Posted on 10/27/2006 6:56:23 AM PDT by PRePublic
Australia Muslim cleric suspended 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.
SHEIKH TAJ EL-DIN AL-HILALI Born in Egypt Aged 64 Imam in Sydney Appointed mufti of Australia in 1989
Controversial mufti Australian press furious Edited transcript 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.
I think what he's done is so unacceptable
PM John Howard
Send us your views 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".
He ought to be suspended from a rope.
Dumb Bastard. But then again, women are friggin' cattle to a whole lot (majority) of muslims.
I am still waiting for the NAG HAG NOW gals to weigh in on this -- waiting -- waiting -- waiting -- crickets.........
http://geocities.com/arabracismandislamicjihad/TreatingWomen.html - Treating Women
Violence Against Women
Rape, unfortunately, remains a common form of violence against women. In addition, the woman (in Islam) is often blamed for being the victim of rape.
http://www.mwlusa.org/publications/positionpapers/violence.html
Prime Victims The social consequences of this war among its primary victims, women and ... The Islamic Council of Guardians decreed that "a woman does not have the right ...
http://www.iran-e-azad.org/english/book_on_women/chapter2.html
Victims of Islam: Women
http://www.iheu.org/node/1534 pages
BBC World Service Trust.org | Women as victims of Islamic laws
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/news/story/2006/03/060307_piece_by_rafaqat_ali.shtml
FrontPage magazine.com :: Rape in Islam: Blaming the Victim
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5676
No muzzies are marching???? Can't be!
Time for the newspaper to publish a cartoon of the perp, holding some raw meat, being chased by cats.
Then the muzzies will have something to riot for, to bomb the churches, set fire to the flags, brandish swords, and have lots of fun muzzie style, to mark the end of Ramadamadingdong!
Unless the Aussie press will "buy" (the PC) it again that it's "racist anti Arab", as they have portrayed the non Arab native Aussies for hitting back at the Arab gangs on the Sydney beach last year.
Why is he still alive??? Are there any real men left in Australia? He should be beaten to death and stuffed with pig entrails right inside the mosque.
Every hour he is left alive is an insult to Australian women.
There is something a bit odd about the reports on this. The egregious thing the 'cleric' did was to justify or excuse rape.
The 'meat' metaphor has been used by lots of people, as in description of singles-bars as 'meat markets', complaints by women about having been made to feel like a 'piece of meat' by the unwanted attentions of men, and the like.
The headlines and lead paragraphs should be focusing on the 'cleric' excusing rape, not on his metaphor.
Actually, considering that the extension of the metaphor equates the Muslim perps with 'ravening animals', maybe we shouldn't object to the metaphor at all, only to its use to excuse rapes.
No one in this entire conversation has said if the women referred to in his remarks were muslim or not. If Australia is a free country and the women in question were not muslim, why should they be made to cover up in muslim fashion?
Ramadamadingdong............thanks for the laugh!!!!
"Many people - including some Muslim leaders - have called for the cleric to be dismissed from office. "
He and his supporters should be deported.
Do we know if anyone is Australia is trying to deport him? I would be happy to contribute to the deportation fund.
I thought about the same thing when I read this story....the hypersensitive muslims have no problem with being likened to animals unable to control their own impusles. Nevermind that this seems to be the best description of them in print to date...
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