Mohd Kamilzuhairi Abd Aziz said Sheikh Abdurrahman Ibrahim Al-Rubai’in, a religious attache at the Saudi embassy, must back his claim with evidence.

Kamilzuhairi questioned how Shia Muslims could be considered a threat when they were only organising religious programmes and events to mourn the family members of the Prophet.

“Are these a threat to national security?” he asked after attending a gathering at the Iranian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, to express condolences over the death of decorated war general Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani was killed in Baghdad last week, in a drone attack ordered by President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Abdurrahman told a convention organised by a pro-Saudi group that Shia teachings posed the greatest challenge to Muslims.

He said it was futile to bring Sunnis and Shias together because Shias were deviant.

Malaysian Islamic authorities have over the years been enforcing a fatwa declaring Shia teachings as “deviant”, with raiding parties mostly targetting local Shias during the annual mourning ceremonies for Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet who is a central figure in Shia Islam.

Shia Islam is the second largest branch of Islam which is predominantly followed in Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon and several parts of Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Pakistan.

Kamilzuhairi meanwhile rejected the claim that Shia Muslims followed a different version of the Muslim holy book.

“If there are some who claim of a Shi’ite Quran, it is not true. How come the religious attache at the Saudi embassy knows more about this?” he said.