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Sheik's rape blame sparks outrage
AUSTRALIA'S Mufti has sparked widespread outrage and calls for his sacking after comments blaming immodestly dressed women for sexual assault and likening them to abandoned "meat". Treasurer Peter Costello branded the comments "totally unacceptable" and wants Muslim leaders to condemn the comments by Sheik al-Taj al-Din al-Hilaly, disassociate themselves from them, and pull their leader into line.

Sheik Hilaly's comments were delivered in a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, The Australian newspaper reported. He blamed women who "sway suggestively" and who wore makeup and no hijab (Islamic scarf) for sexual attacks. "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, no problem would have occurred."

“ 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. ”
Mr Costello said comparing women to uncovered meat invites people to treat them in a degrading and dehumanising way. He said the leaders of Catholic and the Anglican churches in Australia would never make such a comment. "This is totally unacceptable. This is comparing women to uncovered meat," Mr Costello said on Channel 7. "We really need political leaders to speak out against it.
Posted by: tipper 2006-10-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=169777