The Sheikh Hilali Sermons controversy.

So,- the Sydney Mufti of Australia, one Sheikh Hilali, who preaches at the Lakemba Mosque, the largest in Australia, is in trouble,- again! He has been preaching the extremist brand of Islam since he arrived here in the '80s. He has never been far from controversy ever since, with calls to deport him back to his native Egypt, frequently repeated. Whatever any other firebrand Islamic cleric preaches in the Islamic nations' Mosques,- whether in Gaza or in the Hizbullah countryside of Lebanon, -he has been known to repeat it here in his Sydney Mosque.

He has raved against Jews, Zionists, Christians and all infidels; his latest ravings have been against women who are the seductresses, by exposing themselves. "If you leave out raw flesh and the cats come to devour it, whom do you blame? The cats, or those who leave out the meat?"

For a while, we were all hopeful, that the fact that this kind of sermon, given in Arabic to the faithful, was exposed to and translated by the media and everybody of note in the Muslim community condemned it immediately. It was a good sign that finally the moderate silent-majority of Moslems on Australia are speaking up. How dare he blame women, the victims of rape? How dare he compare women with pieces of raw meat? Does he really want women to go around covered-up, not go out on their own in the evenings? To protect whom,- the women or the men?

The right comments were made, but by now everybody is retreating and blaming the media for formenting trouble for the Islamic comunity.

I think that the media and everyone has got it wrong about Hilali's sermon. He may have compared women's flesh with "raw meat",- but who did he compare the scavengers with? The men,- the rapists are like feral cats,- animals, without self control! This is what he really said. Therefore, if I were a male, Moslem or not, I would be more incensed than we free Aussie females.- Who are the ones needing to be shut away from the world?
Certainly not the women, while the "wild animals" roam free!

Malvina