Posted on 10/27/2006 8:20:59 AM PDT by XR7
Australia’s most senior Islamic cleric has defiantly refused to resign over remarks comparing unveiled women to uncovered meat, saying that he would only step down when the White House was "cleaned" out.
Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, who caused outrage by suggesting that women who chose not to cover themselves invited rape, was instead suspended from preaching for two to three months by the board of Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque Association.
But the ban has been deemed an insufficient response by critics - including John Howard, the country’s Prime Minister - who have called for the cleric’s resignation and urged the Muslim community to act decisively to repudiate his assertions.
Asked today if he would step down, the cleric, who was welcoming worshippers to Friday prayers at the mosque, responded with a verbal assault on the US President, saying: "After we clean the world of the White House first".
His spokesman said later that the cleric was making the point that George Bush’s foreign policy and invasion of Iraq were more deserving of criticism than a sermon. "He says he’s just a frail old cleric, not the President of the United States, and the media should not be so pedantic about his words," Keysar Trad said.
The 65-year-old cleric, who was born in Egypt, was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, saying that Mr Bush, Mr Howard and Tony Blair constituted an 'axis of evil' for declaring war on Saddam Hussein’s regime.
He also hit the Australian headlines for glorifying martyrdom and describing the September 11 attacks as "God’s work against the oppressors."
But any controversy he previously generated was overshadowed yesterday when his comments on women’s dress – first made a month’s ago at a Ramadan sermon - were revealed to the public.
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cat’s or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem," he said in the sermon.
The cleric also spoke of women who "sway suggestively", wore make-up and dressed immodestly "and then you get a judge without mercy and (he) gives you 55 years".
"The uncovered meat is the problem," he said. "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."
After receiving widespread condemnation, Sheikh al-Hilali issued a lengthy apology, insisting that he did not condone rape and claiming he had been misinterpreted by the press.
He said that a translation showed he was quoting an ancient Islamic scholar on the contentious remarks, echoing the storm created last month after Pope Benedict XVI made a speech in which he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor who linked Islam with violence.
Mr Howard, usually very cautious in reacting to such matters, slated the cleric and today urged Muslims in Australia to take further action against his comments to avoid being tarnished with the same brush.
"What I am saying to the Islamic community is this: If they do not resolve this matter, it could do lasting damage to the perceptions of that community within the broader Australian community," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"We do not want the Islamic community isolated. We do not want the Islamic community to be an object of criticism and derision."
"If it is not resolved, then unfortunately people will run around saying: ‘Well, the reason they didn’t get rid of him is because secretly some of them support his views,’" Mr Howard said, adding that the cleric was an Australian citizen and could not be deported.
But the Lakemba Mosque Association was adamant that the ban on preaching was sufficient and that "certain statements" made by Sheikh al-Hilali had been misinterpreted as he claimed.
"Obviously those comments have been made, but he provided us with an unequivocal apology for saying so," said Toufic Zreika, President of the Association.
Women’s groups and Muslim leader joined in Mr Howard’s denunciations. Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, accused Sheikh al-Hilali of inciting rape, and said the temporary ban on preaching was inadequate punishment.
"I know how strongly many Islamic community people felt about those comments yesterday, how damaging they saw them in terms of Australian-Islamic relations, and I think the pressure should not be taken off just because he has agreed to be silent for three months, which we have also seen before," she told ABD radio.
Waleed Aly, spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria state, said: "It would seem to us that the comments ... have really caused a lot of pain to a lot of people, and in those circumstances we would have thought resignation was the appropriate course of action."
There are almost 300,000 Muslims in Australia, constituting 1.5 per cent of the population. Many of them come from Lebanon and arrived during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war.
Jail him, or throw him out. Make an example out of him, and watch the other barbarians shape up.
So, he opens his mouth and inserts both feet; then says that he will only apologize when Bush leaves the White House?
Here's my suggestion, deport him back to Egypt on a private plane, let him out when he gets to Cairo; but don't sully the wheels of that plane with Egyptian dirt.
Lovely attitude. .....and one of the reasons why "uncovered" goats/sheep are living dangerously in Islamic countries.
Fog the Kasbah (with DDT, of course)
I've had many Muslim friends and just about all of them have very good marriages, kids and they contribute to society as scientist, engineers and doctors. They all live in the US and most are secular. One said "in other countries, what you see is a culture that has bodies but no heads". Joking aside, I tend to agree.
Deport his a**!
Meat? I think of uncovered women more like candy.
Like many north African cities, Sfax has an "old section" called the Medinah (think "the Casbah"), and a more modernized, Europeanized section of town.
I and several of my shipmates were walking around the alleys of the old section of town, and it just so happened that a young Muslim woman was walking down the alley ahead of us, covered from head to foot. She was not wearing a bhurka, but she had on a head scarf which she kept pulled over her face so that only her eyes were visible. Until she reached her house.
As she entered the door, she looked around at us, dropped the scarf so that we could see her face and smiled at us. She did so so surreptitiously that we could tell that she was intentionally violating some sort of cultural taboo, and probably wouldn't have done it if her daddy was watching.
Being ignorant of the local customs, we neglected to rape her. Bummer not understanding that if we'd raped her, it would have been her own damn fault... / sarc
The islamist view of human beings: as animals, no difference.
God help us all.
"Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, ..., was instead suspended from preaching for two to three months by the board of Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque Association."
Then they are not following the true teachings of Muhammad.
They are hypocrites.
They oughta get with the program and denounce Islam.
Deport him in a Row Boat with a Jug of Water and 2 paddles, approximately 10 miles off shore. Since he is such a holy man, he should have no trouble making it to Egypt.
RamS
Same as the view of every secular university and public school in the good ol' U.S.A.
Even more stunning?
This "holy man" is Australia's "most senior Islamic cleric."
Gives you warm fuzzies, eh?
Mmmmmmm meat.... [drool]
Christians fear Muslin reaction. Muslims need to starting fearing Christian reaction.
I see. And these are the Allah's chosen ones, huh? My,my but that does say an awful lot about their god, doesn't it?
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