Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send an official letter to the Indian government to explain Malaysia’s stance for not sending back controversial Muslim televangelist Zakir Naik to his country of origin, reports the star online.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said he would discuss with Attorney-General Tommy Thomas to provide accurate content for the letter.

"There was a request from India and Prime Minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) had already explained why we didn’t send (Zakir) back.

"During my meeting with my counterpart from India (S Jaishankar) last week in Bangkok, in conjunction with the 35th ASEAN Summit, he had politely raised the issue and had asked us to send a letter as an official reply from us, ” he added on Thursday (Nov 7).

Earlier, during a religious talk in the country on Aug 8, Naik responded to calls for his deportation by saying that the Malaysian Chinese should "go back" first as they were the "old guests" of the country.

Recently, it was reported that several states of Malaysia including Penang, Perlis, Kedah and Sarawak have banned Naik from speaking publicly in their states.

India banned Naik's Islamic Research Foundation in late 2016, accusing him of encouraging and aiding its followers to "promote or attempt to promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities and groups."