re"Some, however, under the influence of Islam that pressed against the empire so persistently, began to insist that the icons were indeed idolatrous, and had to be destroyed in order to turn away the divine wrath. "
Primitive islamists think they do non-muslims a favor by destroying art (pictures, sculptures) because they think people are stupid like muslims and will fall down and worship the image. Interestingly, islamists don't destroy MOVING pictures (multiples of images presented at fast speed) because they are so retarded they haven't figured out moving pictures are also images.
It's hard to argue that Islam drove iconoclasm within the Byzantine Empire because of how ubiquitous totally not idols bro graven images used in religious worship were (and are) in the Eastern Orthodox church. Additionally, the Byzantines weren't greatly culturally influenced by their Muslim mortal enemies. At least so long as they were Byzantines and not conquered by the Muslims. After that conquest, I do agree the Muslims did everything they could to destroy religious icons.
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