One of Britain's leading Muslim theologians has been refused entry into the United States just days after condemning last week's London bombs that killed 54 people.
Zaki Badawi, the founder of the Muslim College in London and the unofficial leader of the country's Muslims, was refused entry at New York's JFK airport when he arrived on Wednesday and, after hours of talks, returned to England.
A Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said Mr Badawi was detained for questioning and told he would not be allowed to enter the United States.
"He voluntarily withdrew his application for entry to the United States after being presented with his options," she said.
She would not explain what those options were and would not say why Mr Badawi was being refused entry.
On Sunday, standing alongside Christian and Jewish leaders, Mr Badawi condemned the London suicide bombings - carried out by three British men of Pakistani origin and one man of Jamaican origin - as "totally contrary to Islam".
He added that the bombs were "an evil that cannot be justified and that we utterly condemn and reject".
Mr Badawi, born in Egypt in 1922 and who first came to Britain more than half a century ago, is a leading Islamic scholar and promoter of contacts between the different religions.
He writes and lectures on a wide variety of issues including human rights, female circumcision, the rights of unborn children and the place of Islam in Britain.