Posted on 05/14/2005 6:31:44 AM PDT by Cornpone
Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali is Australia's most senior Muslim cleric or Mufti.
He is currently on a mercy mission in Iraq, hoping his influence can save the life of Australian hostage Douglas Wood.
"We feel for Australians and we will do our best to bring our brother, Douglas Wood, home," he told reporters at Sydney airport before he left.
To his supporters, Sheikh Taj is a charismatic figure.
But his opponents see him as a menace. They have accused him of praising suicide bombers and claiming the attacks in the United States on 11 September were "God's work against oppressors".
The Egyptian-born cleric has insisted his remarks - spoken in Arabic on a trip to the Middle East last year - were misinterpreted, and that he is committed to fighting Islamic fundamentalism.
"My stand is very clear. I have a long history of condemning violence and extremism," Sheikh Taj told the BBC through an interpreter.
"I was amongst the first people to condemn the 11 September tragedy and those behind it," he said.
Criticism of the US
However, the sheikh remains a fierce critic of the Americans.
My experiences... would tend to indicate that he represents a relatively small portion of that community at the very most
Jeremy Jones, Executive Council of Australian Jewry
"I see extremism of any sort to be just as dangerous - or more dangerous - than Aids," he said.
"One of the causes of extremism is the dictatorial regimes that the United States has created, and continues to support, in a number of different countries - and also its one-eyed stand towards Israel and its genocide against the Palestinian people," he added.
The Mufti is the imam at the Lakemba Mosque in suburban Sydney. His power base lies within the local Lebanese community.
He was appointed Mufti by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, an influential Muslim organisation.
However, because there is no real hierarchy among imams in Australia, his position is seen by some as largely symbolic.
Jewish leaders have accused him of anti-Semitism and have been dismissive of his claims to represent moderate Islam.
Jeremy Jones from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said that since Sheikh Taj arrived in the country more than 20 years ago, he has been a marginal figure.
"My experiences with Muslims in Australia would tend to indicate that he represents a relatively small portion of that community at the very most," Mr Jones said.
Divided appeal
There are about 300,000 Muslims in Australia. Many were born in the country, while others have come from more than 70 other nations, including Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq.
Sheikh Taj hopes to win the release of Australian Douglas Wood
Kurander Seyit, the publisher of an Islamic newspaper in Sydney, says that among certain sections of the Muslim population, the Sheikh is extremely popular.
"He says what the community wants to hear. He's very outspoken in that regard, because he doesn't just take a timid role," he said.
However Kurander Seyit believes that not all Australian Muslims see the 64-year-old cleric as their spiritual leader.
"He's not really well-known outside the Arabic community, so a lot of the Indian, Pakistani - or even the Turkish, Indonesian or Bosnian communities - they know of him and have all heard about him, but really there's not much [of a] relationship there," he said.
Muslims in Australia often employ imams from abroad rather than use locals.
Sheikh Taj was working in Lebanon when he was recruited.
More than two decades later, his grasp of English still appears to be rather shaky.
Professor Ahmad Shboul, from the University of Sydney, believes that importing foreign imams can have its problems.
"The majority who come from overseas... don't have good English and it takes them a long time to get a feel of the culture here, so they might be talking out of context for many people, especially the young," he said.
Despite the controversy that surrounds him, the Mufti has said he is determined to be a unifying figure of peace and moderation at a time when Islamic extremism is heating up.
The family of hostage Douglas Wood is praying the sheikh can deliver the ultimate prize during his time in Baghdad - the life of the 63-year-old Australian engineer.
Is it possible to get recordings(and accurate translation)of this Mullah preaching to his followers?We had same problem here with Sami Al Arian(professor/terrorist at USF)ie he'd present one face for the public at large,and another for the Muslim/terrorist faithful.
Valin,
Aren't you doing some recordings? Maybe you can answer this question...Cornpone
Alas no.
thombo, you might check with
Jihad Watch?
http://jihadwatch.org/
MEMRI
http://www.memri.org/
And (of course) Daniel Pipes
http://www.danielpipes.org/
Here's another possibility that might prove interesting...Palestinian Media Watch (video and print)...they do translate Arabic into English but it isn't always current...Thanks for the tips Valin...Cornpone
http://www.pmw.org.il/index.html
Hooray for me! :-)
Thanks for the info.Bookmarked Jihad Watch previously,will ck out the other sites.It should be obvious to anyone with even a marginal IQ that they(muslim extremists)have an agenda that is anti-US,anti-Christian,anti-democracy,....Of course the msm continue to downplay the threat.
BTW,have you read "American Jihad" by Steven Emerson or "Bin Laden" by Yossef Bodansky? Very informative books.
yes/ no
I have read (parts) of Yossef Bodansky's "the secret History of the Iraq War" I found it...interesting. The MAJOR problem I had with it was NO FOOTNOTE. He make a lot of statement and doesn't back them up with any sources.
I must admit I obsess on this subject more than is probably healthful. (I REALLY need a life :-))
I'm now in the middle of Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam
by Gilles Kepel
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674010906/qid=1116087905/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-7990942-7680624
In this history of fundamentalist Islam, Kepel stands conventional wisdom on its head, asserting that the spate of Islamist violence during the last few years is a result not of the movement's success, but of its failure. A professor at Paris's Institute for Political Studies, Kepel clearly traces the rise of the contemporary Islamist movement from its origins in the mid-20th century through its later appearance in countries such as Malaysia, Algeria and Turkey, as well as in Western Europe. Its apogee, he argues cogently, was the 1979 revolution in Iran that brought about the defeat of the Shah and the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic regime. But while ideologies that fused Islam with political power gained adherents throughout the world in the ensuing 20 years, says Kepel, in no other country were Islamists able to seize and hold power for more than a few years, a factor that he attributes to the ideology's inability to attract both the middle class and the poor. "Muslims no longer view Islamism as the source of utopia, and this more pragmatic vision augurs well for the future," he writes. Despite some outpourings of support, he believes, Osama bin Laden and his followers squandered much of the movement's political capital with its attacks on American institutions, most notably the World Trade Center. Kepel's approach is not without weaknesses in many places around the globe, fundamentalist political Islam has transformed society and politics, even if Islamists have not been able to attain political rule. But amid the plethora of books on Islam released since September 11, this work stands out, both for its erudition and its provocative thesis.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Highly recomendeed, a good history of the modern Jihadist movement.
As I recall, Conor Cruise O'Brian gave the White House English translations of Jerry Adams Irish-language anti-American rants.
Good for Mr. O'B!
Fair play to him!
RE:Terrorism,"I must admit i obsess more than is probably healthful"I know the feeling.What exasperates that situation is knowing(or feeling)the vast majority of Americans appear content to remain blissfully ignorant to the very real threat of terrorism in our own country.It's as though,as long as we have our SUV's,cell phones,big screen tv's,etc,everything's just hunkydory.BTW,if a topic gets to be too much for me,i just put it down for a while:)
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.