghan Archaeological Department... We need foreign assistance to preserve these and their expertise to help us with further excavations." The excavation site extends over 12 km (7.5 miles) in the Aynak region of Logar province just south of Kabul,...

In Afghanistan, 900-foot Sleeping Buddha eludes archaeologistsBut researchers are finding and preserving other ancient riches. By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 7, 2007 edition BAMIYAN, AFGHANISTAN - After the Taliban fell, France sent Zemaryalai Tarzi to this Afghan valley on a quest bordering on the mythological. His goal: to find Sleeping Buddha, the reclining sculpture that, at 900 feet long, would be nearly 10 times the size of the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. He brought the ultimate treasure map – the journal of a 7th- century Chinese pilgrim who...

Tuesday November 20 4:04 PM ET Groups Want to Rebuild Buddha Statue By CLARE NULLIS, Associated Press Writer GENEVA (AP) - The Taliban's destruction of two ancient Buddha statues shocked the world. Now there's a plan to rebuild the larger one. The plan is the work of an Internet-based group called the New 7 Wonders Society and a U.N.-recognized institute in Switzerland dedicated to preserving Afghan cultural treasures. The desire is to show that ``an act of international destruction cannot erase the memory of those things which are valuable to humanity and its heritage,'' said Bernard Weber, the founder of ...

Taliban Resumes Blasting Buddha Statues Taliban leader says international appeals to save the statues will fail. By Kathy Gannon ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 9 (AP)--Using cannons and explosives, the Taliban has reportedly resumed blowing up two towering stone statues of Buddha, a task the religious militia began a week ago. The explosions of the 3rd and 5th century statues were part of carrying out an order by Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar for all statues in Afghanistan to be demolished. The order, meant to discourage idolatry, was given two weeks ago. The Taliban, who rule roughly 95 percent of the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. KABUL: A Japanese artist is to recreate Afghanistan`s destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas using dozens of laser beam images. Hiro Yamagata says the £34m project will also create electricity for local people. The 1,500-year Buddhas were carved into sandstone cliffs but were destroyed in 2001 by the Taliban regime for being "un-Islamic". The project will see the Buddhas recreated using 240 laser beam images, 120 laser systems, 10 windmills and 11,988 solar energy panels. It is hoped the hi-tech project could turn the area into a tourist attraction and reinvigorate the local economy,...

Japanese Daily's Report on Discovery of Buddha Statues in Iran Denied TEHRAN TIMES CITY DESK TEHRAN -- Director General of Cultural Heritage Department of Fars Province denied reports on discovery of Buddha statues in the province. A Japanese daily *******Asahi******* in its Monday issue said 19 statues of Buddha have been unearthed in the central Iranian province. However, the Iranian official said, "In no historical period, Iran has been under the influence of Buddha culture." Since the 1979 victory of Islamic Revolution no expert group from Japan has conducted excavation operations in Fars Province, he said adding therefore the report...

NEW YORK Shortly before the Taliban in Afghanistan issued orders to blow up the giant, 1,500-year-old Buddhas of Bamian, which they destroyed in March 2001, a squad of Islamic fundamentalists systematically ransacked a storeroom of artwork from the National Museum in Kabul. They went through boxes of ancient Buddhist and Gandharan statuary, smashing anything with a human or animal image that they deemed idolatrous. . The rubble - all that is left of an unknown number of priceless antiquities - remained hidden until January, when Paul Bucherer, director of a small museum in Switzerland dedicated to Afghan culture, was ushered...

KABUL A FORMER Taleban official who oversaw the destruction of the 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 was assassinated in Afghanistan yesterday. Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taleban's governor of Bamiyan province when the giant fifth-century statues were blown up in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in the capital, Kabul. A gunman dressed as a construction worker shot and killed him and wounded one of his two bodyguards with an AK47 assault rifle before fleeing. Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament. After that, Mohammadi said...

The Bamiyan Buddhas were erected in the 5th Century in a valley in Afghanistan astride the Silk Road near the border with Persia. Towering 58 meters and 38 meters respectively, they looked down on the valley from their niches in the side of a cliff from around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Taliban. The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan, blew the Buddhas up for being an affront to their version of Islam in March 2001, months before the attacks of 9/11 touched off a chain of events that led to their downfall....