THE most senior Muslim cleric in Australia was fighting to keep his position yesterday after likening women who did not wear veils to uncovered meat that attracted predators.

“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,” said Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali, the spiritual leader of Sydney’s large Middle Eastern Muslim community.

In his Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheikh al-Hilali alluded to an infamous series of gang rapes in Sydney in which a group of young Lebanese men preyed upon Australian-born women. The leader of the men received a 55-year jail term, later reduced on appeal.

Sheikh al-Hilali said that there were women who “sway suggestively”, wore make-up and dressed immodestly “and then you get a judge without mercy and (he) gives you 55 years”. He continued: “If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.” His remarks, revealed yesterday, caused a backlash, and the Sheikh was said to be so shocked at his condemnation that he spent yesterday in bed, breathing with the aid of oxygen.

John Howard, the Prime Minister, who is normally very cautious in reacting to matters of religious belief, savaged Sheikh al-Hilali, while prominent members of the Muslim community said they believed that he should be sidelined. He said that the Sheikh’s remarks were reprehensible. “They are quite out of touch with the contemporary values of Australia. The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous,” Mr Howard said.

Pru Goward, the Sex Discrimination Commissioner, said that Sheikh al-Hilali should be removed. “I think it’s time he left,” she said, adding that the Sheikh’s remarks were “an incitement to a crime. Young Muslim men who now rape women can now . . . quote this man, their leader, in court.”

The board of the Lakemba Mosque said early today that it would not censure Sheikh al-Hilali, but that he would not give sermons for three months.

Sheikh al-Hilali told The Australian that he had meant to refer to prostitutes as meat, even though there was no mention of prostitutes on the tape. He said that the message he had intended to convey was: “A woman who shows herself off, she is to blame, but a man should be able to control himself.”

Late yesterday the Sheikh apologised to women offended by his remarks. “I would like to unequivocally confirm that the presentation related to religious teachings on modesty and not to go to extremes in enticements,” his statement said. “This does not condone rape. I condemn rape. Women in our Australian society have the freedom and right to dress as they choose. The duty of man is to avert his glance.”

He is due to meet a senior British Imam, Dr Abduljalil Sajid, in Sydney today. Dr Sajid said that people had attacked Sheikh al-Hilali without any evidence of wrongdoing.

MUSLIM INFLUX

In the 1860s Afghan cameleers ran caravans into central Australia

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