Remember the bullion of ancient Afghan artifacts and works of art discovered in a Kabul storehouse? Some of those treasures have seen their Talban-inflicted damage repaired and are now on display in the new National Museum of Afghanistan:

The newly repaired National Museum of Afghanistan opened its first exhibition in 13 years this month, a display of life-size pre-Islamic idols smashed by the Taliban three years ago and now painstakingly restored by museum and international experts.

The wooden statues from Nuristan, one of Afghanistan's mountainous northeastern provinces, are an apt subject for an inaugural exhibition. Museum staff had worked hard to hide the collection from looters and Islamic fundamentalists intent on destroying all idols and artistic depictions of the human form. The figures, from what was formerly known as Kafiristan, or Land of the Heathens, are ancestor effigies and animistic and polytheistic gods, representing beliefs and traditions that were practiced there little more than 100 years ago.

"This is part of our culture and we should preserve it," said Fauzia Hamraz, director of the ethnographic collection, who helped piece the statues back together. "Our country is an Islamic country, but displaying these things will not destroy our religion."

That last statement is one from a nation unafraid of modernity, and certainly unafraid of the thugs who tried and failed to pull it back into barbarism. Read the article, yet another sign of Afghanistan's rebirth.