alarabiya.net
Egypt-based al-Azhar institution, the Sunni Islam's leading authority, condemned on Friday the bulldozing of Iraq’s ancient city of Nimrud by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
In a statement Al-Azhar said: “what the Daesh terrorist's destruction and demolition of monuments in areas under its influence in Iraq, Syria and Libya …by claiming they are idols is a major crime against the whole world.”
“Al-Azhar stresses that the destruction of cultural heritage is forbidden in Islam and rejected in total,” the statement said.
"What Daesh is doing is a war crime that history would never forget," it added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
Al-Azhar also urged "everyone concerned in the countries where Daesh and other extremist groups exist, to cooperate and eradicate them and save our Arabic and Islamic nations from their evils."