Thursday, October 26, 2006

Blame it on the Women........

I found this news article appeared in www.timesonline.co.uk very disturbing. A religious cleric in Australia described women as meats and blaming them for rape crimes. Such high standing and righteous religious leader can have such low self respect and barbaric mentality. If women are such degrading meats to him, perhaps he should tell us from which degrading meat's hole he crawled out from.

Some women have inner beauty and some women have expressive beauty. There is nothing wrong for women to show or parade their beauty. You have problem with women in beautiful dresses that attract your attention ? You have problem dealing with beautiful and sexy looking women ? What is the matter with you ? Having problem to control your animal desires to rape women ? God has also taught us to appreciate and respect all things beautiful. If you can not accept this doctrine of civil society and women's rights, please go back to your cave and draw whatever you want on the cave. You can also shout at the cave to hear your own echoes.

How a woman want to be dressed, carried herself, how she walked, and who she mixed with, is really none of the cleric's business. There are such thing called Human rights, liberty, and personal choices. If you can not come to terms to have basic respect to these basic requirements of human rights, please don't resort to such preaching to promote your ill mannered teachings. Put it bluntly, your sermon stinks, and so is your meats at home ! I do not know which angle or which hole you came from, but for heaven sake, please stop your misguided hatreds against women. Please do yourself a favour, go see a psychiatrist. Do you really get any demented satisfaction for inciting and instigating disgusting crimes against women ? What have the women in your life done to you that resulted so much misplaced hatreds in you to equate women with these kind of derogatory remarks ?

The idea that women are to be blamed for rapes are sickening. Only uncivilized barbarians are capable of this kind of words with their pea brains and maggot's tongues. I am equally sicked to know that there are actually subspecies out there willing to be indoctrinated with this kind of derogatory preachings against women.

You demanded to be respected. You wanted to be respected. You cried biases against you. You denouced injustices. You demanded equality. But before you go further with your faked righteousness, please take a mirror and have a serious look at yourself. Put your right palm on the left side of your chest. Can you feel your heart beats ? Now, in sincerity and honesty, tell the whole world you indeed have some basic qualities that show some resemblances to human beings.

My sincere apology to you if you felt offended with my disagreement to your opinion on women.

Funny, where are all those "righteous" apology seekers. It basically confirmed our observations that this world is full of international pariahs preaching all their perverted and disgusting values and faked righteousness in all the wrong places. These people has perfected the art of actions that are consistently inconsistent with their words.


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Muslim cleric triggers outrage by blaming women for rape
( Oct 26th 2006, www.timesonline.co.uk )
By Elsa McLaren and agencies

Australia's most senior Muslim cleric has triggered international outrage for describing women who dress immodestly as "uncovered meat" who are inviting a sexual attack.

Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali - the Mufti of Australia - condemned women who "sway suggestively", wear make-up and no hijab or Islamic headscarf, in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers, The Australian reported.

Islamic leaders are today meeting in Sydney to discuss his future and are considering whether to sack him from his role as the most senior cleric at the city's largest mosque.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, said that the cleric's comments were "appalling and reprehensible".

He told reporters: The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous. I not only reject the comments, I condemn them unconditionally."

Mr al-Hilali, who arrived in Australia in 1982 from Lebanon on a tourist visa and later fought attempts to deport him, has triggered controversies in the past.

In 2004 he said in a sermon in Lebanon that the September 11 attacks were "God's work against the oppressors." The cleric later said that he did not mean that he supported the attacks, or terrorism.

Race relations in Sydney are volatile following riots between the white and Middle Eastern youths last December. As summer arrives the city's authorities fear that troubles may explode again and police have begun patrolling the area where the riots took place.

In a statement today, the outspoken cleric apologised for his comments and said: "I had only intended to protect women's honour, something lost in The Australian presentation of my talk."

He was reported in the newspaper as saying that he only meant to refer to prostitutes as meat, and not any woman who does not wear a hijab, but the paper said there was no mention of the word prostitute in the sermon.

A spokesman for the Egyptian-born cleric said that his comments, made last month, had been taken out of context in the newspaper report, but did not challenge the accuracy of the paper's translation.

During the sermon al 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 cover, and the cats come to 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."

The Australian also reported that he said that women were "weapons" used by "Satan" to control men.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Edited transcript of Sheik Hilali's speech
This is an edited transcript, by SBS translator Dalia Mattar, of Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali's speech
October 27, 2006
"Those atheists, people of the book (Christians and Jews), where will they end up? In Surfers Paradise? On the Gold Coast?

"Where will they end up? In hell. And not part-time. For eternity. They are the worst in God's creation.

"Who commits the crimes of theft? The man or the woman? The man. That's why the man was mentioned before the woman when it comes to theft because his responsibility is providing.

"But when it comes to adultery, it's 90 per cent the women's responsibility. Why? Because a woman possesses the weapon of seduction. It is she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying. It's she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then it's a look, then a smile, then a conversation, a greeting, then a conversation, then a date, then a meeting, then a crime, then Long Bay jail. (laughs).

"Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.

"But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, scholar al-Rafihi says: 'If I came across a rape crime – kidnap and violation of honour – I would discipline the man and order that the woman be arrested and jailed for life.' Why would you do this, Rafihi? He says because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it."

"If you take a kilo of meat, and you don't put it in the fridge or in the pot or in the kitchen but you leave it on a plate in the backyard, and then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats eat the meat, you're crazy. Isn't this true?

"If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem.

"If the meat was covered, the cats wouldn't roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won't get it.

"If the meat was in the fridge and it (the cat) smelled it, it can bang its head as much as it wants, but it's no use.

"If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if she's wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don't happen.

"That's why he said she owns the weapon of seduction.

"Satan sees women as half his soldiers. You're my messenger to achieve my needs. Satan tells women you're my weapon to bring down any stubborn man. There are men that I fail with. But you're the best of my weapons.

"The woman was behind Satan playing a role when she disobeyed God and went out all dolled up and unveiled and made of herself palatable food that rakes and perverts would race for. She was the reason behind this sin taking place.

Anonymous said...

'I'm misunderstood' excuse is wearing thin
Richard Kerbaj
October 27, 2006
FOR more than two decades, Taj Din al-Hilali has courted controversy - and has more than once fought off calls for him to be kicked out of the country.

Troubles for the Egyptian-born mufti stretch back to the 1980s, soon after he arrived in Australia. Before yesterday, he had most recently sparked anger with a sermon in which he questioned the Holocaust.

The cleric was once again reaching for a credibility lifeline in July when The Weekend Australian revealed that he had called the Holocaust "a ploy made by the Zionists" and trivialised the number of Jews killed by the Nazis.

But the imam's ability to manoeuvre his way out of controversy by claiming that hateful or divisive remarks he had made were "taken out of context" by listeners - especially the media - enabled him to escape deportation on at least two occasions before he was granted permanent residency in 1990.

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.

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 spiritual head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest attracted criticism in 2000 for allegedly blaming "Australian society" for the infamous Sydney gang rapes.

He has repeatedly attacked the Howard Government even after the Prime Minister picked him to be a senior member of his Muslim advisory board.

In March, Sheik Hilali told The Australian that the Muslim Community Reference Group was "stillborn" and created to disseminate government "propaganda" under the guise of an elite Islamic body.

While he paints himself as a moderate, at a young age Sheik Hilali joined the Muslim Brotherhood - an extremist group influenced by one of Islam's most radical thinkers and a supporter of violent jihad.

Although the cleric has formerly claimed that he broke away from the Brotherhood because they were too "extreme" in their teachings, several years ago he allegedly praised suicide bombers and called anyone who died fighting for Islam a "hero".

And in 2004, he gave speeches in Lebanon that seemed to suggest the September 11 attacks on the US weren't so bad.

But it is not only Sheik Hilali's mouth that has got him into trouble. He was jailed in Egypt in 2000 over the alleged export of antiques, but the charges were later dropped. And he was also charged with assaulting a policeman during a routine traffic incident in Sydney in 2003. Again, the charges were dropped.

Last year, he made a dash to Iraq in an effort to help the Howard Government secure the freedom of kidnapped Australian contractor Douglas Wood, but there was controversy surrounding the part he played in his release.

Yesterday, Sheik Hilali was again defiant. Asked if he intended to bow to pressure from many within the community to resign, he told a journalist from Nine's A Current Affair: "No and no and no."

Sheik Hilali again fell back to that well-worn defence, the one he has used so consistently over the past 20 years: I have been misunderstood.

Anonymous said...

Mufti outrages Muslims over sex comments
Richard Kerbaj
October 27, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S Muslims yesterday turned on their leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, amid calls for him to be sacked as the nation's mufti for blaming women for inciting rape.

Sheik Hilali was universally condemned by mainstream politicians and Muslim leaders nationwide and could even face a revolt from within his tight-knit community over the Ramadan sermon in which he likened immodestly dressed women to meat and suggested rape victims were as much to blame as their attackers.

Muslim women were devastated by the sermon - revealed in The Australian yesterday - while John Howard described the comments as "appalling and reprehensible".

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward demanded that Sheik Hilali be charged with "incitement 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.

"I unreservedly apologise to any woman who is offended by my comments. I had only intended to protect women's honour, something lost in The Australian presentation of my talk," he said in a statement.

Despite insisting The Australian misrepresented the sermon delivered at his mosque in southwest Sydney in September, two independent translations of the Ramadan address were even more damning of the sheik.

In a clear reference to the notorious Sydney gang rapists, Sheik Hilali said in the sermon: "It is she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying.

"It's she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then it's a look, then a smile, then a conversation, a greeting, then a conversation, then a date, then a meeting, then a crime, then Long Bay Jail," he tells his worshippers with a chuckle.

"Then you get a judge, who has no mercy and he gives you 65 years.

"But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, scholar al-Rafihi says: 'If I came across a rape crime - kidnap and violation of honour - I would discipline the man and order that the woman be arrested and jailed for life.' Why would you do this, Rafihi? He says because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn't have snatched it."

Countless Muslim women angrily denounced Sheik Hilali as preaching with a "voice from the Dark Ages" and Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly warned: "I am expecting a deluge of hate mail, I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work."

Tom Zreika, head of the Lebanese Muslim Association, threatened to ban Sheik Hilali from teaching at the Lakemba Mosque. "I received a lot of complaints today from ladies in our community saying how appalled with this statement they are. Unfortunately (these words) have also made men look like animals," Mr Zreika said.

"The board (of the Lebanese Muslim Association) has unlimited powers in respect of his teachings in the mosque. We can do anything that's required to prevent him from teaching in our mosque. If you haven't got the backing of Australia's largest and most established Islamic organisation, then you are out on a limb."

Late last night, the association was meeting to discuss the Sheik's future at the mosque.

But Federal Police chief Mick Keelty warned against the reporting of Sheik Hilali's "offensive" comments, saying doing so could unnecessarily inflame hatred of Muslims.

However, the Islamic Council of Victoria last night officially called for him to be sacked as mufti - the position of titular head of the Islamic community he has held since 1989.

However, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils - the national body that appointed him mufti - could not move against Sheik Hilali because an ethnically driven internal brawl over the election of its board has left it without leadership. A non-Muslim court-appointed administrator has control of AFIC until fresh elections can be called.

Muslim spiritual leaders who heard a recording of the sermon called on Sheik Hilali to "step aside" and desist from commenting on behalf of the community.

Sydney-based cleric Ibrahim el-Shafie said Sheik Hilali was "divisive" and Muslims had suffered as a result.

"I would suggest that this person would step aside and leave the community," said the imam, from Bankstown Mosque in Sydney's west. "Every imam, every religious figure needs to take the responsibility and they should all vote to push him out and put him aside - (enough) is enough."

Another prominent Sydney cleric, Khalil Shami, said he wasn't surprised to hear Sheik Hilali making such comments about women. He said Sheik Hilali had been "destroying the reputation" of Australian Muslims for years and had never made any serious statement to improve the community's integration into the mainstream.

"I've never heard the mufti say anything about how we can work together (with the wider community)," said the imam, from Penshurst Mosque in Sydney's southwest. "He's separated us (even further) now. And on this occasion, now I think we should tell him he shouldn't make any more statements on behalf of all Muslims."

But Sheik Shami said it would be hard to silence Sheik Hilali because of a strong support base.

Sheik Hilali did win some support from the chairman of the Prime Minister's Muslim advisory council, Ameer Ali, who compared his contentious remarks to the Pope's comments on Islam.

"He's our spiritual leader and nobody is more knowledgeable about Islam," said Dr Ali, an economics lecturer at Murdoch University in Perth.

"A few months ago, the Pope said some things about Islam, and he was criticised, and now we have a few things being said here, and it's been taken out of context. But all this talk about having the mufti deported, I mean, come on, they cannot be serious.

"Knowing the mufti, I would say he was using colourful language, the way he sometimes does, and it's unfortunate."

Dr Ali said the mufti "was simply trying to make the point that in the fasting month all pleasure is prohibited and we must resist anything sensual".

He dismissed the idea that the Muslim community needed a mufti with more moderate views.

But Iktimal Hage-Ali, who was the youngest woman on the Prime Minister's council, said her community was "outraged by the mufti's comments".

"We've spent so long trying to build bridges and break down these misconceptions about Islam," she said. "I really think he needs to stand down. This is not the way we view women in our community. Women are respected and they have equal rights, but who is going to believe us now, when we say that?"