They're more than 1,000 years old. A religious group should be shown only as much tolerance as it is willing to give to other religious groups. The Taliban has removed Islam in Afghanistan outside of the boundaries of toleration. The public desecration of statues is a ruse to distract attention from the wholesale theft. Either way, this is some religion.
Iconoclasm is nothing new in religion.
The N.Y. Times reports that a neurosurgeon operated on the wrong side of a man's brain last week at Long Island College Hospital. Both the surgeon, Dr. Rene Kotzen, and another doctor, Mike W. Chou, who prepped him were suspended.