The Taliban chief, Mullah Muhammad Omar, has carefully chosen his moment to order the destruction of Afghanistan's two towering Buddhist statues at Bamiyan. He issued his command as the worldwide Muslim community, the Umma, entered the season of the pilgrimage, the Haj.
Firstly, the mullah expected that at this highly emotional time in the Muslim calendar he could count on the tacit support of Muslims. For now, more than at any other time of the year, Muslims study the Koran, their holy book, and review the story of their Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad had denounced idolatry from the first days of his mission, believing that idol worship had caused the Arabs to stray from monotheistic observance laid down by the patriarchs of the Old Testament and by Jesus, whom Muhammad regarded as a prophet.
When Muhammad attempted to lead his people back to the "right path", he and his followers were driven from Mecca. When he finally conquered the city in AD 630, he adopted a hard line towards idolators.
Ahead of his final pilgrimage, Muhammad personally cleansed the Ka'bah, the cube-shaped building at the centre of the mosque in Mecca. On entering Ka'bah, he was enraged to find wall paintings depicting the Prophet Abraham holding divination arrows and angels in the form of beautiful women as well as idols. Muhammad ordered the obliteration of the murals and the destruction of the idols.
His reconsecration of the Ka'bah to the One God is commemorated at the beginning of every pilgrimage by the ritual washing of the Ka'bah and dressing it with a magnificently embroidered drape, the kiswah.
Surah 9, verses 1-17, 28 and 36, spell out how Muslims should conduct relations with idolators. Idolators who oppose Islam and wage war against Muslims should be fought, while those with whom Muslims have firm peace treaties should be respected as long as they abide by their treaties.
Koranic teachings and Muhammad's example of throwing the idols out of the "holy house" - in much the same way Jesus drove out the money changers - have inspired bouts of destruction among militant purists over the past 1,400 years.
Secondly, the Taliban leader knew that the main financier of his movement, Saudi Arabia, would do nothing to halt the demolition of the statues because hardline Saudi clerics would applaud the Taliban's actions.
Finally, on the purely practical plane, the mullah was aware that most Muslim countries shut down during the four-day festival of Id al-Adhah, the Feast of Sacrifice, the climax of the pilgrimage.
Although the Taliban leader may have correctly timed his campaign to coincide with the pilgrimage and the feast, he was clearly mistaken about the general Muslim reaction to his decision to destroy the monumental Buddhas as well as other non-Islamic and pre-Islamic treasures in Afghanistan. Ordinary Muslims and sages throughout the Islamic world have condemned the Taliban.
Dr Usamah Khalidi, a knowledgeable layman, says: "There is nothing in Islam which orders the destruction of statues, particularly if they are of idols which people are no longer worshipping", as is the case of all Buddhist relics in Afghanistan.
In fact, "Islam has always coexisted with religions which use representations of human forms in worship, notably Christianity and Hinduism." Muslims consider Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians as "People of the Book" who share belief in One God.
Dr Khalidi says the Bamiyan Buddhas had survived for more than 1,000 years under Muslim rulers. Furthermore, "some of the Buddhist and Hindu treasures [which the Taliban is determined to destroy] were almost certainly made after the Muslim conquest of Afghanistan." Therefore, the country's Muslim rulers tolerated the presence and practices of non-Muslim sects and subjects.
Referring to the Prophet Muhammad's clearance of the Ka'ba, Dr Khalidi says: "In fact, the oldest book about the history of Mecca reveals that amongst the paintings inside the Ka'bah was at least one of the Jesus and Mary which Muhammad preserved.
This meant certain types of iconography were accepted by Muhammad". This painting remained intact until AD 684. During a siege of Mecca, the rebel Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr set fire to the Ka'bah, then made of wood. Ibn al-Zubayr rebuilt the Ka'bah according to a larger plan before his fall in AD 692. "The real iconoclastic movement in Islam did not begin until the Abbasids took power in the ninth century", Dr Khalidi asserts.
The destruction of the Buddhas is not the only non-Islamic or anti-Islamic practice adopted by the Taliban which violates the Koranic edict, "There is no compulsion in religion" (Surah 2, verse 256). Nevertheless, the Taliban claims the destruction of the Buddhas is an "honour for Islam" while most Muslims are shamed and humiliated by the Taliban.