Rape row cleric ‘won’t quit’

AUSTRALIA’S most prominent Islamic cleric, widely condemned for suggesting that women who don’t wear head scarves invite rape, yesterday implied he would not resign as long as the White House continues to influence the world.

The board of Sydney’s Lakemba Mosque Association met on Thursday with Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali and decided to accept his apology for comments comparing women who fail to wear the scarves to “uncovered meat” but banned him from giving sermons for two to three months.

Asked if he would resign, Mr al-Hilali said outside Sydney’s largest mosque: “After we clean the world of the White House first.”

Mr al-Hilali triggered a storm of protest with his remarks about immodest dress, which were made a month ago but were first published yesterday in The Australian newspaper.

In a translation from Arabic, Mr al-Hilali was quoted as saying: “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside... 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 head scarf worn by some Muslim women.

The mosque association president Toufic Zreika said the board was satisfied “certain statements made by the mufti were misrepresented and the mufti was misinterpreted”.

Mr al-Hilali is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand and was appointed mufti by Australia’s leading Islamic body.

In 2004, Mr al-Hilali was criticised for saying the 9/11 attacks were “God’s work against the oppressors”.