With it being on his property, I would say he could cut it down if he wanted to. I would cut down a statue of Buddha, if it was on my property (or any other pagan or cultic statue).
The article said the stature was “outside the property.” A neighbor hearing about the Muslim’s trouble with the statue, offered to move it further away from his property. That would not do. There was no compromise from the intolerant Mussie, who in the words of the town’s mayor, was “radical”, “offensive”, and “inflammatory.”