Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today that he will not apologise over his remark that jihad is being waged against the Pakatan Harapan government.

"Of course not," the Umno vice-president said when asked if he would do so.

Although the term 'jihad' is often interpreted as a holy war, Ismail told reporters at the Parliament lobby this morning that he used the word in the context of a struggle.

Yesterday, DAP lawmaker Lim Lip Eng demanded that Ismail retract his statement within 24 hours – failing which he would ask the police to investigate the Umno leader's "malicious and seditious hate speech."

Responding to Ismail's refusal to apologise today, Lim today said that the issue is not about waging jihad against Harapan, but the former's "outright lie" about the government being anti-Malay and anti-Islam. 

"I find this highly incendiary and seditious," he said. "I will lodge a police report over his statement tomorrow and he will have to face the full brunt of the law."

Read more: DAP MP cites court case to defuse Ismail Sabri's 'jihad'

At an event on Sunday night, Ismail described the Umno-PAS alliance as a "jihad" to overthrow the Harapan government, which he accused of being “anti-Malay” and “anti-Islam.”

Following this, Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the government would act against any party which made such allegations against the government.

Commenting on this, Ismail said if the government takes action against him, then it would show that freedom of expression is worse now than under the previous administration.