KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — The absence of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s entourage during his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia has recently raised many eyebrows.

In a report by Free Malaysia Today (FMT), Amanah Communications Director Khalid Samad asked how a key official for the region with a ministerial status could be left out of the envoy, adding that social media has been abuzz with various theories on the reasoning behind it.

The Shah Alam MP added that one of the speculations making its rounds is that the UAE had declined to provide Hadi with a visa on the grounds that he is a member of an Islamic organisation which is still listed as a terrorist organisation by some countries in the region.

"It is not fair to make wild accusations but the government should not ignore the questions raised either. It is important for the prime minister’s office to clarify this and put a stop to the unhealthy debate in social media.

"If indeed a visa has been denied on this ground, the government must come clean and tell Malaysians the truth,” he told FMT.

Khalid further explained that if Hadi is not allowed to enter certain countries in the Middle East, then his appointment as a special envoy in the region is purposeless.

It has been reported that Hadi was the vice-president of the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which had been declared a terror group by the Anti-Terror Quarter of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The reports described the entity as an organisation working to promote terrorism through the exploitation of Islamic discourse and its use as a cover to facilitate various terrorist activities.

PAS and Hadi have denied that this outfit is a terror organisation, saying that Malaysia has not listed it as such.