Quadratullah Jamal Quotes

Museums, I love museums.

I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led to my thinking about what's up on the pedestal - the great leader.

We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him

The lesson to be learned from the cartoon incident is “don’t mess with us.” Religion is a major part of our culture.

All Kabul males were given just six weeks to grow a full beard, even though some of the ethnic groups - the Hazaras, for instance - have limited beard growth. More, beards could not be trimmed shorter than a man’s fist. The religious police stood at street corners with scissors cutting off long hair and often beating culprits. Men had to wear their salwars above the ankle and everyone had to say his/her prayers five times a day. All conceivable forms of entertainment were strictly taboo: movies, TV, video, music, dance. Even, kite flying! "Nawroz", the traditional Afghan New Year celebrations, were declared un-Islamic. Nobody was allowed to hang paintings, portraits or photographs in their homes. The tragic truth is that the very idea of culture was alien to the Taliban.

It is prohibited to exercise any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion or to atheism.

… history is that which transforms documents into monuments

It is not a cruelty to kill blasphemers, rather blasphemy itself is such an enormous brutality that the one who commits it neither has got a right to live in this world nor is there any pardon for the blasphemer. Muslims won't tolerate even a slightest blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. If (anyone) committed blasphemy, he would be beheaded.

God says he will never be satisfied with the infidels.

Architecture is a political art connecting our values to the ages.

We find traditions of liberty, rationality, and tolerance in the rich histories of pre-Islamic and Islamic societies. These values do not belong to the West or the East; they are the common moral heritage of humankind.

The freedom of religion and of religious conscience is at the core of democratic development.

The Turks do not compel anyone to renounce their faith and do not try hard to persuade anyone.

There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. The failure of these institutions to function and the instability of these regimes in Muslim countries, manifest in frequent changes and coups d'état, is most often the consequence of their a priori opposition to Islam, as the fundamental and foremost feeling of the people in those countries.

When men die, they enter history. When statues die, they enter art. This botany of death is what we call culture.

The Elgin Marbles were supposed to be on the Parthenon. For many works of art, a museum is an artificial setting - a zoo, not a natural habitat.

The Thames is liquid history.

Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn.

We've got to map all of our ancient history before it's gone because, let's face it, if we don't have a common heritage to share, something to get excited about, then what are we living for?

There's something very special about seeing history so clearly in front of you through that architecture that you just don't get in the U.S. If I was asked to choose where I'd most like to live, I would always choose London.

Art is the signature of civilizations.

Civilizations are not remembered by their business people, their bankers or lawyers. They're remembered by the arts.

We are different beings. There is nothing in life which links us together. Our names, our clothes, our foods–they are all different; our economic life, our educational ideas, our treatment of women, our attitude towards animals .... We challenge each other at every point of the compass.

History suggests that the Sikhs to a man would fight literally to the death rather than to submit to Muslim domination..

We cannot judge Christianity by the Ku Klux Klan and we cannot judge Islam by the Taliban.