THE beheadings, this time, were performed with hammer and drill, not sword or knife—for the victims were made of stone, not flesh. The destruction of ancient statues (some replicas) at the Mosul museum in Iraq, a video of which was released on February 26th, is far from the most heinous crime committed by Islamic State (IS). The jihadists have killed thousands of people, often in grisly fashion. But the group’s sacking of holy sites and libraries are elements of a broader attack, perpetrated in the name of Islam, on the Middle East’s rich cultural and religious heritage.

Although its actions are abhorrent, IS poses a dilemma for Muslims. Many of the group’s beliefs are not disconnected from Islam, as some claim, but rather the product of an extreme interpretation of the faith. IS supporters justify their actions with verses taken from the Koran or examples from the life of the Prophet Muhammad. In Mosul the militants said they were shattering “idols”, the worship of which is forbidden in Islam. Muhammad himself cleared idolatrous statues from the Kaaba, the centrepiece of Mecca’s Sacred Mosque. This was in keeping with the tradition of Abraham, another prophet (sacred to several faiths) who destroyed the wooden gods being worshipped by his people.

Idolatry is taboo in many faiths, so the history of iconoclasm is multi-denominational. King Hezekiah purged idols from Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, according to the Old Testament. Protestant reformers destroyed religious images in the 16th century. But the most ardent recent iconoclasts have been Muslims. In 2001 the Taliban, then rulers of Afghanistan, blew up two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan that dated from the 6th century. The Saudi government has destroyed historic sites in Mecca, ostensibly to pursue development but also to prevent idolatry, say some. Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, a prominent Salafist in Egypt, has suggested covering the heads of ancient statues in wax.

Most Muslims find the destruction absurd. Islam says nothing about smashing statues that are not harming anyone, says Ahmed Hassan, a 33-year-old Cairene. This opinion is shared by Islamic scholars, and even some of the Taliban. Unlike the statues destroyed by Muhammad, the artefacts destroyed by IS “are nothing but stone and no one believes they are gods,” says Abbas Shouman, under-secretary of the influential al-Azhar University in Egypt. Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban leader, said much the same about the Bamiyan Buddhas, which he once favoured preserving, since there were no Buddhists left in Afghanistan.

The destruction in Mosul should be seen in a political context, says Bernard Haykel of Princeton University. The show of hyper-piety is “part of a publicity campaign” to grab the mantle of the original Muslims. Others see it as an attempt to provoke America into a holy war. But the motivation for ransacking museums, even for fundamentalists, is sometimes simpler. In the past militants from IS and al-Qaeda have sold looted artefacts to finance their activities. In Afghanistan, Mullah Omar saw the Bamiyan Buddhas as “a potential major source of income for Afghanistan from international visitors”. A representative of the group said they were destroyed in a fit of pique after the West offered money to preserve the statues, but no other aid.

Wars, looting and neglect have left the region’s antiquities in a sorry state. Authoritarian regimes tend to promote themselves, not the national heritage. But the threat of IS is causing some governments to act. Last month Turkish soldiers entered Syria to move the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman empire, to a more secure spot.

In Baghdad the national museum has just reopened, 12 years after it closed during the American invasion. The ceremony was brought forward in response to the destruction in Mosul, where the vandals may be wearing out their welcome. Last year residents confronted IS members when an ancient leaning minaret was targeted. It is still standing, but much of the city’s culture and history has now been erased.