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Aus cleric inflames tensions
31/10/2006 13:53 - (SA)
Canberra - Fresh allegations from a senior cleric that Australian courts were biased against Muslims in sex cases has further inflamed tensions with the
country's small but highly visible Islamic community.
"I feel there is no justice here," Sheikh Mohammed Omran
told worshippers in a Melbourne mosque, adding that football
stars and other offenders received more lenient sentences than
Muslims.
His remarks from Friday prayers last week were reported in
the Australian newspapers on Tuesday.
Omran defended his views, telling Australian radio he had a right to express an opinion.
But the Australian government immediately condemned Omran's
remarks, the latest in a series of comments by prominent
clerics which have divided Australia's Muslim community and
strained relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.
"Australia is a tolerant and multicultural society. There
is room for all religions, but people who live here must
respect the rule of law and Australian values,"
attorney-general Philip Ruddock told parliament.
The comments by the outspoken Omran come after the mufti of
Australia, Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, compared unveiled
women to "uncovered meat" who invited sexual violence and
criticised unsympathetic judges in rape trials.
Both Omran and Hilaly were referring to a sentence handed
down to the leader of a gang of Sydney rapists, Bilal Skaf,
jailed for a series of organised pack rapes in Sydney in 2000.
Skaf was sentenced to 55 years in prison for leading a gang
of men in a series of rapes on Sydney women. His sentence was
cut to 18 years on retrial.
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