Is idol destruction a form of religious intolerance?

I am writing an essay in which I have to tackle a very hard question which is "Why did Holy Prophet (PBUH) destroy the idols upon conquest of Mecca. Isn't this a form of religious intolerance and goes in direct contradiction of the verse "There should be no compulsion in religion." Now I came up with the answer to justify the need of disappearance of idols. That is, the Holy Kaaba has been the place of Allah since the era of Abraham. Thus this signifies that if pagans were to bring idols in the Kaaba, they would be being religiously disrespectful. This is the same as performing Muslim prayers in Churches which would obviously be offensive to the Christians. However, the disappearance can be done in two ways. Removal and destruction where the former seems to be tolerant. Can anybody provide me the reason for destroying the idols which is based primarily on logic? It appears that many people have taken my question in the wrong direction. What I meant to ask is why did Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) seemed it necessary to destroy the idols when the removal (ask the non-believers to take their idols away) **seems to be a valid option?**