Australia: Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has recently jumped on the hate-mongering band wagon.
In the religious address on adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilali said: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.
The sheik then said:If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.
He said women wereweaponsused bySatanto control men.
It is said in the state of zina (adultery), the responsibility falls 90 per cent of the time on the woman. Why? Because she possesses the weapon of enticement (igraa).
From this I can only assume that Hilali assumes Muslim men to have no morality or self-control and it is up to women to protect themselves from these depraved animals accordingly.
His views have not gone down terribly well with too many people. Muslim community leaders have been outraged and offended by Hilali's remarks, insisting the cleric was no longer worthy of his title as Australia's mufti.
Australia's most prominent female Muslim leader, Aziza Abdel-Halim, said the hijab did notdetract or add to a person's moral standards, while Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Ali said it wasignorant and naivefor anyone to believe that a hijab could stop sexual assault.
Anyone who is foolish enough to believe that there is a relationship between rape or unwelcome sexual interference and the failure to wear a hijab, clearly has no understanding of the nature of sexual crime,he said.
Ms Hage-Ali said she wasdisgusted and offendedby Shiek Hilali's comments.I find it very offensive that a man who considers himself as a mufti, a leader of Australia's Muslims, can give comment that lacks intelligence and common sense.
Hilali has backpedalled, claiming that he's been quoted out of context and only meant to refer to prostitutes as meat
and not any scantily dressed woman with no hijab, despite him not mentioning the word prostitute during the 17-minute talk. Apparently it's quote all right to incite sexual violence against prostitutes in his little world. Again, I'm seeing this problem of men being unable to control themselves in any way.
This has, of course, been a boon to politicians who love a good divisive story to use for their own purposes, but it's also managed to get Hilali's local community fired up against him.
The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward demanded that Sheik Hilali be charged withincitement to rape.
Members of the Lebanese Muslim Association, which owns Sheik Hilali's home mosque in Lakemba, in Sydney's southwest, met late last night to consider his eviction.
Association board members agreed to delay their decision on the mufti's future until after they had listened to a tape of the controversial comments and considered the context in which they were made.
Sheik Hilali had earlier refused to resign but apologised for any offence caused to women.
Unfortunately, Hilali is preaching to the converted. The mindset that caused the rash of gang rapes in his area is not due to women not wearing a head scarf, but to boys being raised to have no respect for women. They treat all women with comtempt, including their own family members. It is pandering to this backwards culture of hate and violent control of women that Hilali is guilty of. Glorifying a small-mindedness minority group of thugs does nobody is the Moslem and wider community any good.
Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks—The Australian, 26th October 2006.
Mufti comments 'un-Islamic, un-Australian'—Courier Mail, 26th October 2006.
Mufti outrages Muslims over sex comments—The Australian, 27th October 2006.
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I'm sure Muslim men trying to go about their daily lives will really thank their religious leader for telling the world that they can't be trusted.
Wow.. I would never have thought that people could still be so small-minded. He's making it seem like men are animals and cannot be held accountable for their actions.
Ah, but we can't, you see. That's why all the major supernaturalisms (and most of the minor ones, too), put we blokes in charge, and give us plenty of excuses to justify various aspects of our behaviour.
Rape? I was provoked. I glimpsed her hair. Allarrgh knows that's enough to set me off, so it was all her fault. Vile seductress!
etc,etc
Brilliant cartoon in latest Private Eye, two muslem women in full gear, one with gauze over the eyes, the other not. Gauzed-up one says "Hussy".
Sorry for the poor description. Buy the magazine, it's well worth it...
:-)