A group called the Christian Save the Sheik Coalition says it has collected thousands of signatures on a petition to prevent the deportation from Australia of Iranian cleric Dr Mansour Leghaei. Dr Leghaei, a moderate Iranian Shia who has lived in in Australia for 16 years, has been declared a security threat by ASIO, The Australian reports.
The reasons for the ASIO assessment have not been publicly revealed.
Anglican priest Dave Smith said he could guarantee that Dr Leghaei was not a threat to national security and called on the minister to order a new security assessment.
Dr Leghaei has been given until March 19 to leave the country, after an immigration appeals tribunal rejected his final application to remain here.
His lawyer, Stephen Hopper, said the sheik would make representations to Immigration Minister Chris Evans to intervene in the case and use his ministerial discretion to halt the planned deportation.
Dr Leghaei, who preaches at the Imam Husain Islamic Centre in Earlwood in Sydney's inner-southwest, is the head of a local interfaith committee and has been instrumental in building bridges between the ethnically and religiously diverse communities in Sydney's inner-west and inner-southwest.
The Christian coalition includes Anglican, Catholic, indigenous and Muslim community leaders, including the professor who formerly headed up the Cancer Council, Alan Coates, boxer Nader Hamden and Marrickville Mayor Sam Iskander.
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