It’s not Biblical. Don’t make an idol out of a tree.
I don’t think they were idolizing the tree, it is just a symbol of faith, it is like vandalizing Crosses at Churches or cutting the head off of a Statue of Mary..It is mean, it is evil, it is dis-respectful and it is unlawful.
There's nothing wrong with it. A relic or artifact merely provides a connection to a long past event. It's evidence-- a physical representation of history that has lasted through centuries. Nobody is worshipping it.
It's one thing to read a story about something that existed centuries ago. It's quite another to actually be able to go there and touch a piece of it. It true of any historical artifact.
They didn't worship the tree. The tree was, according to legend, planted by Joseph. It's something spiritual.
Please avoid the religious strawman arguments.
The people who swed off all its limbs did so, not because they dislike trees, but because they dislike Christianity. If it were the limb-hackers' own tree--- a tree they owned ---it would be distasteful to maim it. Since it is somebody else's tree, it is a criminal offense as well as a symbolic act of odium Dei