Azhar slams ISIS for bulldozing Nimrud

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."

Read also:

UNESCO condemns ISIS destruction of ancient Iraq city as ‘war crime’

Nimrud, the jewel of the Assyrian era

ISIS began bulldozing the ruins of Nimrud on Thursday, in what the U.N. termed a "war crime."

Last month ISIS fighters destroyed statues and ancient artefacts with sledgehammers and torched the city's library.

Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and was considered the jewel of the Assyrian era.

[With AFP]