"If a Chinese man and a Malay man steal something together, according to what they (PAS) are proposing now, the Malay's hand will be chopped off, but the Chinese will only go to jail for two months," he told a dialogue during the book launch of " Apa Habaq Orang Muda" in Kuala Lumpur today.
The event was streamed 'live' on Kelab Che Det's Facebook page.
Mahathir used the example in trying to emphasise laws are only truly Islamic if they were just.
"Is that (duality of punishment) justice? I don't think you will say it is justice.
"Justice can only be achieved if the punishment is the same for both.
"In this case, the punishments are different, they are not just, and therefore not Islamic," he said.
Mahathir said just because we are an Islamic state doesn't mean we have to be extreme.
"Claiming a country to be an Islamic state doesn't mean we have to be extreme or not take into account the multi-racial and multi-religious character of our country," he said.
He said the country is governed by both common law and syariah law and in both instances, justice takes precedence.
"There are 42 verses in the Quran that says when you judge, judge with justice.
"That is the principle we hold on to when we use conventional or syariah law," he said.
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