Aussie Imam Says Women To Blame

[Curiosity]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html

Muslim leader blames women for sex attacks

Richard Kerbaj
October 26, 2006

THE nation's most senior Muslim cleric has blamed immodestly dressed women who don't wear Islamic headdress for being preyed on by men and likened them to abandoned "meat" that attracts voracious animals.


In a Ramadan sermon that has outraged Muslim women leaders, Sydney-based Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame. While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal 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 gives you 65 years".
"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked.
The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney's southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years' jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.
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 were "weapons" used by "Satan" to 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)."
Muslim community leaders were yesterday outraged and offended by Sheik Hilali's remarks, insisting the cleric was no longer worthy of his title as Australia's mufti.
Young Muslim adviser Iktimal Hage-Ali - who does not wear a hijab - said the Islamic headdress was not a "tool" worn to prevent rape and sexual harassment. "It's a symbol that readily identifies you as being Muslim, but just because you don't wear the headscarf doesn't mean that you're considered fresh meat for sale," the former member of John Howard's Muslim advisory board told The Australian. "The onus should not be on the female to not attract attention, it should be on males to learn how to control themselves."
Australia's most prominent female Muslim leader, Aziza Abdel-Halim, said the hijab did not "detract or add to a person's moral standards", while Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Ali said it was "ignorant and naive" for 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 was "ed and offended" by 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."
Yesterday, the mufti defended the sermon about "adultery and theft", a recorded copy of which has been obtained and translated by The Australian.
Sheik Hilali said he 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.
He told The Australian the message he intended to convey was: "If a woman who shows herself off, she is to blame ... but a man should be able to control himself". He said if a woman is "covered and respectful" she "demands respect from a man". "But when she is cheap, she throws herself at the man and cheapens herself."
Sheik Hilali also insisted his references to the Sydney gang rapes were to illustrate that Skaf was guilty and worthy of receiving such a harsh sentence.
Waleed Ali said Sheik Hilali was "normalising immoral sexual behaviour" by comparing women to meat and men to animals and entirely blaming women for being victims.
"It's basically saying that the immoral response of men to women who are not fully covered is as natural and as inevitable as the response of an animal tempted by food," he said.
"But (unlike animals) men are people who have moral responsibilities and the capability in engaging in moral action."
Revelation of the mufti's comments comes after he criticised Mr Howard last month in The Australian for saying a minority of migrant men mistreated their women. Sheik Hilali said such a minority was found in all faiths. "Those who don't respect their women are not true Muslims."
"There's a small percentage found among all religions, but we don't recognise ours as Muslims."
Aziza Abdel-Halim said Sheik Hilali's remarks during Ramadan were inaccurate and upsetting to the Muslim community.
"They are below and beyond any comment (and) do not deserve any consideration."

Such a lovely peaceful religion...

 

[I think not]

I'm not quite sure which is more offensive, the "meat" or the "verocious animal" comment.

 

[Curiosity]

ITN

Yup - I saw that this morning on television - recapped in snippets.

Put me off eating breakfast.

I'll have to copy it and put it on the fridge so I can get on that pre-Christmas diet!

 

[ottawabill]

oh those poor Muslim men..they can't help themselves. They see a piece of meat and are forced to run over and devour it like a pack of Wolves... It's not their fault the saw here face..who could blame them???

yyeesch!!

 

[Chukcha]

I'm not quite sure which is more offensive, the "meat" or the "verocious animal" comment.

The meat.
They shouldn't have been commenting on the "verocious ugly donkey", they should kick him out of the country without any comments.

 

[EagleSmack]

oh those poor Muslim men..they can't help themselves. They see a piece of meat and are forced to run over and devour it like a pack of Wolves... It's not their fault the saw here face..who could blame them???

yyeesch!!

It is NEVER a muslim man's fault. Don't you know that by now?

Ottawabill... I love the new map of Canada. I guess I better start flying that Red Oakleaf now.

 

[Colpy]

Gee, where is Gopher?

 

[ottawabill]

It is NEVER a muslim man's fault. Don't you know that by now?

Ottawabill... I love the new map of Canada. I guess I better start flying that Red Oakleaf now.

Oh yes now I remember...God said man good women not so good...Ever watch anything after a bombing in Iraq or Afghanastan.never see a women in sight..EVER!! I guess the men couldn't stay focused on blowing themselves up if thoses sexy tempting women where out there...

The new flag would be a Red oak leaf on a branch caring by an Eagle after a beaver had chopped it down, being chased away by Fox news

 

[annabattler]

And as a letter writer to the Toronto Star noted.....if wearing the burka is such a good idea,how come the imam himself doesn't don one?

 

[Colpy]

And as a letter writer to the Toronto Star noted.....if wearing the burka is such a good idea,how come the imam himself doesn't don one?

That is great! An extremely good question.

 

[Sassylassie]

Abusing women seems to be entrenched in the Religion of Peace, Iranian Ayatollah Shirazi issed a fatwa saying it is legitimate for men to hit their disobedient wives. How I wish I could spend an hour alone in a locked room with a man like this.

IRAN: MEN CAN HIT THEIR WIVES, CLERIC SAYS

javascript:aumenta(); javascript:diminuisci();



Tehran, 26 Oct. (AKI) - Iranian Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued a fatwa - a Muslim religious edict - saying it is legitimate for men to hit their disobedient wives. Shirazi, one of the leading clerics of the Shiite holy city of Qom, wrote on his website that "the Koran first of all advises a man to try and convince his wife to obey to him in a polite way and through advice, then by refusing to have sexual relations with her and, finally, if all this will have failed to make her reason, with physical punishment."

The punishment, the leading cleric said, "must be light and considered an exceptional event, like surgery in case of a serious illness."

Makarem Shirazi advised his readers against "physical punishment which leaves signs and wounds." Women, he axplained, "are masochistic and sometimes they have a crisis and need light physical punishment to get back to normal."

Azam Taleghani, daughter of the late Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, one of the protagonists of the 1979 Islamic revolution, branded the fatwa as "an offence to women."

"It is not right to issue a fatwa based on texts written over one thousand years ago without taking into account today's reality," said Azam Taleghani, who runs one of Iran's leading feminists' associations. "If we learn that someone hits their wife on the basis of these statements we will report them along with Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi to the judicial authority of the Islamic Republic."

 

[ottawabill]

Tehran, 26 Oct. (AKI) - Iranian Grand Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has issued a fatwa - a Muslim religious edict - saying it is legitimate for men to hit their disobedient wives. Shirazi, one of the leading clerics of the Shiite holy city of Qom, wrote on his website that "the Koran first of all advises a man to try and convince his wife to obey to him in a polite way and through advice, then by refusing to have sexual relations with her and, finally, if all this will have failed to make her reason, with physical punishment.
"

Refusing to have sexually relations with her??? Have you seen these men?? Who'd want one.. Ugly hairy beast where foreplay would be undoing his pants!!!