Posted on 10/30/2006 9:47:29 AM PST by presidio9
Sydney - A cleric who said women who didn't wear a veil were 'uncovered meat' asking to be raped will keep his job as the spiritual leader of Australia's 350,000 Muslims.
Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali was confirmed as Mufti of Australia on Friday after the governing body of Sydney's largest mosque rallied behind the Egyptian-born cleric.
'The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted,' Tom Zreika, head of the Lebanese Muslim Association, told local radio. Zreika said that as a sop to public opinion, al-Hilali wouldn't be preaching until he goes on the haj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in six weeks' time.
Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked al-Hilali for a 14-member Muslim advisory panel after the London bombings in June, said remarks in Arabic in a fasting-month sermon to 500 worshippers that compared unveiled women to food left for stray cats were 'appalling and reprehensible.'
Howard warned Muslims they risked a backlash from other Australians if they continued to back al-Hilali against mainstream opinion.
'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,'' Howard said.
Others in his government have called on al-Hilali to be prosecuted for inciting sexual assault or even to be deported.
'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 cats' or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem,' al-Hilali said.
In an address that was tape-recorded by The Australian newspaper, Al-Hilali said a woman who stayed home and was veiled would be safe from sexual assault. 'If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib (veil), no problem would have occurred.'
The 66-year-old apologized for the comments, saying he had 'only intended to protect women's honour,' but he refused calls for him to resign.
A defiant al-Hilali, speaking amid cheering supporters as he emerged from Friday prayers at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque, said he would not be resigning until 'after we clean the White House first.'
The mufti has frequently referred to Howard, United States President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the 'axis of evil.'
Al-Hilali has stirred controversy before. He has denied the Holocaust, defended suicide bombers, described as 'God's work' the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, and blamed Jews for 'all the wars and problems that threaten the peace and stability of all the world.'
Al-Hilali, who doesn't speak English despite having lived in Australia for 24 years, referred in his sermon to gang rapes in Sydney in 2000 that led to several Muslims being sentenced to long jail terms. He was critical of the judges, saying they had shown no mercy.
Only white women were victims, and they were told they were targeted because they were 'Aussie pigs.'
Howard, who had hoped an outcry over al-Hilali's defence of rape would force the mufti to resign, expressed frustration.
'What has to happen in relation to this man is that the issue has to be resolved by his own community,' Howard said. 'He was not expressing Australian values, I can say without fear of contradiction that what he said is repugnant to Australian values.'
Al-Hilaly, in his sermon, also caused offence by saying women were mostly to blame for adultery. 'When it comes to adultery, it's 90 per cent the woman's responsibility,' he said. 'Why? Because a woman possesses the weapon of seduction.'
Waleed Aly, a spokesman for the Islamic Council of Victoria, condemned al-Hilali and called for his resignation, saying his views sought to normalize immoral sexual behaviour.
'We would have liked to have seen some form of fairly strong censure just given the magnitude and the gravity of the comments,' Aly said.
But other prominent Australian Muslims refused to criticise the mufti. Imam Abdul Jalil Sajid, the chairman of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, who is visiting Australia, sprang to the mufti's defence. 'I know he is one of the greatest Muslim scholars on earth and Australia is blessed with him,' Sajid said.
You bet I am, and if a virtual fence works so damn well, why don't we throw one up around the WH, and tell security to turn off the lights when they leave. Any future attack connected to the issue of "open border" policy by this administration is clearly on this President's shoulders, and those such as yourself who see no problem with the gaping security breach on both our southern and northern borders.
If ever anyone needed evidence that Islam is a satanic death cult that should be obliterated from the face of the Earth, here it is.
The message came through loud and clear. Its a pity the Australian NOW chapter hasn't raised a peep over this crud.
Somehow I doubt they have much to fear on that count. I find it incredibly doubtful that the same border patrol that can't catch countless hordes of illegals pouring across our border every year is going to be sharp enough to snare the occasional jihadist.
Or at least recognition as a dangerous political party intent on overthrowing governments.
Further editing, also free: "Howard warned Muslims they risked a backlash from Australians..."
I'm not sure where you are posting from, but I am across the street from Ground Zero. NY remains the #1 American target for al Qaeda. So, yeah, I do have a dog in this fight. There is a 100% chance that there will be another attack in southern Manhattan at some point in the not too distant future. Again, if they want into this country, they have no reason to sneak in. They can enter legally. And there is little we can do to prevent this, short of closing our airports to all arab men.
I used to live in southern Arizona. I sympathize with the illegal immigration problems down there. But be honest about your reasons. Closing our southern border will have zero effect on national security, because that is not how the terrorists enter this country. Perhaps Mexicans are taking your jobs, or dilluting your culture, but they are not flying airplanes into buildings. Period.
Not to mention the sad fact that Border Patrol Agents have recently come under scrutiny for helping organized Mexican gangs in various ways. In other words, there are some rotten apples willing to do anything for a buck notwithstanding the FACT that the vast majority of Border Patrol Agents are doing everything within their power to keep us safe while having to live with the $hitty policies of congress and this President on BORDER SAFETY!
OK, so get some rowdy Aussies to go give the muzzies a little payback by targetting muslim women for the same sort of treatment. Then their fathers would have to kill them, and that would eliminate the breeders.
Don't impugn my honesty. I stated my reasons for my position, so please give me the courtesy of allowing me to express myself without you backhandedly calling me a liar.
Time for more cartoons.
How many of those Mexicans are Muslim?
What you are doing is called hijacking a thread. You have inserted your own irrelevant topic into this thread to suit your personal agenda. Equating Mexican gangs with Islamic terrorism is similiar to the town in Montana that applied for and got federal 9/11 relief funds so that it could buy a shiny new firetruck.
I'm not calling you a liar. I'm just saying our border with Mexico has nothing to do with Islamic terrorism. If you feel the need to talk about the border wall, be my guest. But do a search and bring it up on a more appropriate thread. Lumping illegal immigration in with terrorism is dishonest.
Prime Minister John Howard, who hand-picked al-Hilali for a 14-member Muslim advisory panel after the London bombings in June,
'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, with all due respect as an great ally in the war on islamic fascism, the barbarians are at the gate.
And this has what to do with our Mexican border?
BWAAAAHAAAHAAHAAHAHAHAHAAA!
Your greater point is well-taken, but your use of this phrase implies that said "risk" is measurable, hence the laugh.
Hey, I completely in disagreement with your assessment on the southern border. Guess we were neighbors as I worked across from the WTC.
But let's be clear. You can not bring in nuclear material through JFK. To deny our citizens that protection by securing our southern border which is clearly the most obvious transit point is frankly foolish.
Mexicans are not the direct terrorist threat. But their armed drug traders doing a business transaction to import men and dangerous goods for the purpose fo terrorism most certainly are.
Now how could my neighbor up here not see something so obvious?
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