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Controversial cleric faints
30/10/2006 10:50 - (SA)
Sydney - Australia's top Islamic cleric, who sparked outrage with a recent sermon saying that immodestly dressed women invite rape, fainted on Monday and was taken to hospital while Muslim leaders met to discuss his future role, police said.
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister John Howard said that the cleric, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, may have breached Australia's counterterrorism laws by praising militant jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 65-year-old Egyptian-born Sunni cleric, who suffers from a heart condition and asthma, was meeting on Monday with members of the Muslim association that administers the Sydney mosque where he preaches when the ambulance was called to the building.
The group, the Lebanese Muslim Association, had said that al-Hilali would release a statement on Monday night on his future as national mufti. But it was unclear whether the statement would be issued since the meeting was interrupted by the cleric's collapse.
Al-Hilali has rejected calls for his resignation since a newspaper reported last week that he compared women who do not wear head scarves to "uncovered meat" in a sermon at the mosque.
Al-Hilali fainted at the mosque and the ambulance rushed him to a hospital, police inspector David Donohue said.
The Muslim association's president, Toufic Zreika, told reporters outside the Lakemba Mosque: "He's okay."
Police officers drew a plastic tarpaulin across the driveway at Australia's largest mosque to block the ambulance from the view of reporters who had been awaiting the results of the meeting. The ambulance left by a rear exit, an Australian Associated Press reporter said.
"Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to continue our private meeting" with al-Hilali, Zreika said.
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