UPDATE: 27 Oct 2006 - Now Hilali wants political "cleansing"
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".**********
The G&M is covering the story of a senior Imam in Austrailia who has some revealing ideas about how Islam views women.
In short, women are meat. Oh yeah, if you don't package the meat properly, you can't really expect it not to be raped... uh, well, that is to say... spoiled.
Let's see how many Liberals stand up in the House of Commons to protest this absolutely unacceptable "unveiled threat" to women.
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — One of Australia's senior-most Islamic clerics has triggered outrage after comments reported Thursday comparing women who don't wear a headscarf to “uncovered meat” who invite rape.If you listen really hard, what you'll hear is the sound of Liberals and new Democrats saying bupkas. They're a little busy defending Canadian women against Peter MacKay.
Mr. Hilali was quoted in the Australian newspaper as saying in the sermon: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's.”
“The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the headdress worn by some Muslim women.
UPDATE: Imam weighs in on Sydney Gang Rape Trials
This isn't a one-off gaffe, as the Sheik has now started to spin. If the meat gets 'tenderised', it's their own fault...
While not specifically referring to the attacks on four women, for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy [rahma] and he gives you 65 years... but the problem all began with who?"SIDENOTE: Who is Sheik Hilali?
Sheik Hilali, the top cleric at Sydney's largest mosque, is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand.
A man who doesn't learn from his mistakes, I'd say.
Four years after his arrival in Australia in 1982, the then Labor immigration minister Chris Hurford tried to deport him for allegedly inciting "hatred", but failed because of pressure from other Labor figures.LAST WORD: No big deal, says Muslim Association
Sheik Hilali again avoided being expelled from the country in 1988 following comments he made about Jews being the "underlying cause of all wars".
Labor's then new immigration minister, Robert Ray, agreed not to deport him after the cleric insisted he was misquoted.
The Lebanese Muslim Association in Sydney says it will take no action against one of the nation's most senior Muslim clerics over his comments that scantily dressed women invite sexual violence.
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