Destroying Langkawi's eagle statue won't make Malays more Islamic: Dr M.
KUALA LUMPUR — Destroying the iconic Eagle of Langkawi statue will not make the Malays more Muslim, Malaysia's former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in a blog post criticising a deputy mufti's call for its destruction.
He noted that no Muslims have ever prayed to the monument, and said Malays will only deviate from the teachings of Islam if they begin worshipping the Eagle statue.
"The Islamic injunction is against regarding carved images as gods to be worshipped. Islamic art is confined to geometric designs.
"Modern Muslims know that these are not gods and they don't worship them… 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," he said in his latest posting.
"So far no Muslims have ever prayed before or worshipped the Eagle of Langkawi. Destroying it would not make the Malays more Muslim," Dr Mahathir added.
A week ago, Perak deputy mufti Zamri Hashim had in a column in local daily Berita Harian written that it was forbidden in Islam to make full-bodied statues of living creatures such as humans or animals, citing consensus of Muslim scholars from all Sunni schools of jurisprudenc
The Ipoh chief of Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) also said that if such statues have already been built, its demolition is "wajib" or compulsory.
Mr Zamri's view was heavily criticised but Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria defended his deputy's views.
Dr Mahathir said that, at one point, the ulama, deemed today as the highest authority on Islam, even banned photos, but suggested that even the Malays thought little of such fatwas.
"Islam forbids carvings of statues of men and animals. 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," he said.
"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," Dr Mahathir added.
According to the former prime minister, early Muslims may have disfigured the faces of some of the statues found in the lands that they conquered, but the practice eventually disappeared because no one worshipped the statues.
He cited Egypt as an example, noting that most of the pharaoh statues were preserved while new copies of the statues decorate the streets of Cairo.
Malaysia, on the other hand, has its own iconic statues like the National Monument and the statue of the first prime minister of the country, but yet Muslims here have no qualms about them, he added.
"Apparently, Muslim thinking about statues is ambivalent," he said.
After much criticism Mr Zamri claimed he was misquoted over the issue, saying he never referred to Langkawi's iconic eagle replica or the National Monument here.
Sinar Online reported Mr Zamri as saying in Ipoh that his opposition to the construction of full-scale replicas of animals was only in response to a question by a local authority in the state, who had asked for advice about building a replica at a new location. MALAY MAIL ONLINE
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