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Uncovered women 'invite rape'
26/10/2006 12:31 - (SA)
Sydney - One of Australia's senior-most Islamic clerics has triggered outrage after comments reported on Thursday comparing women who don't wear a headscarf to "uncovered meat" who invite rape.
Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali denied he was condoning rape when he made the comments in a sermon last month, and apologised to any women he had offended, saying they were free to dress as they wished.
The row comes during a heated debate - and sometimes ugly incidents - in Britain about religious freedom centred around whether Muslim women should wear veils.
Similar passions raged when France banned head scarves and other religious symbols in public schools two years ago.
In Australia, there was widespread condemnation on Thursday the cleric's comments, from other Muslim leaders, civil libertarians and political leaders.
Hilali was quoted in the Australian newspaper as saying in the sermon: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's.
"The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred," he was quoted as saying, referring to the headdress worn by some Muslim women.
Incitement to rape
Australia's sex discrimination commissioner Pru Goward said Hilali's comment was an incitement to rape and that Australia's Muslims should force him to stand down.
"This is inciting young men to a violent crime because it is the woman's fault," Goward told television's Nine Network. "It is time the Islamic community did more than say they were horrified. I think it is time he left."
Prime Minister John Howard also rejected the comments as unacceptable.
"They are appalling and reprehensible comments," Howard told reporters. "The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous."
Comments over 9/11
Hilali is the top cleric at Sydney's largest mosque, and is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand.
He has in the past served as an adviser to the Australian government on Muslim issues, but triggered a controversy in 2004 for saying in a sermon in Lebanon that the September 11 attacks were "God's work against the oppressors".
Hilali said later he did not mean that he supported the attacks, or terrorism.
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