■Background Information■ LONDON (AP) -- One of Britain's most senior Muslim leaders said Thursday he was denied entry to the United States without explanation, nearly a week after the deadly subway and bus attacks in London.
A U.S. agency spokeswoman said customs agents had information that Dr. Zaki Badawi was ''inadmissible,'' but she could not elaborate.
Badawi, head of the Muslim College, had been invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., where he planned to give a talk under the title ''The Law and Religion in Society.''
But Badawi told The Associated Press that he was detained for about six hours upon arrival Wednesday in New York and questioned.
''America is a lovely country. There is no reason why it should behave like that,'' Badawi said in a telephone interview.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in New York said that when Badawi's flight from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport landed at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, customs agents had information saying he was ''inadmissible.''
Badawi then voluntarily withdrew his application to enter the country, Janet Rapaport said.
Rapaport said privacy rules prevented her from disclosing the specific information that was used to bar Badawi, and she said she did not know what database that information came from.
A federal security official said Badawi was nasmed on a U.S. terror watch list, but provided no further detail. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information.
The U.S. Embassy in London did not respond to a request to discuss the case.