"The department checks each individual againstthe movement alert list, which contains approximately three million records ofpersons of concern, including those who may pose a national securityrisk," said Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews.
He confirmed that Bilal Philips, a 50-year-oldCanadian citizen who lives in
Jamaican-born Philips was invited to speak at theAustralian Islamic Conference at
Saudi-based academic Jaafer Idris, also invited tospeak in the conference, has been asked to show the cause why he should beallowed to enter the country.
It was unlikely that 76-year-old scholar would beable to provide information in time to attend the three-day meeting, themed"Islamic values are universal values".
Andrews defended the treatment of Muslim scholarssaying it was the regular procedures.
"It's unrelated to religion," he told thelocal ABC radio.
"It's related to whether there is a risk to ournational security, whether there is a risk to vilification of segments of theAustralian community, inciting discord, these are the sorts of criteria whichare looked at under these provisions."
Unjustified
Mercy
"We were obviously surprised and disappointedof course, because we were looking forward to his attendance," AdelSelman, of Mercy Mission, told The Age newspaper.
"We would not have invited those two speakersif we thought they would not bring value to our conference."
The Muslim group issued a statement criticizing thegovernment's claim that Philips was posing a security threat and preachingviolence.
"To our knowledge, Dr Bilal Philips is notlinked to any acts of terrorism, nor does he support any terroristactivities."
It noted that Philips was a regular visitor to manycountries, including the
"Mercy
The Muslim organization said it still plans to bringthe two scholars to
"We still believe that their presence herewould be of benefit to Australian Muslims and the broader Australiansociety," Selman told the daily.
"So yes, we would hope that one day, God willing,that we would be able to bring them out to
Muslims, estimated at 300,000, make up 1.5 percentof
Australian Muslims have regretted intolerance in