Posted on 10/28/2006 12:44:45 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Australia's top Muslim cleric has been barred from preaching for up to three months, after comparing immodestly dressed women to "uncovered meat".
Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali's comments, suggesting that women who did not wear a headscarf attracted sexual assault, have caused a storm of protest.
Sydney's mosque association said the suspension would give the cleric time to consider the impact of his words.
But Australian Premier John Howard said the action was insufficient.
Many people - including some Muslim leaders - have called for the cleric to be dismissed from office.
Sheikh Hilali sparked more controversy on Friday when, asked by reporters if he would resign, he responded: "After we clean the world of the White House first."
His comments, made outside his mosque in Sydney after Friday prayers, prompted a round of applause from supporters.
Apology
Sheikh Hilali's comments about women's dress were delivered in a sermon to some 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
But it was not until they were published in The Australian newspaper on Thursday that a wave of anger was unleashed.
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside... and the cats come and eat it... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat?" Sheikh Hilali is quoted as asking during the sermon.
The uncovered meat is the problem, he went on to say.
"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab [headscarf], no problem would have occurred," he added.
Sheikh Hilali has since apologised for his comments, which he said had been misinterpreted and taken out of context.
"I unreservedly apologise to any woman who is offended by my comments. I had only intended to protect women's honour," he said in a statement published in The Australian.
"Women in our Australian society have the freedom and the right to dress as they choose," he added.
Muslim leaders decided to accept his apology and said that no action would be taken against the cleric.
Mosque Association president Tom Zreika said the board was "basically satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti [were] misrepresented".
"We felt the three months away would give him time to mull over what's been said," Mr Zreika told reporters.
But many other Australians feel more action should be taken against Sheikh Hilali.
"I believe that unless this matter is satisfactorily resolved by the Islamic community, there is a real worry that some lasting damage will be done," Prime Minister John Howard told Australian radio.
"I think what he's done is so unacceptable and so out of line with not only mainstream Australian opinion but... mainstream Muslim opinion."
"I know how strongly many Islamic community people felt about those comments yesterday, how damaging they saw them in terms of Australian-Islamic relations," added Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward.
"I think the pressure should not be taken off just because he has agreed to be silent for three months."
Sheikh Hilali has courted controversy in the past, claiming in a 2004 sermon that the September 2001 attacks in the US had been "God's work against oppressors".
Hopefully, by the neck on a rope -- with those Muslims who have raped "uncovered" non-Muslim Australian girls.
Like this.
Semper Fi
I guess that clears up whether this guy is a citizen or not,
I had posed the question a couple of days ago on a simular thread.
If it weren't for Islam's history of less-than-equal treatment of women, with its history of rape (especially in Australia), or what have you, I don't think this guy would have caught so much flack. But that's a big "IF."
Well, eloquence and tact are completely out the window with him, as well.
That said, I have seen more than a few cases chaperoning high school dances where the girls most definitely dressed to catch attention and most definitely caught it--in a way that they didn't want. Doesn't at all excuse the "guy," but there comes a point where dressing like a prostitute attracts a particular specimen...
Really cannot find any good reason for muslims to be in Australia.
Everywhere in the world that muslims go, they cause trouble.
P.O.S. should be hung.
Deport the Islamderthal back to Egpyt where he belongs.
That's hanged. ;^)
No one forced Australia to even have a Muslim community. Australians in general should take three months to mull over what they've done. Europeans and Americans should do the same...
Grut, you can do it any way you care to, but this turd deserves a serious lesson as do his uneducated followers.
Ya beat me to it, dang.
Surely Australia has some that can take this obscene verbal gesture on and beat the muslim dogs like a rented camel.. -OR- has Austalian men become scared kitty cats..
Get a few friends out with some rifles, and go hunting feral cats. Let's see how long he's willing to support the analogy when there's no more cats to eat the 'meat'.
After all, we shoot thieving animals. And calling these people animals demeans cats and dogs alike.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.