“I have to say, even being on the evil, misnagdish, hater side myself, I don’t see why we say putting pictures in a stroller, Sphardim kissing pictures of the Baba Sali is all fine, but when you put the picture under a pillow it’s full blown avoida zara.”
I see two very different things here. Putting pictures in a stroller gives the kid something Jewish and good to look at, and it can hopefully make a good impression on him in later life.
Kissing pictures of Baba Sali sounds just as bad as putting pictures of the Lubavitcher rebbe under the baby’s head where it can’t be seen. I’ve never seen sfardim kissing pictures of the Baba Sali and I hope that they actually don’t, but I have seen pictures of the lubavitcher rebbe being put under babies’ heads at a bris.
And for your information Sechel HaYashar, I don’t know how old you are but I’m old enough to have been at many lubavitcher brissos before anybody ever thought of being a meshichist, throughout all the 80s and early 90s, and they were ALL putting pictures of the lubavitcher rebbe under the babies’ heads with the explicit claim that it is a lubavicher minhog.