 Sheik Taj Aldin Al-Hilali, the Muslim leader at the centre of a storm over comments blaming women for rape, will be giving no more sermons for several months at Lakemba mosque, senior Muslims say.
| Not until the heat's off... |
But no further action is to be taken against Australia's top Muslim cleric for likening scantily-dressed women to uncovered meat and saying they're responsible for sexual attacks.
| "Yeah, it's all their own fault. Sez so right in the Koran someplace. You could look it up." |
The decision followed an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Sydney to discuss the storm over mufti's remarks, condemned by many fellow Muslims and by mainstream political leaders across the political spectrum.
| "Cheese! Who the hell let that cat outta the bag?" |
The meeting at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque lasted four hours to determine the fate of the man regarded by much of the Islamic community as the mufti of Australia.
| "How the hell are we gonna get Sheikh Bigmouth, here, off the hook?" |
But the board of the Lebanese Muslim Association decided that Sheik Alhilali had been misinterpreted.
"I suppose we could say he'd been misinterpreted..."
"Again?" |
Tom Zrika, of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said he would be giving no more sermons for several months, but no further action would be taken. "Some people on the board would have liked to have more done, but unfortunately we can only speak to the board," he said.
| "They're the ones that make the decisions. We just supply the money." |
He described Thursday night's meeting as "very, very intense."
| "It wuz like they wuz cornered or somethin'. Nobody expected that sucker to be taped, and then translated." |
"You can take it either way," Mr Zrika told ABC radio.
| "That's gotta be some kinda violation of our rights as Oztralians, ain't it?" |
He said the board had "met with the mufti of Australia."
| "He said, 'So what? I'm the mufti and you ain't.'" |
"A thorough explanation of the contents of the sermon, the subject of complaint, was given to the board. "The board is satisfied with the notion that certain statements made by the mufti was misinterpreted."
| "Yeah! It's really very funny in the original Arabic!" |
Sheik Alhilali's remarks were made during a Ramadan sermon to 500 worshippers in Sydney last month. Excerpts from a recording of the 17-minute sermon appeared in The Australian newspaper. He said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and inappropriate clothes, "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years," The Australian reported.
| "I mean, just for slappin' the ol' baloney to some infidel wench!" |
"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 sheik asked. "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (Muslim headscarf), no problem would have occurred." |