http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/controversial-mufti-attacks-australia-in-tv-interview/2007/01/11/1168105116655.html
Controversial mufti attacks Australia in TV interview Barney Zwartz January 12, 2007 Hilali: no freedom for Muslims. Photo: AP CONTROVERSIAL Muslim leader Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali has savaged Australia in an interview on Egyptian television, claiming there is no freedom or democracy for Muslims and that English people are the most unjust and dishonest. The Mufti of Australia said Muslims were more Australian than Anglo-Saxons because they came here voluntarily, that Australians played the "fear card" to keep Muslims down, and that racial prejudice was the reason for the 55-year sentence given to gang rapist Bilal Skaf. "Anglo-Saxons came to Australia in chains, while we (Muslims) paid our way and came in freedom. We are more Australian than them. Australia is not an Anglo-Saxon country - Islam has deep roots in Australian soil that were there before the English arrived," Sheikh Hilali said. Australia's most controversial cleric was talking on the Egyptian news program Cairo Today, shown in Australia on the Orbit satellite network on Tuesday morning. The interview, in Arabic, was about the furore he created last year with a Ramadan sermon in which he compared scantily clad women with "uncovered meat", suggesting that they were responsible for rape, called women Satan's messengers to deceive men, and said thieves often stole because they were pressured by greedy women. After the "uncovered meat" sermon, which was rejected by Muslims across Australia, Sheikh Hilali offered to stand down as mufti if an independent panel - he first suggested the federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner - found he had blamed women for rape. His future will be decided next month by the eight-man executive of a new national board of imams. Sheikh Hilali is a member of the executive. During the half-hour program, Sheikh Hilali said the controversy showed how standards were skewed and claims were fabricated. "There is no freedom and no democracy (for Muslims) - the most dishonest and unjust people are Western people and the English in particular." He said Australian law allowed freedoms that at times were "close to madness", that Australia had a third gender of "in-between people who are not male or female" and that Christian churches allowed people of the same sex to marry. He also cited the Exclusive Brethren, saying they forbade TV, radio, mobile phones and mixed schooling but Prime Minister John Howard said that was their right and they were entitled to funding and social services. He said the cause of the controversy over the Ramadan sermon was domestic politics. "As we would say in Egypt, they play the fear card to keep the Muslim community down, and they start with me because I am known in that community." He insisted that he was not justifying rape and had been taken out of context. Presenter Amr Adib asked who was responsible for rape, and Sheikh Hilali replied that the man was responsible but the woman also had a responsibility for her behaviour. Fellow guest Sheikh Khalid al-Jindi, a regular commentator, interjected: "Is it the flies' fault if the food is on display? If you put petrol and then add a spark, won't the street be on fire?" Adib: "But where is the responsibility?" Sheikh Jindi: "The responsibility is first, second and third with the woman - then with the man." Sheikh Jindi said they were not justifying anything, just trying to establish degrees of responsibility. Sheikh Hilali replied: "If I put it that way in Australia, the whole country would be in uproar." He mentioned a recent case in Australia in which a man was jailed for "forcing himself" on his wife. "Three-and-a-half years! I mean, it's a distasteful act, but ." Sheikh Hilali said that Islam in Australia had grown because of the controversy. On the gang rapes in Sydney, he said: "A young man can meet a woman, smile, arrange a meeting, and then end up in jail for 65 years. (Bilal Skaf was sentenced to 55 years, reduced to 38 on appeal.) "He was judged in the name of bin Laden. He deserved to be jailed, no question, but for 65 years? This is not really about the crime, it is about racial prejudice." Sheikh Hilali is still in Lebanon. His former spokesman Keysar Trad, president of the Islamic Friendship Association, said some of the comments seemed ill-advised but were not intended to be malicious. He said the sheikh's comments about coming to Australia voluntarily were to show that he loved Australia and saw himself as Australian. Mr Howard was asked about the sheikh's reference to convicts and replied: "I think it will bring a wry smile, if it's true, . to the face of many Australians who sort of don't actually feel the least bit offended that many of our ancestors came here as convicts."
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