Ill Hilali agrees to step asideRichard Kerbaj
October 31, 2006
The Australian TAJ Din al-Hilali finally relented yesterday and agreed from a hospital bed to take "indefinite leave" from preaching after days of defiantly resisting calls for him to step down as the nation's Muslim leader.As Lebanese Muslim Association president Tom Zreika last night revealed that the besieged imam had suffered a "mild heart attack", Sheik Hilali for the first time in five days wholeheartedly apologised for likening women to uncovered meat to be preyed on by cats. "I confess that this analogy is inappropriate and unacceptable for the Australian society and the Western society in general," Sheik Hilali said in a statement released after he was admitted tohospital. His contrition came just hours following his collapse shortly after turning up at a crisis meeting at Lakemba Mosque yesterday morning. Sheik Hilali was rushed by ambulance and police escort to Canterbury Hospital in western Sydney, complaining of "chest pains". Mr Zreika said the Egyptian-born cleric had given a letter to the board outlining his intentions to leave his post for health reasons. "In due course I will take the necessary decision that shall lift the pressures that have been placed on our Australian Muslim community and that will benefit all Australians," the letter says. "The pressure of the last couple of days has had an obvious effect on my health and wellbeing. "I ask the public to give my family and I some privacy, time and space to recover. I have also asked for indefinite leave from my duties at Lakemba Mosque." Mr Zreika told The Australian yesterday that his organisation's board accepted Sheik Hilali's request for leave. "I think the general public now needs to give him some time to recover," he said. "He can't take it any more. It's really affecting his family and himself. "The last thing we want him to do is pay with his life." The furore over the mufti erupted last Thursday when The Australian revealed details of a sermon he gave last month during Ramadan, in which the 65-year-old appeared to joke about the Sydney gang rapes and suggest the attackers were not entirely to blame. In the Arabic sermon obtained and translated by The Australian, he said women were not only 90per cent to blame for adultery but were soldiers of Satan seducing men. He likened immodestly dressed women to uncovered meat and said women who remained at home, wearing Islamic dress, kept out of trouble. The sermon brought widespread condemnation, from most of the Muslim community and from John Howard and Kim Beazley as well as state leaders, who demanded that Sheik Hilali lose his title as the nation's spiritual Muslim leader. In his letter yesterday, Sheik Hilali explains the "exposed meat" metaphor and concedes it was inappropriate. It came after one of Sheik Hilali's close friends, Jamal Rifi, publicly rebuked him and demanded he step aside. Before the health scare, Dr Rifi predicted that Sheik Hilali would relent. Mr Zreika said the cleric's health had been deteriorating since the controversy erupted. __._,_.___///// JIMedia: Memurnikan Tanggapan Umum Melalui Penyebaran Ilmu dan Maklumat ////////////////////////////////// Nota: Kandungan mel ini tidak menggambarkan pendirian rasmi Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) melainkan yang dinyatakan sedemikian. Berminat menjadi ahli JIM? Sila isi borang keahlian "online" di: http://www.jim.org.my/, dari seksyen "BORANG Online". Langganan : Hantar E-mail kosong ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub : Hantar E-mail kosong ke [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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