Cleric 'should go for rape comments' | | The Australian
Cleric 'should go for rape comments' | | The Australian: "October 26, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S top Muslim cleric Sheik al-Taj al-Din al-Hilaly should be sacked and deported for comments which essentially excused young Muslim men who committed rape, federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward said today.
Ms Goward said the sheik had a history of making such comments and many would feel Australia's tolerance had been abused.
'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 Channel 9.
'It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more then say they were horrified. I think it is time he left.'
Sheik al-Hilaly's comments were delivered in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, The Australian newspaper reported.
'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,' he said.
'The uncovered meat is the problem.
'If she was in her room, in her home, in her hajib (Islamic headdress), no problem would have occurred.'"
