“I will check on this first,” Saifuddin told FMT when asked whether the ban on Naik was still effective or had been withdrawn.

He was responding to DAP’s Klang MP V Ganabatirau, who urged the ministry yesterday to clarify the status of the directive after Naik gave a speech at an event in Perlis last month.

According to the Scoop news portal, Naik had given a speech before a crowd at the Perlis International Sunnah Convention 2025, held from Jan 24 to 26.

He reportedly called on Malaysian Muslims to intensify efforts to spread Islam, claiming that they were not fully utilising laws that permit the propagation of the faith to non-Muslims.

He also said Muslims would have to answer in the afterlife for their perceived lack of proselytising efforts.

Perlis mufti Asri Zainul Abidin had given Naik “permission” to give the speech, according to state fatwa committee member Rozaimi Ramle.

In August 2019, it was reported that the police had barred Naik from giving talks in Malaysia in the interest of national security and to preserve racial harmony.

However, in December 2021, Naik disagreed that there was a ban, saying the police had never conveyed such a message to him.

He also said he had checked with the chief secretary to the government then on this.

Yesterday, Naik’s lawyer, Akberdin Abdul Kader, contended that there was no such gag order on his client.

Naik, who currently resides in Malaysia, has been wanted by India since 2016 for alleged money laundering and inciting extremism through hate speech.

Last August, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said he would not consider extraditing Naik to India as long as the preacher avoided causing trouble.