KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa came out again today to explain his engagement with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community last week, insisting he was neither dictating or yielding to them.

The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department insisted that comments he made to the press after meeting with a LGBT activist on Friday were not orders or directives, but his personal views on matters such as the use of gender-specific washrooms by transgenders, among others.

"Whatever the case, I apologise to any parties who feel offended by the arising confusion and withdraw any inappropriate remarks,” he said in a statement today.

The minister in charge of Islamic affairs also asked detractors to stop manipulating his remarks or drawing conclusions from these, saying he was not bending over backwards to accommodate the LGBT community.

He stressed that it was not anyone’s place to judge others, and said it was instead everyone’s duty to save one another.

The minister did not elaborate on what was required to "save” others.

Mujahid courted controversy when he ordered organisers at the George Town Festival 2018 to remove the portraits of LGBT activists Pang Khee Teik and Nisha Ayub last week.

He met with Nisha on Friday in an attempt to defuse the situation, but the meeting only served to renew the controversy.