Islamic's prophet comments 'dangerous': cleric

AUSTRALIA'S most senior Islamic cleric has called for a Muslim leader to be ostracised over comments about the prophet Mohammed that he likened to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses.

Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly yesterday accused the chairman of John Howard's Islamic reference board, Ameer Ali, of selling out his religion to gain the support and financial backing of Muslim critics.

Dr Ali said in The Australian yesterday that Mohammed had flaws, and criticised Muslims who blindly follow the faith and failed to question the veracity of the Koran.

Sheik Hilaly, the head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest, said Dr Ali's "defamatory" remarks were akin to those that in 1989 earned Rushdie a fatwa from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.

While Sheik Hilaly backed Dr Ali's call for a reinterpretation of the Koran to fit modern times, he condemned his "dangerous" and "ignorant" comments about the prophet.

"We forbid such statements, from both Ameer Ali and anyone who has encouraged him to say what he said," Sheik Hilaly said in an interview conducted in Arabic.

The Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Taj Al-Din Hamed Abdallah Al-Hilali, was born in Egypt's Suhag district in 1941. He graduated from Al-Azhar University and served as a preacher in Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon. In 1982 he came to Australia, and in 1988 he was appointed to his present position by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. The following is a collection of speeches and writings by Mufti Al-Hilali: (1)
A Call for Jihad from Lebanon

In a February 13, 2004 sermon at the Al-Quds mosque while on a visit to Sidon, Lebanon, the Mufti of Australia and New Zealand, Taj Al-Din Al-Hilali, called for Jihad against Israel, and added: "The war waged by the U.S. and Israel against the Muslims is a cruel war aimed at annihilating the [Islamic] nation."

Sheikh Al-Hilali expressed amazement that various Arab countries and leaders had avoided hosting the upcoming Arab summit, and added: "In any event, we have become accustomed to the fact that these summits produce nothing, neither cockroach nor mouse.(2)

"We are in dire need of real men these days in light of the situation in Jerusalem and Palestine... Your leaders are looking for a venue and no one dares address an invitation for the leaders of this stricken nation ... because we lack strong leadership. In the past, in Arab and Islamic history, we were governed by real men, but nowadays we are governed by semi-men."(3)

Following a meeting with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Sheikh Al-Hilali said: "I blessed Hizbullah for liberating the prisoners and the bones of the Shahids and I praised it and its sacrifice. Hizbullah has become a model for all the Mujahideen in the world... Most of the Australian people do not support the policy of the Australian government, which has placed Hizbullah on the terror list out of submission to the U.S., and the Australian prime minister will pay the price for this in the next elections...."(4)

Anti-American and Anti-Western Sentiment

This is not the first time that Sheikh Al-Hilali expressed anti-American or anti-European sentiment. In a speech in March 2003, he likened "Bush Jr." to the son of Genghis Khan, calling him "the most ignorant president to lead the White House."(5) Sheikh Al-Hilali also declared that President Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are the "axis of evil."(6)

Sheikh Al-Hilali said on another occasion: "The media all over the world are controlled by Zionist fingers, particularly the Western media, and that includes Australia, in which the media are under Zionist hegemony. But in Australia, which unlike the West and the U.S. is multicultural, the media are less racist in their enmity to Muslims and Islam. This is evidenced by the fact that we won the last media battle in Australia and succeeded in forcing the Australian people to treat us with respect. We have not suffered from persecution or disrespect to the same extent that Islamic communities in Western countries and in America have suffered."(7)

However, Al-Hilali believes that "the Zionist Western attack on Islam" has become the best means of its propagation: "The Muslims are like a cotton [cushion] that the upholsterer's stick only makes bigger. When the cotton is worn out and can no longer be sat upon, the upholsterer comes along and attacks it ferociously with his stick. These blows clean the cotton, cause it to swell, expand, and grow.

"Thus are the Muslims. The stick of the Western media prompted the spread of Islam, and stimulated the Westerners to hasten to acquaint themselves with it...

"The Western media attacks Islam day and night. But they are unable to hide the sun at midday. The events of September 11th in the U.S. caused a revolutionary change in the military and defensive balance of power in the world, and all the world must reexamine their considerations in light of these developments...."(8)

Support for Hizbullah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad

In one interview, Sheikh Al-Hilali accused the U.S. of terrorism and expressed support for martyrdom/suicide attacks: "There is no doubt that the U.S. is dealing with wholesale marketing of terrorism. The U.S. is the biggest agent for terrorism in the world, and Israel perpetrates terrorism, with funding and military and diplomatic support from the U.S.

"We are proud of the Islamic resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Kashmir, and everywhere in the world that seeks to achieve its legitimate rights in accordance with the international resolutions, the human rights conventions, and the U.N. resolutions...

"We are also proud of the Islamic resistance that liberated southern Lebanon, led by Hizbullah, the legitimate Lebanese national movement, that forced the Israeli occupation army to withdraw from southern Lebanon, dragging trails of disappointment and shame behind it.

"We are also proud of what Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are both doing in the occupied territories. We support the resistance and support, with all our might, the martyrdom operations carried out by the Palestinian liberation movements, operations that are a legitimate act against the cruel occupation, according to all international norms and conventions.

"Also, whoever carries out a martyrdom [operation] is a pure Shahid and one of the men of Paradise. Moreover, he stands at the head of the Shahids."(9)

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