Complaints were raised with police and organisers before the Understanding and Responding to Islam event at St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral in Wollongong.
No Muslim speakers at the event concerned many in the community.
But the Reverend Sandy Grant told the Mercury he was disappointed people didn’t raise these concerns with the church before the May 17 event organised by Christian organisation Leading The Way.
“What we had was complaints to the police without bothering to speak to us and a letter indicating we had to cancel the event,” Rev Grant said.
“I’m interested to know how does it promote community harmony to complain about people without talking to them first and to make calls to cancel an event based on false information.”
He said the Omar Mosque Wollongong chairman Dr Munir Hussain wrote a letter asking for the event to be cancelled because he had concerns about one of the speakers.
“I explained to him that his concerns were based on false information...and he seemed to accept this,” Rev Grant said.
“The police were excellent. They were in favour of free speech and they just wanted to check that we thought carefully about how to manage any disruption.”
The Mercury failed to register for the event in time and requests to attend on the night were knocked back by organisers.
Leading The Way’s Australia & New Zealand regional director Chris Makin was one of the speakers on the night, but requested Mercury questions be directed to Rev Grant.
Rev Grant said the event was aimed at the Christian community only. “It was an event to inform Christian people and advise them and help them understand another religion with a view to helping them share the gospel in love.” Rev Grant couldn’t understand why people were upset that there were no Muslim speakers at the event. “I think it is quite possible to understand and speak about different religions of the world. People do that in schools and universities every day of the week...”