Australian Muslim Leader Compares Uncovered Women to Exposed Meat

A senior Muslim cleric in Australia has sparked a furore after comparing women who do not wear a headscarf to "uncovered meat", implying that they invited sexual assault.

Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali delivered his comments in a religious address on adultery to around 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, but they only came to the attention of the wider public when they were published in a newspaper called the Australian, today.

Sheik Hilali was quoted as saying: "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 (the headdress worn by some Muslim women), no problem would have occurred."

The Egyptian-born cleric, and the mufti of Sydney's biggest mosque, today sought to defuse the outrage his comments had sparked, including among fellow Muslims.

Sheik Hilali said in a statement he was shocked by reaction to his sermon.

"I would like to unequivocally confirm that the presentation related to religious teachings on modesty and not to go to extremes in enticements, this does not condone rape, I condemn rape," he said. "Women in our Australian society have the freedom and right to dress as they choose, the duty of man is to avert his glance or walk away."

But Muslim community leaders rounded on Sheik Hilali for his comments, insisting that he no longer deserved his title as Australia's mufti.

The country's most prominent female Muslim leader, Aziza Abdel-Halim, said the hijab did not "detract or add to a person's moral standards", while an Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman, Waleed Ali, said it was "ignorant and naive" for anyone to believe that a hijab could stop sexual assault. "Anyone who is foolish enough to believe that there is a relationship between rape or unwelcome sexual interference and the failure to wear a hijab, clearly has no understanding of the nature of sexual crime," he told the Australian.

The paper also reported that Sheik Hilali alluded in his sermon to the gang rapes in Sydney of six years ago, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.

While not specifically referring to the attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, Sheik Hilali said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress ... "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and he gives you 65 years".

"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked.

Sheik Hilali, the top cleric at Sydney's largest mosque, is considered the most senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand.

He has served as an adviser to the Australian government on Muslim issues, but has attracted controversy before. In 2004 he was criticised for saying, in a sermon in Lebanon, that the September 11 attacks were "God's work against the oppressors".

The uproar after Sheik Hilali's comments threatens to further inflame relations between Australia's 300,000 Muslims and the rest of the population, after riots in Sydney last December that pitted white gangs against youths of Middle Eastern descent, many of whom were Muslim.

Many Muslims have said they were increasingly treated with suspicion since the September 11 and other terrorist attacks. Mr Ali said Sheik Hilali's comments would result in more antagonism toward Muslims.

"I am expecting a deluge of hate mail," he said. "I am expecting people to get abused in the street and get abused at work."