Australia-Senior Muslim Cleric Says Women Shourld Wear Hijab & Stay Home to Avoid Sexual Assault-Later Apology

 

Cleric in sex sermon furore

Thursday 26 October
2006  

Hilaly glorified martyrdom two years ago

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Australia’s most senior Muslim cleric has suggested that
women who do not wear headscarves are to blame for sexual assaults, comparing
them to uncovered pieces of meat.

Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, the mufti of Sydney’s biggest
mosque, said in a Ramadan sermon that sexual assaults might not happen if women
wore a hijab and stayed at home.

Hilaly criticised women
who “sway suggestively”, wear make-up and no hijab, or Islamic headscarf, for
inviting sexual attack.

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the
street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the back yard 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,” Hilaly told about 500 worshippers, according to a
newspaper translation.

Keysar
Trad, Hilaly’s spokesman, said the Egyptian-born cleric had been lecturing on
the sin of adultery.
   
“He’s talking about those people
who prey on others, whether men or women, who seek to engage in sexual conduct
outside of marriage, and do so through alluring types of attire,” he
said.
   
The meat comments, Trad said, referred to
prostitutes.

Uproar

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the back yard 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” Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, the mufti of Sydney’s biggest mosque

The sermon has worsened the already strained relations between the
conservative government and Muslims in Australia, who make up 1.5 per cent of
the 20 million population.

John Howard, the Australian prime
minister, described the comments as “appalling and
reprehensible”.

 

He told reporters on Thursday:
“The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous.”
    

Peter
Costello, the finance minister, told Australian television: “I hope that
the moderate Muslim leaders will speak out today and condemn these comments,
make it clear to Muslims that this is not the view of Islam and that they will
really take some kind of action.”

 

Persona non grata

 

Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commission called on Thursday for Hilaly
to be deported.

Pru Goward, Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, 
said Hilaly, who two years ago praised martyrdom and called the September 11
attacks the work of God, should be deported for inciting
rape.
   
“It is incitement to a crime.
Young Muslim men who now rape  women
can cite this in court, can quote this man – their leader – in court,” she told Australian
television.

“It’s time we stopped just saying
he should apologise. It is  time the
Islamic community did more than say they were horrified. I think it’s time he was asked to
go.”

Disassociation

Islamic groups quickly
disassociated themselves from Hilali’s remarks.

The Islamic Council of
New South Wales, the region of which Sydney is the capital, said the
comments were “un-Islamic, un-Australian and 
unacceptable”.

Sherene Hassan, the Islamic Council of Victoria spokeswoman,
said Hilaly’s comments were “absolutely repulsive”, while Iktimal Hage-Ali, a
former government adviser on Muslim issues, said the cleric should be sacked
from his position.

Apology

 

Hilali later issued a statement
apologising for any offence caused by his remarks.

 

“I unreservedly apologise to any
woman who is offended by my comments,” he said.

 

“I
had only intended to protect women’s honour, something lost in The Australian
[newspaper] presentation of my talk.

 

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