Difference Between Statues And Idols
Since country/nation state and patrotism have to do with man made concepts, therefore, one can come up with any symbol to remind themselves of those concepts. As far as the symbol of God is concerned, it needs to come form God himself. We pray toward Kaaba or inside any other mosque because we have been explicitly asked to do so. We do create mosques, but we cannot perform anything in place of Salah as a symbol of our worship, because Salah has been prescribed by God himself. As far as their verses ( Hinduism and Christianity) are concerned, I am not aware of any such verse which promotes polytheism or gives a polytheistic symbol of God in their holy scriptures, instead, their scriptures also talk about monotheism and how God can have no image etc. It would be helpful if you could instead share some verses depicting such symbols. Following article with regards to Christianity will be helpful in this regard: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=597