RIP tugu negara
They are not, they just do it to show they are more religious and know the religion better to get more followers to follow them. The way it is engineered, you'll have more respect and follow the words of someone that understand the religion better than you. They just exploit on the loophole.

In these situation, the religion did say no idolizing statue. Those that oppose to demolish the statue will be seen as not understanding the religion enough. Whether the statue is demolish or not, it's a win-win situation for these exploiter.