Followers of the Satanic Temple will not be allowed to give the opening prayer at an upcoming Scottsdale City Council meeting.

On Monday the city released a statement saying it will not "deviate" from what it calls a “long standing practice" of having the prayer given only by institutions that have a substantial connection to the Scottsdale community.

“Not only did they make that standard up to block us," said Stu De Haan, one of the leaders of the Arizona chapter of the Satanic Temple. “They also made a determination that we have no people, there are no community ties to Scottsdale, without ever investigating it as far as I know."

While their temple is based in Tucson, De Haan said they are a legitimate, statewide religion and is puzzled because the city originally put them on the calendar. De Haan said no one ever explained there were any criteria for giving the prayer. The city would not grant interviews or elaborate on exactly how the decision was made.

But at least one Scottsdale city leader has made her stance known. Council member Suzanne Klapp wrote on her website in March that "Fault me if you want, but enough is enough when a Satanist group, not even based in Scottsdale, wants to disrupt our meetings by giving an invocation to the entire Council meeting audience. And it is certain this will be a disruption."

She wrote that "a rule must be established about who can come and what kind of message is expected" and there "isn't a current rule related to the invocation."

Last year, the Satanic Temple was at the center of a controversy after trying to give the invocation at a Phoenix council meeting. That led city leaders to eventually change the policy to stop them.

De Haan said they have not decided whether or not to take legal action. They had originally been scheduled to give the prayer in April, but due to "logistical reasons" they rescheduled it for July 6.

Editor's Note: Stu De Haan's name was updated with correct spelling.