Posted on 10/31/2006 6:33:39 AM PST by Valin
Australia's most senior Muslim cleric will not resign in an escalating row over a series of provocative remarks, his spokesman said, even as Islamic community leaders urged him to step down. Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, who is already at the eye of a national storm after saying scantily-clad women invited sexual attack, was quoted as hailing militant fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he appeared determined to tough it out. "He is not going to step aside," the Egyptian-born cleric's friend and spokesman Keysar Trad said, citing a statement the mufti was set to release later Monday. "I certainly hope that he doesn't change his mind. I hope he stays in his position and weathers this storm," Trad added.
The preacher was quoted as saying in an Arabic-language radio interview earlier this month that jihadists fighting US and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as those fighting Israel, were liberators. "Jihad of the liberators of Palestine, that's the greatest and cleanest and highest," he said. "We are talking about jihad of liberating our land, jihad of Muslim Afghans in their land -- that's jihad," he added. Hilali is already under fierce pressure after comparing immodestly-dressed women to "uncovered meat" inviting attack from predators.
Some senior Australian Muslims said enough was enough and that the cleric's unguarded comments were seriously damaging the Islamic community. "The right decision is for him to step down. As soon as he does make the decision, the better," said Lebanese community leader Jamal Rifi, who described himself as a friend of Hilali. "When he realises the magnitude of the damage he has caused the society, he will reach the decision himself. "We have been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons and as long as he is the religious leader of this community, we will be under the spotlight for the wrong reasons," he told Sky News.
Rifi predicted that the Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the mosque where Hilali made the comments about women in a sermon last month, would likely sack the cleric unless he stepped down. Hilali on Friday described the row as "a storm in a cup," but "I and many of my community see it as a category five cyclone," Rifi told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, predicting Hilali would quit within 24 hours. But the cleric's spokesman said he was being "unfairly pilloried" and had already apologised to anyone who had interpreted the message in his sermon, which was translated and published in a newspaper last week, as one of women inviting rape. The comments were simply part of an appropriate "fire and brimstone" message on adultery and modesty, said Trad of the cleric who has agreed to take a break from preaching for two to three months. But Hilali added fuel to the fire on Friday, when he vowed not to resign until the world was "clean" of the White House, comments that enraged many in a country that is closely allied with the United States.
Conservative Prime Minister John Howard also ratcheted up the pressure on the besieged cleric, saying Monday that Hilali had tarnished the reputation of Muslims. "One of the things that does bother me is that when he goes overseas he carries the title of Mufti of Australia and that represents to the world a view of Australian Islam which I feel very uncomfortable with," Howard said. "We can appeal, as I am again doing this morning, to the Islamic community who I want to be fully and comfortably part of the mainstream of Australia," he told Macquarie Radio "We're appealing to those people to understand the damage that will be done to the perception of their own community if they do not deal with this issue."
If any male Muslim leader rationalizes rape by blaming the woman, then that male Muslim leader deserves to get anally raped in your nearest prison.
And simply because I said so, this makes it right.
Works for me. Although I would make one small change..."Tools", they are our friend.
They are proud of their ignorance, stupidity and backwardness. After all, it's what makes them Muslims in the first place. Without it, they would just be like your average normal human being.
And of course, Allah forbids this.
Deport quickly. I don't know what the Aussies are waiting for. His apology was pathetic, made only to ensure his continued presence there. No one in Australia can possibly believe he has changed his mind.
They feel precisely the same way he feels, except that they are better at being quiet about it.
Not "scantily clad" women who the Imam says are OK to rape.
IIRC he says it is OK to rape women who are wearing the hijab.
Return him to Egpyt. Via being dumped out of plane at 40,000 feet.
Some senior Australian Muslims said enough was enough and that the cleric's unguarded comments were seriously damaging the Islamic community. "The right decision is for him to step down. As soon as he does make the decision, the better," said Lebanese community leader Jamal Rifi, who described himself as a friend of Hilali. "When he realizes the magnitude of the damage he has caused the society, he will reach the decision himself. "We have been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons and as long as he is the religious leader of this community, we will be under the spotlight for the wrong reasons," he told Sky News.Translation: It isn't WHAT he said but that he said it TO OUTSIDERS.
Some senior Australian Muslims said enough was enough and that the cleric's unguarded comments were seriously informative to those outside the Islamic community. "The right decision is for him to step down. As soon as he does make the decision, the better," said Lebanese community leader Jamal Rifi, who described himself as a friend of Hilali. "When he realizes the magnitude of the revelation he made about OUR society, he will reach the decision himself. "We have been under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons –like the things we believe and enjoin– and as long as he is the religious leader of this community, we will be under the spotlight for the wrong reasons," he told Sky News.
It's a plan. OTOH why go all the way? Sharks gotta eat too.
Why don't the aussies just embrace islamic culture and cut his fool head off ?
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