Muslim leaders have expressed concerns that Australians travelling to Saudi Arabia during the traditional Hajj pilgrimage, which starts next month, may be caught up by the new anti-terrorism units operating at Australian airports.
Sydney community leader, Dr Jamal Rifi, discussed the issue with the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, during an interview on Arabic radio on Friday.
The concerns were raised as reports emerged the federal government had paid for new airline tickets for a young Melbourne couple to travel to Malaysia on holiday after the husband was removed from a flight last week, detained and questioned for five hours before being released.
Dr Rifi said he wanted to alert the federal government to "anxiety" in the community that people may be targeted by the units if they join the thousands of Australian Muslims who usually travel on the annual pilgrimage.
The pilgrimmage to Mecca is one of the five pillars of the Islam faith, and attracts hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world.
Mr Morrison reassured listeners of the Voice of Islam that people who had "legitimate" reasons for travel shouldn't be concerned.
"I would expect my agencies to be acting with sensitivity and commonsense, regardless of who they [the passengers] are, where they are from, and where they are travelling," said Mr Morrison.
Dr Rifi said Attorney General George Brandis had specifically told Muslim leaders at a meeting in Sydney on Friday afternoon that travelling for the Hajj is a "legitimate" reason for travel.
Anxieties in the community have been heightened after the government revealed five people had been stopped at airports recently and prevented from leaving the country because of fears they were planning to travel to conflicts zones,
On Friday Britain raised its terrorism threat level to "severe", the second highest level, in response to possible attacks being planned.
In Sydney's south-western suburbs, the Muslim community has witnessed a spike in hate mail being sent to business owners in Lakemba and Greenacre. In one case a business owner was threatened if he did not remove the flags that were flying at the front of his shop.
Dr Rifi said the current climate was causing problems for Muslims and he is promoting a "Muslims love Australia for 100 years" campaign to maintain community unity.
A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison did not answer questions about the government paying for the flights of the Melbourne couple to travel to Malaysia, but did say, "This is not related to the cases referred to by the Minister in Parliament [last week]."
Muslims leaders released a statement in the wake of the meeting with Mr Brandis saying the proposed amendments to anti-terrorism laws infinge on the rights to a presumption of innonence.
The leaders also criticised the government for only circulating the draft amendments 30 minutes before the meeting saying it could not be serious about real community consultation. The statement called for "civil liberities and human rights organisations around Australia to join us in demanding the government take a more considered and genuine consultative approach".
But Dr Rifi responded to criticisms in the media by other leaders who had not attended the meeting, saying he believed it was a "genuine heart to heart discussion".
He said Mr Brandis had allayed many community fears especially when he announced there was no reversal of the onus of proof in the legisalation.
