Cleric unpunished for comments against women

SYDNEY - No action will be taken against Australia's top Muslim cleric for likening scantily-dressed women to uncovered meat and saying they're responsible for sexual attacks.

A group of senior Muslims from Sydney's Lakemba Mosque met last night for four hours to determine the fate of Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, Macquarie Radio reported.

Sheik Alhilali outraged Muslim community leaders and federal and state politicians with his comments, which he made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month.

Excerpts from a recording of the 17-minute sermon appeared in The Australian newspaper yesterday.

The Sheik alluded to rapes in 2000 where four women were separately gang-raped by a group of young Muslim men, including Bilal Skaf, who received a 55-year jail sentence, later reduced.

He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years," The Australian reported.

"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 sheik asked.

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijib (head scarf), no problem would have occurred."

Tom Zrika, from the Lebanese Muslim Association, which runs the Lakemba Mosque, said the Muslim leaders who met to discuss the Sheik's fate were satisfied with the Sheik's explanation of his comments.

"The board has subsequently met with the mufti (the Sheik) of Australia," Mr Zrika told Macquarie Radio last night.

"A thorough explanation of the contents of the sermon, the subject of complaint, was given to the board.

"The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted."

The Sheik will miss a few sermons today as he prepares to face the media for the first time over the statements, Macquarie Radio reported.

IN THE EYE OF A STORM

The comment
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the 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. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."
- Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali, Australian mufti.

The response

"Covering or uncovering does not give the right for anyone to attack or violate the rights of those women."
- Maha Abdo, manager of the United Muslim Women Association.

"These unacceptable comments ... do not reflect the values of ethnic communities or of many mainstream Australian Muslims."
- Phong Nguyen, chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.

"I have a message for Sheik Alhilali: This is Australia, not Iran, and violence and degradation of women is not acceptable."
- Sophie Mirabella, Victorian Liberal MP.

"His references ... was a very poor example that was meant to be a reference to both men and women. He wasn't talking about Islamic dress, he wasn't talking about rape."
- Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Council of Australia.

"I am expecting a deluge of hate mail. I am expecting people to get abused in the street and at work."
- Waleed Aly, Islamic Council of Victoria.

"Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court, can quote this man ... their leader in court."
- Pru Goward, Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner.

"Certainly I think if a religious leader in the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church or in Judaism was to make these sorts of statements, they would be getting a very severe rap over the knuckles, at the very least."
- Tony Abbott, Health Minister.

- AAP