Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said demolishing the iconic eagle statue in his home state of Kedah is not going to make Malays more Muslim than they already are.

He said this in reference over the religious view that statues of living creatures are "haram".

Mahathir pointed out that the Islamic injunction is only with regard to carved images being worshipped as gods.

"The day some Muslims place joss-sticks and genuflect before the eagle in Langkawi, that day the offending Muslim should be told that they are not following the injunctions of Islam.

"They should be told that the eagle is not god to be worshipped. So far no Muslims have ever prayed before or worshipped the eagle of Langkawi.

"Destroying it would not make the Malays more Muslim," he said in a blog posting today.

Mahathir also explained that the Islamic injunction in this regard had also evolved over time.

"At one time, painted portraits of such were also forbidden. The Turkish Caliphs used to have their portraits painted but they were hidden from the public.

"But now with the advances in photography it is impossible for Muslims to ban photographic pictures of men and animals. Certain ulamas declared that still pictures may be exempted but not moving pictures.

"But now the pictures move and speak. Muslims now just ignore the breaches in the rule against painted or photographed portraits, moving or speaking.

"Even the religious scholars now have their pictures taken," he said.

He said that even in Muslim-majority Egypt, the statues of the pharaohs are preserved and copies made.

“In Malaysia, we have the National Monument and the statue of the first prime minister of the country.

"The modern Muslims know that these are not gods and they don’t worship them.

"We no longer hold the ceremony at the cenotaph (Tugu Peringatan) as that may be construed as a kind of prayer.

"But we don’t have such ceremonies in front of the statue of the first prime minister or the eagle in Langkawi. We are not breaching Islamic injunction," he said.

He added that Muslims today are more intelligent and will know not to worship statues or portraits.