I debated posting this here, but I believe this is what we are up against!
There can be no civilised (or otherwise), discussion with hatred of individual freedoms as deeply rooted as those espoused here!
Outrage as Muslim cleric likens women to 'uncovered meat'
By RICHARD SHEARS Last updated at 12:45pm on 26th October 2006
A Muslim cleric's claim that women who do not wear the veil are like
'uncovered meat' who attract sexual predators sparked outrage around
Australia yesterday.
Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, the nation's most senior Muslim cleric, compared
immodestly-dressed women who do not wear the Islamic headdress with meat
that is left uncovered in the street and is then eaten by cats.
Politicians including Prime Minister John Howard, community leaders and a
large number of Muslims condemned the mufti's comments amid calls that he
should be deported to Egypt, his country of origin.
In a Ramadam sermon in a Sydney mosque, Sheik al-Hilali suggested that a
group of Muslim men recently jailed for many years for gang rapes were not
entirely to blame.
There were women, he said, who 'sway suggestively' and wore make-up and
immodest dress "and then you get a judge without mercy and gives you 65
years. But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he said,
referring to the women victims.
Addressing 500 worshippers on the topic of adultery, Sheik al-Hilali added:
"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."
He went on: "If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (veil), no
problem would have occurred."
Women, he said, were 'weapons' used by Satan to control men.
His comments, reported yesterday in the nationally-circulated newspaper The
Australian, created a storm of outrage.
It follows anger that erupted among Muslims in Britain earlier this month
when MP Jack Straw said women who wear veils over their face can make
community relations harder.
But Sheik al-Hilali's has created an even bigger storm by using the
uncovered meat example to accuse women who do not cover their heads and
faces of tempting men.
Prime Minister Howard labelled the mufti's comments as 'appalling and
reprehensible', adding: "They are quite out of touch with contemporary
values in Australia.
"The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous. I not only
reject the comments, I condemn them unconditionally." Treasurer Peter
Costello urged the Muslim community to condemn the comments and take action
against the Sheik.
"If you have a significant religious leader like this preaching to a flock
in a situation where we've had gang rapes, in a way that seems to make it
justifiable, or at least lighten the dehumanising and degrading extent of
the offence."
A close associate of the sheik, Keysar Trad, said the speech was about
adultery, not rape. "He wasn't talking about standard norms of dress in
Australia or any country, he wasn't talking about the hijab, he was talking
about people who engage in extramarital sex."
But Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Miss Pru Goward said there could
be no backtracking over the comments. "He could be guilty of incitement to
the crime of rape and should be deported," she said.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...in_article_id=
412697&in_page_id=1770
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